Artifice Exposed

Regardless of the intentions an artist may have with a creation, the final result of the artist's work is a reflection of the artist's self. Visual art presents an unusual challenge for the artist because it's purpose is to be seen and judged. The decisions the artist makes regarding how the piece is to be presented reveals truths about the artist. Last year I took a photography class and was assigned the burden of capturing a self portrait. A self portrait is different from other forms of visual art because the artist's intentions cannot possibly be hidden. In this photograph I chose to expose my shoulders and I chose to make my eyes move in different directions. Those choices suggest truths about me not only as a photographer, but as a piece of art, as a person. This picture implies that as a photographer I find substance in oddities, as a piece of art I am willing to be exposed, and as a person I feel more comfortable marketing myself as strange than as ordinary. The artifice of a visual self portrait is the extreme, unforgiving version of the artifice of literature. In literature the writer has the privilege to manipulate the amount of their self that they include, and the amount that they choose to include is revealing. When creating a visual self portrait the artist has no choice but to arrange themselves blatantly, and the manner in which they do so is revealing.