Autobiographical Self-Portraiture

Having spent the weekend researching three quite different photographers, I am the most drawn to the work of Elina Brotherus. Like Briony Campbell, researched previously, Brotherus’ work feels more raw, taken in the moment and using photography to display emotions of which it may be too painful to speak.

I have never been a fan of staged photography; I want to be moved by an image, to feel like I am experiencing the artist’s story with them. An image that has been created, using models, studio lighting and backdrop for me, beautiful as it may be, lacks something. I feel that in Gillian Wearing’s planning, something is lost on me.

Contrary to this, I feel that Francesca Woodman’s images, although planned and sketched out beforehand, still ooze with character. In hindsight, I wonder if this planning was to project a very different character to the one known by family and friends; they describe her as a funny, happy young woman, even though she committed suicide at the age of twenty-two.

The sheer volume of self-portraiture of Woodman and Brotherus leads me to believe there may be an element of narcissism. Both women regularly pose nude; I’m not sure if this is due to narcissism or a feeling of wanting to bare all, emotionally in their images, to hide nothing. I feel that the latter is more the case in Brotherus’ images as she appears to me to be a woman who uses photography to express herself in ways she can’t in words.

Before reading these women’s stories, I had quite different views on their images, more inclined to think they were purely narcissistic; I feel that the text I have read accompanying the images has given me a fuller understanding of their intended meaning and has brought me closer to understanding the women as artists.

I feel that the portraits these women have produced have gone some way to address wider issues beyond the personal; Woodman has addressed mental health issues and death while Wearing has addressed family roles. Brotherus has addressed a number of issues; much of her work shows vulnerability as a human being in a vast, harsh world, she addresses relationships and control in works such as ‘Artists at work’ and her most personal work goes a long way to address issues around motherhood and the pain of not having children. I feel that many people, both male and female could connect to Brotherus’ images.

This exercise connects research on Francesca Woodman, Elina Brotherus and GillianWearing.