I have been trying to think of how to approach this assignment given the restrictions imposed by the coronoavirus lock down. My tutor and I discussed self-portraiture during my last tutorial and although I was initially reluctant, I am now warming to the idea. My tutor provided some links to photographers who have worked in this field; some like Francesca Woodman and Keith Arnatt I wrote about as part of my Contaxt and Narrative blog. The others, Robert Mapplethorpe and Ray Billingham I am aware of but need to research further.

In addition to well-known photographers who have worked in the field of self-portraiture, I also wanted to explore lesser known and more contemporary photographers. One of the photographers I have come across is Kyle Thompson. On his website, Thompson’s work is described as follows:

His work encapsulates the ephemeral narrative, a nonexistent story line that only lives for a split moment.

http://www.kylethompsonphotography.com

and goes on to say:

By diverting the view of the face, the images become more ambiguous, the viewer is no longer able to tie a defined story line to the image.

http://www.kylethompsonphotography.com

I think Thompson’s work is beautifully shot and I like the ambiguity of it. Given the limited number of locations I can use at the moment I like the idea of obscuring the face to create ambiguity and am thinkng of how I could use this effectively in this assignment.

Sources

Kyle Thompson. 2020. Portfolio – Kyle Thompson. [online] Available at: <http://www.kylethompsonphotography.com/&gt; [Accessed 19 April 2020].