Definition of Self portrait:
a picture, photograph, or piece of writing that you make of or about yourself
(Dictionary, 2016)
a self portrait is generally thought of as a image of yourself, and this is shown all through history of self portraits.
Parmigianino
‘Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror’
Lucian Freud
‘Reflection with two children’
Rembrandt
‘Self-portrait with Saskia’
All of these images ranging from the 14th to 20th century are representing themselves, the artists, by painting themselves opposed to an item that would symbolise them.
Although self portraits are mainly understood as visual representations of their body, the definition doesn’t just refer to visual being. It leads me to feel that for this project in which we are asked to make a self portrait GIF you don’t necessarily have to take a picture/ draw/ use an image of yourself but of something that you feel represents yourself as a character. This could be something as simple as a piece of heirloom jewellery or your childhood toy. This fits in perfectly with my own project which is still in development. Keep up to date with all the progress on this project here
Dictionary, s. (2016). self-portrait Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Dictionary.cambridge.org. Available at: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/self-portrait [Accessed 10 May 2016].
