Do my glasses seem to be twice as wide as my head? Argggh.
I have this book from one of my college photography classes called Another Way of Telling. In it, a photographer named Jean Mohr says this:
For myself, I'm not too fat, my nose is large but not unreasonably long. And yet for years I could not accept my own physical appearance. I used to dream of looking like Samuel Beckett. (To have a profile like his would perhaps also imply another way of life.) I took a number of self-portraits, and each time I "disguised" my face because I rejected it totally. I grimaced, I played tricks with the light, I deliberately moved the camera. The cure for this play-acting came when I was obliged to look at myself for the whole length of a television film . . . . There the dose was strong enough to cure me. This man whom I saw before me existed with all his weaknesses. He was real, and in a sense he was beyond my control. I was no longer responsible for his appearances.
I've always wondered if I could use this "cure" and desensitize myself. Somebody take this camera away from me...
3 comments:
I think that's a great thing about digital cameras and blogs and such. We all just need to confront ourselves on some "revealing" issues. It isn't necessarily being more personal or open with others. But it's us being more open with ourselves possibly being more open with others. And in that way, we see ourselves a bit more as they do and less as we think or fear or insist they do (which is almost always negative, because the brain, you know, just seems to feel more muscular when it's squashing us with negativity and doubt).
Take portraits! Live it!
-cK
Oh, I can only hope there is no turning back from this road you have started down. Take the cure, my dear; love what we love.
In reference to an earlier post: I tried to impress a couple of co-workers with the snow in St. Paul. They both started talking about how cute the house was.
MC!!! I'll see you Thursday, eh? Come join the gathering on my block! Woo-woo!
-cK
Post a Comment