Look at Me: Fragments of a Body

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Self Portrait (Neck).

Since I bought a smart phone, three years ago, I have taken photos of my self (many of which are posted on Instagram). This “self-portraiture” has been a necessity of sorts – a way of seeing myself in the world as I pass through or (more precisely) live in it as a physical being. It is a way of viewing my ordinary body without a mirror. Skin, hair, creases, and folds are so utterly commonplace and things that we all share, as human beings. Despite this sameness I feel out of place and flawed. In some photographs I am dressed. However, it is nakedness that is of greatest interest to me since it is literally skin that separates my inner landscape from the outer world.

Each photograph is of a fragment of myself. It is a distorted and incomplete view – a detail. Since I hold the mobile phone in my hand there is no other way to see myself except through these closeups.

Self Portrait (Belly).

The photographs of me are not always flattering but, the only body I truly understand and need to embrace is the one I occupy. Yet, I often want to reject it since it is now a heavier and baggier form than it was in its youth. Wrinkles are now laid bare. I am not quite old but old age is a taboo in North American society. I am past the age of fifty and women, in particular, are led to believe that their shapes are imperfect and regard them with disdain (and all too often I believe this is true for myself). In fact, reshaping one’s body with plastic surgery (in an attempt to recapture youth) is widely accepted.

Some pictures are meant to give a sense of mood. Many are simply the camera (and an app, perhaps) drawing my figure. The person (me) is not the subject; it is the body (mine). I am not dealing with older age, per se.

Self Portrait (Armpit).

There is something freeing about turning the camera toward me. I feel alive and empowered. My body is all mine no matter the imperfections. I intend to continue these photographs. This act of imaging my self as an evolving being is a path to self acceptance.

Self Portrait (Knees).

Self Portrait (Mouth).

Self Portrait (Thighs).

Self Portrait (At Rest With Headache).

Salvador de Bahia and Reconcavo Bahiano

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Inside an abandoned factory where homeless people, who are part of the Roofless Movement (Movimento dos Sem-Teto), live. Looking out at the Atlantic Ocean and the island of Itaparica. Salvador, Brazil

In my blog post, last week, I mentioned that I took a workshop with Ernesto Bazan in Chapada Diamantina, Brasil. He and I also spent much of January in Brasil with another group of people in Salvador de Bahia and Reconcavo Bahiano (in and around the city-town of Cachoeira). This mid-winter trip made me quite certain that I want to return and continue photographing in the province of Bahia so that I may proceed with work on (what is now) my project, This Miracle.

Please do take a look at the galleries of photographs from the Bazan workshop this past January, in the group we called  “With Legs.”

Effigy. Igreja Senhor do Bonfim. Salvador, Brasil

Chapada Diamantina Revisited

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Bed, Andarai, Chapada Diamantina, Brasil.

This past February, I took a workshop with Ernesto Bazan in Chapada Diamantina, Brasil. I have mixed memories of this place because during the last three days, there, I had terrible food poisoning and was stuck in my room or tethered to the bathroom… Thankfully, most of my experience was utterly brilliant. In the end, the open and warm people and the magnificent landscape are what I truly remember; I look forward to returning there as well as other parts of Bahia, to continue work on my project, This Miracle.

Please do take a look at the galleries of photographs from all of us, in the group we called “Circles,” on Bazan’s  Circles Gallery Page.

Woman, Igatu, Chapada Diamantina, Brasil