Self Portrait

"Immah Mainah"

ARTIST STATEMENT

This image is for our self portrait assignment. I wasn't all that interested in showing my face so I was told I could show from the neck down. This gave me the idea to cut out my face but show who I am through my clothing. Without showing my face the viewer would be drawn to study my clothing and see the story they create. As someone who has always lived in Maine I tried to fill the persona of a stereotypical "Mainer." I put on my most rustic flannel, blue jeans, grabbed an axe and threw on the good old bean boots. I was trying to decided whether or not to keep the stick to the left of the image and the leaf in he background and I ultimately decided to keep them because I was going for the most natural and untouched look I could.

I'm having trouble deciding if this image is formal balance or not. The middle of my body is centered, but I'm kind of leaning to the left from the top to the bottom of the image. If there was less of the tree and i was farther over, I would look good in the right third of the image. I was originally taking the picture with the camera sitting landscape style on the tripod, but to get the crucial bean boots in the picture I would have needed to back up a ton which would have let in too many distractions to either side of me so I decided to turn the camera on its side to get less to my left and right and all of me.

If I could change anything in this image it would be the buttons on my shirt. I just realized that and it bothers me so much. I would also go back and I think i would clone stamp out the stick and the leaf because after really looking at them I think they are too distracting. They draw the attention away from me, and this image is all about me so I'm the most important.