When I first learned about Vivian Maier just over a decade ago, the shear number of self portraits she shot caught my attention. It made me think about what fraction of serious photographers make images of themselves, even if these photographs are not intended to ever see the light of day. After a moment's thought, it seemed obvious that almost every photographer uses themself as a model at some point. Come on, we've all done a variation of the mirror shot; some of the best images of our teenage selves were probably captured in the bathrooms of our youth not long after acquiring our first cameras.
At a recent visit to Glenstone, I noticed some small fish making ripples in a pond as they moved about. I started photographing them. At first, I thought I would crop out my shadow, but then, I decided I liked the images better as selfies. These days technology makes it pretty easy to get decent self portraits. Back in the film days, though, you sometimes had to get a little creative. I remember once, trying to get a picture of myself using an inexpensive Polaroid camera. I ended up using a golf club to push the shutter button.
