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Self-Portrait Essay: Examples and How to Write a Portrait

A portrait essay presents a personality to the readers. It usually focuses on the aspects of life that are the most exciting or unique.

It comprises two types of papers: a self-portrait essay and a portrait of another person. This article explains how to write these assignments with utmost efficiency. You will find the best tips, ideas, and samples to describe yourself or someone else as precisely as possible.

👧 Self-Portrait Essay

A self-portrait essay is a piece of writing that describes the author’s looks and personal qualities . It uses evocative images and characteristic details to show why this person stands out from the crowd. As a rule, it is a descriptive or reflective essay. Still, it can be argumentative if you want to contradict someone else’s opinion about you.

How to Write a Self-Portrait

Below you’ll find several ideas for a self-portrait essay. These are just general guidelines. If you need a creative and well-formulated topic, you are welcome to use our topic-generating tool .

• Start the introduction with an introduction. We are not talking about “Hi, my name is Cathy,” although this variant is also possible in some contexts. Tell about your family and where you live. Do not just list facts as if you are answering a questionnaire. Make up a background story.
• Imagine yourself a book character. How would you describe yourself if you wrote a book about your life ? This approach can make your self-portrait essay more poetic and literary. Replace the epithets that can describe many people (straight nose, thin lips, high forehead) with metaphors (a nose as straight as an arrow, paper-thin lips, expansive forehead). It will make your essay more memorable.
• Speak about objects & stories. Appearance is only a tiny part of your personality. Your life consists of items you like, people you love, and stories you create. That’s what you readers will enjoy reading!
• Conclude with your hopes for the future. Do not reiterate what you said before, even if you cannot imagine anything new. Write how you would like to develop your skills or become a better professional in the future. Make your essay open-ended, as any human life is.

Self-Portrait Essay Example

Who am I? What kind of person am I? What do I like? What do I want to become? In this essay, I will describe my appearance and how it reflects my inner world. Looking in the mirror, I see a slender but slightly skinny girl. I have an oval face, a small straight nose, and sparkling eyes. It is the eyes that make my friends and acquaintances look at my face. They are profound, although they add playfulness to my face. In cloudy weather, they acquire a dark steel shade. When it is sunny, they brighten up. In general, I have kind gray eyes. As my friends say, it seems that they “laugh.” That’s what I am all about. I am kind, cheerful, moderately strict, and responsive. I have a high forehead, hidden behind curtain bangs, and beautiful thick eyebrows of the correct shape hidden under the bangs. But this is not a gift from nature. I had to work on the form of the eyebrows on my own. My lips are not thin, but not full either. Behind them, there are snow-white teeth. The hair is straight, although I always wanted to have curls. It is wheat-colored and reaches the shoulders. I am a purposeful person, so I always set tasks that I immediately try to accomplish. But I never stop in my development. I raise the bar even higher and confidently put the next goal. It is essential for me to be the best in everything, so I have to work harder. Most likely, this is my drawback, but this quality fuels me to keep on growing. I would like to become firm, successful, and self-confident.

👨‍🎨️ Descriptive Portrait Essay

A descriptive essay about a person is a genre that analyzes the individual features and human qualities of a given person. People have so many different sides that there is a broad array of possibilities in this genre. Write of someone you know well enough (to have sufficient material).

Essay About a Person: Ideas

Below you’ll find six great ideas for an essay about a person.

• Describe appearance . First impressions are the most lasting . Your readers will get your message better if you give them a “picture.” It will play the role of a whiteboard where you’ll attack all the other traits.
• Link appearance to personality traits . But looks are not everything. They are the top of the iceberg. Show your reader why you paid attention to those characteristics and which conclusions you made.
• Mention their manners . It is optional but quite exciting to track. We are not stable, and our manners reflect those emotional shifts. Describe how the person behaves in stressful situations .
• Spot the emotions they raise in you . This part will make a perfect conclusion. Share your feelings with the readers to build empathy.
• Balance between being concise and informative . Avoid overwhelming your reader with irrelevant details. If the described person is someone you know well, it may be challenging to point out what is worth mentioning and what is not.
• Learn how to describe from professionals . If you wish to learn how to write, you should read a lot. In particular, you should read works of the same genre. Write down the metaphors and epithets your favorite author uses in their character descriptions.

How to Write a Portrait

We have prepared for you a mini guide on how to write a portrait of a person. Just follow these 8 simple steps:

• Collect information about a person . It is crucial to write about a person you know well, like a close friend, a classmate, or a family member. Consider conducting an interview with this person or talking with other people who know this individual to gain more insights and observations.
• Create a thesis and an outline . Choose interesting details, anecdotes, unique features, or qualities of your chosen person that are worth describing in your essay. Organize all the information logically in an outline to make writing easier. Also, create a thesis statement, which must include the person you write about and your purpose for describing them.
• Start with a physical description . At this stage, you need to be as specific as possible. Try to describe not only the appearance of the person but add details about their smell, voice, etc.
• Describe the behavior . Focus on what makes this person unique — their laugh, a manner of talking, a way of moving, etc.
• Demonstrate your character’s reputation . To do so, show how your described person makes others feel, treats others, and contributes to the world.
• Show your character’s environment and belongings . A person’s environment and belongings can reveal much about their personality, interests, and values. So, include details about what things are important to your described individual and whether their environment looks tidy, cluttered, dirty, etc.
• Write about their manner of speech . Describe the person’s choice of words and intonation to reflect their education level, confidence or fear, and unique worldview.
• Conclude by summarizing unique qualities . In your last paragraph, summarize what makes your described person unique. Add a concluding sentence conveying the final impression they have made on you.

Descriptive Portrait Essay Example

My best friend is a person who deserves a separate book. She had a complicated but interesting life. She is the third child in a large family and wants to become a nurse. I will dedicate this essay to her features and personal qualities to show that you can be a good person despite anything. Mary’s appearance is unremarkable and even plain. She is tall and plump, and her gestures are indecisive. The girl seems to be shy, but she becomes very confident when her family or values are harmed. One could see a strict line between her eyebrows. It marks her inner strength and decisiveness. The look of her grey eyes is attentive and benevolent. It helps her win the interlocutor in an argument. By the way, communication skills are the strongest part of her character. She is open and cheerful but sometimes too impulsive. The way she speaks and behaves comforts me, like a cold winter evening in front of a fireplace. She is kind and caring, and always does her best to make any interaction pleasurable. Still, when someone acts with hypocrisy, she prefers to break up with such a person. It is hard for Mary to give people a second chance. This feature has its drawbacks, but it also makes her friends’ circle tight and reliable. Mary wants to become a nursery teacher because she loves children. At the moment, she is studying for that, and I am sure she will succeed. This girl has taught me that people can combine mutually exclusive features in themselves and remain to be nice friends and intelligent specialists.

We hope we’ve inspired you to write your portrait essay. If you have already written your text and want it to be read aloud, you are welcome to use our text-to-speech tool .

❓ Portrait Essay FAQ

How to write a portrait essay.

1. Make a list of the most remarkable facial features and character traits of the person in question. 2. Relate the above to their character. 3. Group your findings into categories. 4. Dedicate one main body paragraph to each category.

How to Start a Portrait Essay?

Any essay should start with background information. In the case of a portrait essay, you could mention how you got to know the person or what your first impression was. Or, you can give general information about their family and work. Finish your introduction with a thesis statement, informing the reader of the purpose of your writing.

How to Write a Self-portrait Essay?

1. Sit in front of the mirror and think about which of your features differ you from other people. 2. Write the main body, dedicating each paragraph to a different aspect of your appearance. 3. Write the introduction about what kind of person you are and how you came to the place where you are now. 4. Write the conclusion about your future intentions.

How Do You Write a Character Portrait Essay?

1. Carefully read all the author’s descriptions of the character. 2. Link them to the plot as most characters reveal themselves gradually. 3. Think what impressed you the most about the character. 4. Write your opinion using the image the author created and your own imagination.

🔗 References

• Descriptive Essays | Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Descriptive Essay Examples – YourDictionary
• How to Give a Description of a Character – wikiHow
• How to Write About Yourself | Indeed.com
• 7 Helpful Tips on How to Write a Memorable Personal Essay
• Personal Essay Topics and Prompts – ThoughtCo

How to Write a Self-Portrait Essay

How to Create a Life Map

A self-portrait essay is a paper that describes you -- and what's important to you -- to your reader. Choosing what aspects of yourself you want to describe before you begin your essay will help you choose the most evocative images and events to include in your essay. Using specific images from your life will give your reader a physical image of who you are.

Reflect on Your Experiences

Before you begin writing your self-portrait essay, reflect on yourself. Think about the sort of personality you have, what types of people you get along with and your goals and aspirations. Once you've taken time to look at yourself, think about what aspects of yourself you want to focus on. To make your essay engaging, pick an area that challenges you. For instance, you might write about how you try to form new friendships despite your anxieties, or how you commit to your convictions even if it brings you into conflict with others. You can also explore what ideas -- religion, philosophy, ethics -- are important to you. Deciding on two or three aspects you wish to focus on will help you narrow down what you include in your writing.

Introduce Yourself

Begin writing your essay by introducing your reader to yourself. Describe where you live and your family, and provide a physical description of yourself. To make your introduction catchy and interesting, avoid listing these details as if you're just answering a series of questions. Working them into physical descriptions of your life can make this information more interesting. For instance, if you're 17, you might introduce your age by saying: "We moved into this squat brick house 15 years ago -- two years after I was born."

You can also use a picture of yourself -- a literal self-portrait -- as an image to begin your essay. Find a picture of yourself from your past, and describe what that picture shows about you. For instance, if your picture shows you when you were upset, you might say that you can remember being sad when you were a child, but you can't quite remember why. This can be an excellent way of bringing in your reader and beginning to discuss how you have or haven't changed over time.

Tell Your Stories

The body of your essay should explore the aspects of yourself you decided to write about. For each aspect, pick two or three events from your life and write a paragraph for each. If you want to show your determination, for instance, you might describe a time that you ran all the way to school when your bus didn't come. If you hold steadfast to your opinions, you could describe a long political argument you had with your family, and the mixture of pride and anger you felt afterward. These events will show your personality and give you the opportunity to describe physical locations and actions, which will make your self-portrait feel more real to your reader.

In addition to using events from your life to illustrate your personality, describe yourself using objects from your life. If you're an avid reader, spend part of your essay describing the large bookshelves in your room. If you're meticulous about your hobbies, use an image of a plant that you keep on your windowsill.

The conclusion paragraph of your essay should tie your paper together. It should draw on the aspects of your personality and the events in your life that you've described and ask where you're going in the future, or what you feel about yourself now that those events are in the past. Don't summarize or restate the items you've already described. Instead, tie them together or build on them. For instance, if you described making art in the past, talk about how you hope to rediscover your creativity. If you know you'll have to deal with ideas you don't agree with in the future, write how you think you'll handle them.

Alternatively, conclude your essay by restating the details from your introduction in a different light. By tying the beginning and end of your essay together, you will give a sense of completion to your reader. For instance, if you describe your house as "gloomy" in your introduction, but spend your paper talking about the fun you've had with your siblings, you might conclude your essay by saying: "Yes, it's a gloomy house, but we know how to make it shine."

Related Articles

How to Write a Narrative Essay

How to Write an Autobiography for a College Assignment

What Should a Narrative Essay Format Look Like?

How to Write a Short Essay Describing Your Background

How to Start a Personal Essay for High School English

How to Build an Outline for a Personal Narrative

How to Write a Descriptive Essay on an Influential Person in Your Life

How to write an essay with a thesis statement.

• Napa Valley College: Self Portrait (Description) Essay
• Teen Ink: Self Portrait

Jon Zamboni began writing professionally in 2010. He has previously written for The Spiritual Herald, an urban health care and religious issues newspaper based in New York City, and online music magazine eBurban. Zamboni has a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Wesleyan University.

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Selfies and the history of self-portrait photography

Grove Art Online

Oxford Art Online offers access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today. Through a single, elegant gateway users can access—and simultaneously cross-search—an expanding range of Oxford’s acclaimed art reference works: Grove Art Online , the Benezit Dictionary of Artists , the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics , The Oxford Companion to Western Art , and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms , as well as many specially commissioned articles and bibliographies available exclusively online.

• By Kandice Rawlings
• November 21 st 2013

Selfie – the Oxford Word of the Year for 2013 – is a neologism defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” The emergence of this phenomenon a few years ago was therefore dependent on advances in digital photography and mobile phone technology, as well as the rise of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among other sites, which supply an outlet and audience for the photos. But a tradition of self-portraiture in photography is as old as the medium, and the popularity of amateur photography only slightly less so.

According to the Grove Art Online entry on photography , “Perhaps the most popular form of early photography was the portrait. The very first portraits, especially those produced by the daguerreian process were treasured for their ability to capture the aspects of facial appearance that constitute family resemblance.” Invented by the French painter Louis Daguerre in the late 1830s, daguerreotypes , with their “cold, mirror-like appearance” were well-suited to capturing exacting likenesses of sitters. Portraits were the most commonly produced type of photographs in the first decades of photography, comprising an estimated 95% of surviving daguerreotypes. Among these are some exquisite self-portraits, including what may have been the first daguerreotype made in America, the self-portrait of the Philadelphia metalworker-turned-photographer Robert Cornelius .

Many early self-portraits fall into two general categories. In the first type, which had a long tradition in painted portraits and self-portraits , the subject poses with a camera or a set of photographs, showing him as a professional of his trade. As portrait photographers competed for customers, these images demonstrated the photographer’s ability to capture a flattering likeness with his technical skill and his eye for setting and pose. The other type of self-portrait seems to have been the photographer’s attempt to situate photography as a fine art, a novel idea during the era of early photography. In a fine example of this type, Albert Sands Southworth, of the firm Southworth and Hawes , showed himself as a classical sculpted portrait bust, with a far-off, romantic expression. Although the daguerreotype was eventually replaced by other techniques (notwithstanding a 21st-century revival by Chuck Close ), self-portraiture has remained one of the most interesting genres in photo history. It seems that from photography’s earliest days, there has been a natural tendency for photographers to turn the camera toward themselves.

These early practitioners were either professionals with studios or “ skilled amateurs ” – often wealthy individuals who took up photography as a fashionable hobby. It would be a few decades before new processes and equipment brought the making of photographs to the masses. Pivotal in the development of amateur photography, George Eastman’s Kodak cameras, which hit the market in 1888, were “designed for the general public, who had only to point it in the right direction and release the shutter. When the 100-exposure roll provided with the camera had been exposed, the whole apparatus was returned to Eastman’s factory, where the paper rollfilm was developed and printed, the camera reloaded and returned to the customer; ‘You press the button, we do the rest’ was his slogan” (quite a bit easier than the painstaking process of creating a daguerreotype or a glass-plate negative ). Kodak’s line of Brownie box cameras, first released in 1900 and priced at one dollar, made photography truly available to the broad public. Thus began a long era of popular photography made possible by the cheap production of cameras and efficient processing and printing of film.

The next great pivotal moment in the history of amateur photography – and perhaps photography in general – was the emergence of digital photography . Early digital cameras were available on the consumer market in the early 1990s, but it was not until technical improvements and a drop in prices over the next decade that digital photography had replaced older technologies. In 2002 more digital cameras were sold than film cameras, and Kodak, a giant in American industry for much of the 20th century, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. According to Mary Warner Marien,

…the public use of photographs has changed the medium. Where the photograph was once a tangible item, it can now exist as an array of pixels, seldom printed but collected in phones, cameras, computers and web-based image storage applications. Where once material photographs were saved, now photographs can be considered immaterial phenomena. There are more amateur photographers than ever before, and their conventions emerged in the early 21st century as powerful cultural shapers in the many branches of photographic practice.

The ease with which so many can take photographs of themselves and share them with an audience of many millions has made the selfie a “ global phenomenon .” On one hand, this phenomenon is a natural extension of threads in the history of photography of self-portraiture and technical innovation resulting in the increasing democratization of the medium. But on the other, the immediacy of these images – their instantaneous recording and sharing – makes them seem a thing apart from a photograph that required time and expense to process and print, not to mention distribute to friends and relatives.

The ubiquity of selfies has naturally led some to wonder if the practice is either reflecting or promoting what many see as growing narcissism in contemporary culture. But perhaps,  as Jenna Wortham suggests , selfies represent a new way not only of representing ourselves to others, but of communicating with one another through images: “Rather than dismissing the trend as a side effect of digital culture or a sad form of exhibitionism, maybe we’re better off seeing selfies for what they are at their best — a kind of visual diary, a way to mark our short existence and hold it up to others as proof that we were here. The rest, of course, is open to interpretation.”

Headline image credit: Kodak ad, 1916. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons .

Kandice Rawlings is Associate Editor of Oxford Art Online and holds a PhD in art history from Rutgers University. Read her previous blog posts.

Oxford Art Online offers access to the most authoritative, inclusive, and easily searchable online art resources available today. Through a single, elegant gateway users can access — and simultaneously cross-search — an expanding range of Oxford’s acclaimed art reference works: Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, as well as many specially commissioned articles and bibliographies available exclusively online.

The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 is 'selfie' . The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word, or expression, that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date and judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year and to have lasting potential as a word of cultural significance. Learn more about Word of the Year in our FAQ , on the OUPblog , and on the OxfordWords blog .

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[…] what about selfie’s in history? A recent post on the Oxford University Press (OUP) blog has persuaded us that Anastasia’s 1913 […]

[…] Oxford University Press blog explores the history of the self portrait – from early daguerrotypes onwards and Alice Northover has rewritten Shakespeare for the selfie […]

[…] But selfies, or self portraits, were not always the work of painters; there is also a very interesting article that follows the history of the selfie, not through painting but instead through the use of photograph. You can read the article here: https://blog.oup.com/2013/11/selfies-history-self-portrait-photography/ […]

[…] 2 Rawlings, Kandice. “Selfies and the History of Self-Portrait Photography.” Oxford University Press Blog, November 21, 2013. https://blog.oup.com/2013/11/selfies-history-self-portrait-photography/ […]

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17 Awesome Photo Essay Examples You Should Try Yourself

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If you’re looking for a photo essay example (or 17!), you’ve come to the right place. But what is the purpose of a photo essay? A photo essay is intended to tell a story or evoke emotion from the viewers through a series of photographs. They allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. But how do you make one yourself? Here’s a list of photo essay examples. Choose one that you can easily do based on your photographic level and equipment.

Top 17 Photo Essay Examples

Here are some fantastic ideas to get you inspired to create your own photo essays!

17. Photograph a Protest

16. Transformation Photo Essays

15. Photograph the Same Place

14. Create a Photowalk

13. Follow the Change

12. Photograph a Local Event

11. Photograph an Abandoned Building

10. Behind the Scenes of a Photo Shoot

9. Capture Street Fashion

8. Landmark Photo Essay

7. Fathers & Children

6. A Day In the Life

5. Education Photo Essay

4. Fictitious Meals

3. Photograph Coffee Shops Using Cafenol

2. Photograph the Photographers

1. Capture the Neighbors

Photo essays tell stories. And there are plenty of amazingly interesting stories to tell! Photographing photo essays is a great way to practice your photography skills while having fun. You might even learn something! These photo essay examples are here to provide you with the inspiration to go out and tell your own stories through photos!

Popular Content

18 Immersive Photo Essay Examples & Tips

By Tata Rossi 13 days ago, Professional photography

A photo essay tells a story or evokes emotion through a series of photographs. The essays allow you to be creative and fully explore an idea. Such essays exist in a variety of forms – from photos only to images with brief comments or written essays accompanied by shots. Choose a photo essay example that you can easily do based on your professional level and the equipment you use.

1. Protests

• View the “Resistance” photo essay by David Moore .

A great idea for photo essays for students is to shoot the protest to show its power. You can capture people with signs and banners to demonstrate what they are standing for. Besides, you can learn how to capture moving subjects. Use the best example of photo essay and don’t forget about angles, composition, and framing.

To create a photo essay , go up to the front and photograph the leader of the protesters walking forward. After that, go back to the end of the group to take pictures of families joining the protest. As a result, you will gain experience shooting big groups of people in motion.

2. Transformation

• View the “A Self-Portrait Every Day” photo essay by Noah Kalina .

This idea is all about capturing the way a person changes. You may take photos of a pregnant woman and then capture the same model with a child. By documenting the development of the child for several years, you can tell a great story in the form of a photo essay.

However, you can also create a photo essay about the transformation of different objects. For instance, you can create a time-lapse series to capture the history of a renovated building. While you will have to take a lot of similar photos to bring this idea to life, it will allow you to achieve an impressive result.

3. Local Event

• View the “Monday Marathon” photo essay by Quinn G. Perini .

Whether you are a resident of a large city or a small town, you can find an opportunity to visit a local event, like a marathon or a festival. This is a nice chance to follow modern photography trends and bring photo essay ideas to life.

You can capture the before-and-after stages of the event. Arrive earlier and take pictures of the preparation activities, then shoot the actual event starting with the official beginning.

Keep photographing even when the event is over and capture the cleaning up and disassembling processes.

4. Photowalk

• View the “Empty Campus” photo essay by Elise Trissel .

Explore the location where you live and find interesting objects to capture in the vicinity. Using the most interesting photo essay examples, you can decide how to make the best decisions. Don’t hurry and try to discover which angles you can use to capture the unique atmosphere of each place.

If you live in the city, you may capture architectural details, wide shots of busy streets, or just take photos of passersby and street signs. Think about the details that make every location unique. For instance, you can try capturing reflections to see how they allow you to see the city from an unusual angle. You can find reflections everywhere, so be sure to pay attention to mirrored buildings, puddles, and fountains.

5. Place Over Time

• View the “At Home in the Ozarks” photo essay by Kylee Cole .

If you want to document changes and show how the streets, buildings, and parks in your city change over time, select your favorite locations and start to visit them regularly to capture the way they look during different seasons.

• View the “Last Moments” photo essay by Ross Taylor .

You don’t necessarily have to focus on profound photo essay topics to evoke emotions. Capturing pets enjoying their worry-free and untroubled life seems like an easy but interesting activity.

Choose any animal – from a domestic bird to a dog, cat, or horse. For more emotional images, use such pet photography ideas when your pet is still a baby and recreate these shots when it is older or is in its final days.

7. Street Style

• View the Tribal Street Photography photo essay by Hans Eijkelboom .

People often express themselves with the help of clothes. The way passers-by on the streets are dressed may reflect the clothing style of a whole society. That’s why you can travel around the world and capture people’s outfits in various areas. When taking portrait photos in the streets, you can also include some of the surroundings to put them in the context.

You can ask people in the streets to pose for you or try to capture them in movement. Select a suitable location for taking photos and create a photo essay to document what kinds of people one can meet in this location. When doing urban photography , you should ask people for permission before taking photos of them. You can ask their contacts and send them your photos later.

8. Abandoned Building

• View the “Lost Collective” photo essay by Bret Pattman .

Old buildings are excellent architecture photography essay topics for students since you can capture a large number of elements. They allow you to imagine what a particular street looked like in the past. You may use a photo essay example for students as references.

Get approval before going in, but mind that such places are far from being totally safe. Bring various lenses: the macro lenses – for details and the wide-angle one – when you want to include many elements in one shot.

9. Alternative Lifestyles

• View the “Last Nomad Hippies” photo essay by Roberto Palomo .

Some people decide to lead a lifestyle that differs from the one generally accepted by society. Explore different areas and look for people with an unusual way of living. You can capture candid photos of regular people or take pictures of a person with an unusual hobby.

Take pictures of those, who reside in extraordinary conditions, representatives of various subcultures, or the LBGTQ community. These photo essay topics show other people that it is okay to go out of their comfort zone and run against the wind.

10. Social Issues

• View the “Juveniles in Prison” photo essay by Isadora Kosofsky .

The best photo essay examples for students are related to social issues, like unemployment, domestic violence, gender discrimination, and more. Address the topic carefully and look for a proper perspective.

Your shots may draw the people’s attention to a truly burning and relevant matter and have a stronger effect than any text.

11. Behind the Scenes

• View the “Follow Me” photo essay by Marius Masalar .

If you are going to visit an event, get ready to take some behind-the-scenes photos. For instance, you can document the preparations for a festival. Capture the work of the lead event planner and other professionals to tell the story of the festival from an unusual angle.

Alternatively, you can capture the events happening backstage during a drama production. Take pictures of actors and actresses when they are getting ready for the performance. Try capturing the emotions of the main lead and show how stage workers make final preparations. You can also document the work of designers and makeup professionals.

12. Landmarks

• View the “Volte-Face” photo essay by Oliver Curtis .

The pictures of landmarks are typically taken from a certain spot. One of the best photo essay ideas is to try shooting sights from various angles. You will also have an opportunity to improve your composition and your framing skills.

If you take a look at any pictorial essay example, you will see that the variety of perspectives is endless: through the streets, in the morning, afternoon, and evening, with a drone or including reflections.

    • View the “Family” photo essay by Olivia Moore .

You can capture the way family members interact with each other and demonstrate the strong connection they share. In some cases, it makes sense to focus on capturing candid photos when doing family photography .

However, you may also opt for a different approach and focus on more difficult social topics. For instance, if you want to examine the issue of immigration, you can take pictures of a family from another country. In addition, you may show how families cope with other social issues, including poverty or unequal access to healthcare.

14. A Day in the Life

• View the “A Day in the Life of Carlos Gaytan” photo essay by Sandy Noto .

One of the best photo essays concepts is related to a day in a person’s life. The main character can be any person – a relative, family member, teacher, writer, or policeman.

People are generally interested in finding out facts about the lives and daily routines of others. The life of every human is incredible, especially if you learn it in more detail. This idea is especially suitable for taking documentary photos. For instance, you can select any photo essay sample you like and then capture a portrait of a person with the tools they use for their work.

15. Education

• View the “School Day” photo essay by Nancy Borowick .

You can also take great photos in the classroom capturing the interactions of teachers and their students. Avoid distracting them, as it will be easier for you to take natural shots. Using a variety of settings, you can make your photo essay more engaging. For instance, you may visit chemistry labs, capture teachers during a break, and take photos in other locations.

• View the “Meals From the Motherland” photo essay by James Tran .

You can also focus on specific meals to create a professional photo essay about food. To make it more attention-grabbing, try using different food photography ideas .

For instance, you can take photos of popular meals, capture the meals made by a specific person, or document cooking traditions in different countries. When taking photos in a restaurant, pay attention to the surroundings as well to capture the unique atmosphere of a place.

17. Capture the Neighbors

• View the “Our Neighbors” photo essay by Jeanne Martin .

Regardless of the place where you live, you have to establish good relationships with your neighbors. People who live nearby can also be great models for professionals who specialize in portrait photography. To implement this idea, make sure to capture people at home or in front of their houses to include some of the surroundings in your photo essay.

You will discover many interesting facts about people who live nearby. Shooting a photo essay will allow you to learn them better and establish a strong connection with them. This way, you can create a sense of community and discover what holds its members together.

18. Climate Change

• View the “Effects of Climate Change” photo essay by Sanya Gupta .

It is possible to a variety of photo story ideas bring to life examining the impact of climate change. Travel to places most affected by climate change, for instance, glaciers or famous resorts.

Capture the way the continuous drought has influenced the environment, animals, and the inhabitants. As an alternative, take pictures of environmentalist protests or inexhaustible energy sources.

Photo Essay Tips for Students

Explore your topic . An in-depth exploration of the main topic of your photo essay will help you find the best ideas for conveying your message. You can also find some sources for inspiration and useful materials. This stage allows you to learn more about your subject and select the best way of organizing your photo essay.

Create a storyboard . Using a storyboard, you can better understand what shots you need to take and what order can help you to tell a story in the best way. It will also allow you to create the right mood.

Take as many pictures as you can . To create a compelling story, make sure to take a lot of photos. It will allow you to choose the best pictures for your photo essay. Besides, you will always have backup photos if some of your pictures get damaged.

Experiment with different techniques . By changing the angle and using a variety of editing techniques, you can transform the way your photos look. When taking photos, try using different angles to capture the subject in the best way. You can also try changing the distance from the model, using black-and-white film, or employing a range of developing methods.

Add text . While some photographers create photo essays without text, it can still help you bring your point across more clearly and make it easier for a viewer to understand what you imply. By providing extra information, such as some facts, you can change the perception of your image. If you don’t know how to write descriptions, you can hire a professional writer to perform this task.

Enhance your photos . To edit your pictures, make sure to use professional photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Using the available tools, you can improve and change your photos. They allow you to fix issues with lighting, adjust WB, make colors richer, crop your pics to improve the composition, and perform other tasks. In case you need to edit your photos in a consistent style, you can use Photoshop Actions or Lightroom Presets.

In some cases, your pictures may require more advanced editing. If you see that your skills are insufficient or if you don’t have enough time, you can outsource the task of enhancing your photos to the FixThePhoto team. They will professionally enhance your pictures for a budget price. Their prices start from $1.50 per photo.

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23 Creative Self Portrait Photography Ideas & Tips

Get some great ideas for creative self-portraiture in this handy guide. Taking self portraits is a great way to improve your photography at home in 2023.

Learn | Self Portrait Photography | By Ana Mireles

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Self-portrait photography is a wonderful way to awaken your creativity and practice your skills.

In this article, you’ll find some technical tips to get you started from scratch, or to improve your existing self-portrait photography skills.

You’ll also find a bunch of ideas for cool self-portraits and cool profile pictures that will make you fall in love with this fun photography genre!

Even if you’re a shy photographer, you’ll find some great self-portrait ideas that you can implement and overcome your fears.

So, let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

23 Self Portrait Photography Ideas

If you’re struggling to find inspiration on how to take pictures of yourself at home, here are some creative self-portrait ideas (with examples) for you to awaken the artist – and model! – in you.

1. Use mirrors

Credit: Maddog

First up, here’s a fun little self photography trick.

When you’re the photographer and the subject simultaneously, it isn’t easy to learn how to compose the image and focus correctly.

That’s why using a mirror is one of the best ways to start; this way, you can be holding and controlling the camera as you pose.

The tricky part is to find a way to do it creatively and not fall into all the mirror selfies and self-portrait cliches. On the other hand, that’s something that can happen in any photographic genre – you have to find your own voice.

See also our guide on how to take good selfies.

2. Give low-key lighting a chance

Credit: Roberto Lee Cortes

Low-key is a type of lighting that’s predominantly dark, with highlights only in the focal points. It can create very eye-catching images.

Use this if you want to add more impact to your creative self portraits.

To achieve these images, you need to set your camera’s metering mode to spot metering. This way, you can measure the light from the highlighted area and darken the rest. Otherwise, the camera will try to compensate and brighten the shadows, overexposing the subject.

If you’re using any of the semi-automatic modes, you can use the exposure compensation feature. Adjust the original exposure with -1 EV or -2 EV. This tells the camera to underexpose your photo – exposure value in camera terms.

See also our guide to low-key vs high key lighting .

3. Add some motion blur

Credit: Simon Migaj

Another cool self-portrait idea is to incorporate motion blur. This means that you’ll leave a trail when you move. To make this kind of photo, you need to use a slow shutter speed .

If you feel that static self portrait poses are not for you, give this one a shot.

Depending on how fast you’re moving and how blurred you want to be, you’ll need to try different shutter speeds. So don’t settle for the first result – keep on experimenting.

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4. Make a no-face self-portrait

Credit: Life of Pix

Although some people consider only the images where you’re showing your face to be a self-portrait, many other artists contend with this idea.

You can make a fascinating self-portrait with any part of your body. Give it a try and decide which side of the argument you agree with.

• See also: How to take good pictures of yourself (when you’re alone)

7. Make a collage

Credit: Tuan Kiet Jr.

When one self-portrait photo isn’t enough to tell your story, take two or three and make a collage.

This classic among other self portrait ideas is still quite popular to this day.

Many apps do this for free with preset templates, or you can build your own collage in Photoshop or experiment with the collage features in Lightroom .

8. Experiment with double-exposure

Credit: Daria Sannikova

Another way to show more than one picture in a self-portrait is to use a double exposure ( see guide ). The idea is that two (or more) exposures are overlapping in the same frame. This will give a ghostly-creative feel to your picture.

Most cameras offer a multiple exposure feature that can be enabled in the menu. If your camera doesn’t have it or you prefer to do it in post-production, it can be done in any editing software that allows working with layers.

Show off your creative side with this self portrait photography effect.

• See also: 11 Tips for Capturing Authenticity in Self-Portrait Photography

9. Try some action shots

Credit: Zachary Debottis

Who says that you have to be posing for your self-portrait? You can also be doing sports or your favourite activity.

To better capture an action shot, you can try burst mode. Burst mode tells your camera to shoot many photos per second, ensuring that you capture the best moment.

If you’re using an iPhone, you can set the burst mode with a self-timer and use a smartphone tripod or stand to prop up the phone to do this kind of shot.

Alternatively, you can use a DSLR and control it with a remote or find one that has an interval shooting function.

10. Photograph your silhouette

Credit: Pixabay

Catching yourself in silhouette is another creative way to make a self-portrait. To do this, you have to position yourself with the light coming from behind.

Sunsets are particularly popular; however, you can also use artificial light.

What settings should you use for silhouette photography ? To achieve the best results, you have to use spot metering mode to calculate the exposure.

Then, adjust the settings manually or using any of the semi-automatic modes. Then when editing, use the ‘blacks’ or ‘shadows’ slider to really accentuate the silhouette portion of your image.

11. Try a close-up portrait

Credit: Rodolfo Clix

If you’re a fan of self-portraits that show your face, you can try doing some close-ups. This is a creative way to show only a part of your face; you can focus on the mouth or the eyes.

This is arguably one of the most fun self portrait photography ideas if done correctly.

The best lens for taking a close-up self-portrait is a short telephoto or macro lens – this way you’ll avoid any distortions and be able to really highlight one section of your face or body.

However, a standard 50mm lens can be good too. This allows you to shoot at a shorter distance, which is good when you’re both the model and the photographer . The choice is yours.

12. Go black and white

Credit: Elizaveta Dushechkina

Black and white photography is perfect for giving a nostalgic feeling to your self-portraiture because it reminds us of the first years of photography when color didn’t exist.

You can also use it for making creative and surreal self-portraits. Since we naturally see in color, black and white are perfect for creating a dream-like atmosphere; something that isn’t real.

Another way to limit the color palette is by switching your camera to a monochromatic mode – most cameras offer this, but if you can’t find the setting, have a go with an Instagram filter instead.

13. Do a photo project

Credit: Uncoveredlens

Exploring your inner self can be quite complex. If it’s something you’re willing to delve into, making an art project out of it can be the right choice for you.

For self-portrait photography inspiration, you can follow contemporary portrait photographers such as Laura Zalenga and Kyle Thompson. You can also go back in history and look at the works of Moholy Nagy , Man Ray and Claude Cahun .

See more ideas for photography projects you can do at home.

14. Dress-up

Credit: Marx Ilagan

This can be as fun as Halloween costumes, or as deep as Cindy Sherman’s construction of identity projects. The choice is yours.

It can also be a cool self-portrait idea for shy photographers who don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera.

15. Play with reflections

Credit: Francesca Zama

Working with reflections is one of the most popular portrait ideas, and it works wonders for a self-portrait as well. Find any reflective surface, whether it’s water, glass, or certain kinds of floors, and compose your image.

Remember that reflections depend on lighting and the place where you’re standing, so make sure you take many pictures by changing the angle of the camera.

Who knew self-photography could also be an outlet for your creativity?

16. Move to different locations

Credit: Khoa Vo

Self-portrait ideas can be inspired by the location of the shoot; it’s not just about you in a studio.

Try visiting different places to get inspired and take some cool self-portraits incorporating elements from your surroundings.

17. Change perspective

Credit: Samantha Garrote

Experimenting with the angle of the camera can lead to some creative self-portraits. If you are tired of the mundane self portraits photography, switching things up might just do the trick.

Get the camera low on the ground to capture a worm’s eye view. Otherwise, use a gorilla pod mini tripod to wrap the camera on a tree branch and photograph yourself from above.

If you don’t have a tripod that allows this kind of perspective , use a normal one and place yourself in a different plane – you can use stairs or trees to change your position in relation to the camera.

You could even consider using a selfie drone to take a photo from the sky.

18. Print and cut

Credit: Alessandro Sacchi

With all the digital tools that we have, we forget about the multiple possibilities of manual work and crafts.

Try printing out some of your self-portraits and start making an old-school collage for an interesting self-portrait.

Cut and paste your images and even throw in the mix some cut-outs from magazines. Don’t forget that you can also print, write or paint on your artwork to make it more creative.

19. Use props

Credit: Andrea Piacquadio

Using props for your self-portraits can be a great help to express certain aspects of your personality. An object that you identify with can be the perfect way to complement your photo.

You can use books if you like to read, a globe if you like to travel, and so on. Also, you can use an object as a metaphor, so get as creative as you want.

20. Don’t be afraid of emotions

Credit: Engin Akyurt

As much as we like to see ourselves all beautiful and happy, the truth is that we can’t be cheerful all the time. We feel all types of emotions, and we shouldn’t be afraid to capture a different facial expression in a self-portrait.

Let’s not forget the therapeutic power of art. Making photo stories can help us to overcome obstacles or hard times.

So remember, explore different sides of yourself and your different emotional worlds. You don’t always have to show a perfect smile.

21. Try different lights

Credit: Zszen John

If you’re looking for a self-portrait photography idea that will also challenge your photographic skills , this is it: try different lights.

It’s very easy to capture a well-exposed photo when you have good lighting, but what about candle lights , using gels, the neon sign at the entrance of a bar? After all, the lighting is a big part of forming a photography style .

Make sure you adjust the white balance because different lights have different color temperatures.

22. Find or build an interesting background

Credit: Mikel Parera

The background can make or break a photo. Find an interesting background for your self-portrait, and you’ll stand out more.

You can try doing some bokeh – which is the effect of the blurry area of your picture. To blur the background you need to use a wide aperture and a telephoto lens.

Also, stand closer to the camera and further away from the background. Each lens creates a different bokeh, and you can also modify it by using bokeh filters.

You can also easily blur the background using Lightroom or any other premium photo editing software.

23. Frame within a frame

Credit: Rami Hammoud

To make your photo more interesting and make your face the focal point, you can always put yourself inside a frame.

Framing is also a good composition technique – instead of holding a picture frame in front of you, try to incorporate the elements from the scene.

4 Tips for Better Self Portraiture

So, how do you take a portrait picture of yourself? It’s not as difficult as you might think. You only need a tripod and a camera. Then, follow these tips to achieve better self-portrait photography.

1. Remote shutter release vs. self-timer

Every camera on the market has a self-timer to allow you to take self-portraits. Some of them even have different time settings – for example, 2 seconds and 10 seconds. With this feature, you press the shutter and run into position.

When you use the remote timer, you have the advantage of having your hands completely free in the photo. This allows you to execute your self photo poses without needing to press the camera’s shutter button. It’s also the budget-conscious choice because it’s a feature that comes by default.

However, running to the position is more difficult if you’re doing creative self-portrait photography, and you need to study your pose and expression.

To solve this problem, you can use a remote shutter release ( see our guide ). There are cable remotes and wireless ones, and they have a wide range of prices.

The more advanced ones have more choices, such as interval timers, but they’re more expensive. Research the options to find what’s right for your needs.

2. Find the best lighting

Credit: Anete Lusina

Lighting is key to a good self-portrait. You need to decide what you want: natural light or artificial. Hard light or soft? Is it coming from the side or from above?

Normally, soft light is quite flattering, but hard light with strong shadows can create a very dramatic result. It all depends on what mood you want to create.

Also, consider buying some artificial lighting if you often photograph indoors or in low light situations .

You can also get some good lighting inspiration by studying the work of the great oil painters of the Renaissance period – this guide covers the most famous portraits.

3. Learn composition

Credit: Buse Doa

Learning the composition rules can improve your self-portraits in a way that you can’t imagine. There are many different rules and guidelines that you can follow, starting with the rule of thirds – which is marked in every camera grid. This helps you come up with self photoshoot ideas that look good and would work for you.

From there you can move on to more complex compositions.

4. Get control over the camera settings

Many of the self-portrait photography ideas above require the use of photography techniques that are difficult to master unless you really know how to use your camera (for example, motion blur or bokeh).

The exposure is controlled by three factors: shutter speed, aperture and ISO – this is known as the triangle exposure.

When you use your camera in manual mode, you control all three. However, you can start by using semi-automatic modes such as shutter priority or aperture priority. This way you can decide the final result.

See our complete beginner’s guide to camera settings here .

Self Portrait Photography FAQs

Does a self-portrait have to be of your face?

There’s some debate about the definition of a self-portrait. While some purists won’t consider it a self-portrait unless it shows a face, others believe it can show any part of the body.

Fortunately, art is a discipline that’s always open to people breaking the rules – so you’re free to interpret the idea of self-portrait photography as you wish.

Why do photographers take self-portraits?

A self-portrait can be an experiment to better understand light, poses and photographic techniques. However, it can also be an art form in itself that’s done as a creative expression. Sometimes you just have to try out those fancy self photography ideas you thought of.

What is the difference between a self-portrait and a selfie?

When selfies first became “a thing”, they were done at an arm’s length (typically with a smartphone), and they were a spur-of-the-moment capture. As the genre has developed, the line between the selfie and the self-portrait has blurred.

I’d venture to say that the main difference is the intent. The selfie is more about sharing (normally on social media) and putting yourself out there. A self-portrait is an exercise of reflection and exploring your inner self (even if shown to others).

Final Words

Hopefully, these self-photography ideas got your creativity going. If you have any doubts or want to share more tips and ideas, comment below. We’d love to hear from you.

Check out these 8 essential tools to help you succeed as a professional photographer.

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

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Mental Health

The self-portraits that show what my 'invisible' illnesses feel like.

Why do I always say “fine” or “good” when asked, “How are you?”

Why would I muster up a smile on the bad days when I feel like crying? Why would someone who prides herself on being a morally upright and honest person deliberately lie so often?

Because, if I was to really explain to people how I truthfully feel on the bad days, they would be shocked. They probably wouldn’t even be able to believe it if I was to show them that the girl they think is always bright and bubbly, put together and strong, is actually feeling battered and bruised, to drop the mask and let them see the tear-stained face and quivering lips that often appear behind closed doors.

Those who do not experience depression, anxiety, or chronic pain do not understand the daily challenge of simply acting normal. Most try their very best to empathize (like my amazing husband) and be kind, but there are some who seem irritated or uncomfortable if you express painful and deep emotion – I like to hope this is because they do not know how to react or what to say. Personally, I am so thankful many of my friends and acquaintances do not understand because I hate the thought of others living life with this challenge, especially those whom I care deeply about.

If only there was a way we could make the invisible visible, to help others to see without them experiencing the pain themselves.

Up until last year, I was a professional photographer. It was not just my career, it had been my passion too. To be able to capture memories and emotions for others was rewarding, to see their surprise and joy when they received their images was heartwarming. There is something beautiful and haunting about the way the camera can capture feeling, the magic of emotion.

Today I wanted to do something a little different to what I would have done for a client – a project that wasn’t about joy and wouldn’t be heartwarming. This collection of images would be about understanding, to show what it looks like when the inside is displayed on the outside. I set about taking a series of self-portraits that showed how I sometimes feel, the overwhelming emotions I wish I could express if I could guarantee the person I was sharing them with wouldn’t be upset or judgmental of them.

Overwrought and exhausted. The tears come without sobs, just silently spilling out, trying to ease the pressure inside. There are times these quiet messengers continue to seep out for hours after the worst is over.

The hurt inside is so vivid, like a darkening bruise or the redness and smeared makeup from trying to dash away the tears. The thoughts swirling in your mind assault you and cause scars that will take years to heal, if at all.

Ashamed and silenced.

Avert your eyes, close them, hide what you feel.

Silent for fear of judgment or criticism, of not being believed, or for contaminating someone with your pain.

Afraid. The hope you cling too seems to slip away on these bad days when everything is crashing around you. Unsure which way is up and which way is down. Heart racing and head spinning, unsure if things will ever be “normal” again.

The emptiness is consuming. The loneliness clutches at the heart like a trap, holding on tight, making it bleed, threatening to stop it beating. The tightness in the chest is painful and numb at the same time. Scared you will never shake off this feeling of isolation and pain, that you will never feel whole.

I wonder what those people would say if they could see the inside on the outside like this. Would they try to be more empathetic and understanding, maybe ashamed or sorry for the times they thoughtlessly commented things like, “You just need to think positive,” “It will be OK in the end, just don’t worry so much,” or “ Pray more ,” and left it at that, suggesting they were thinking that someone’s ailing mental health was all a little dramatic to be believed?

The problem and the blessing with having a so called invisible illness is that to most people the symptoms are impossible to see. If we did wear our emotional pain on the surface, chances are those of us with these conditions would never leave the house – so ashamed of our “disfigured” bodies that we would hide away from others eyes.

I am thankful my art can be used show how it can feel, to maybe help others to understand in some small way what those of us with mental illness can experience. My photography can be helpful in giving me a creative outlet for the emotional deluge. But even more so, I am grateful I can mostly choose to camouflage my distress – make my mouth smile and my lips tell the little white lie of “I am fine, thank you.”

Follow this journey on  The Art of Broken

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Blogger. Survivor. Writing of recovery from Childhood Abuse, PTSD, MDD, GAD, and living with Chronic Pain.

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7 (page 90) p. 90 Self-portraiture, photography, and performance

• Published: July 2018
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The relationship between visual and literary self-portraits is mutual. Portraiture and self-portraiture in art have frequently been linked to biography and autobiography. This is true in particular of serial representations, as in the sequence of over eighty portraits of himself that Rembrandt painted or drew at different stages of his life, from youth to old age, which have often been described as Rembrandt’s autobiography. ‘Self-portraiture, photography, and performance’ considers the autobiographies of Benvenuto Cellini and John Ruskin, then the new and heightened relationship between text and visual image that emerged after the advent of photography in the early 19th century. The role of autobiography as performance is also discussed.

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Feature Portraiture: the Paradoxes and Politics of Looking A paradox lies at the heart of great portraits: intellectually, we know a photograph can’t actually “capture” anything, but emotionally (and spiritually), we can’t help but keep looking for some kind of truth… Essay by Rebecca Horne View Images

Paradoxes lie at the heart of great photographic portraits. We know a photograph can’t actually “capture” anything essential about people in the photographs. More often what we are seeing is powerfully influenced by context, our own biases and preferences and those of the photographer. Intellectually, we are aware that we can’t know a person from simply looking at them, much less from a mute photograph. However, emotionally and spiritually, the temptation to try and do just that is too powerful to ignore. Technically, we know better, but we still look for “truth” in portraits.

Another paradox in portraiture is connected to our basic humanity—the fact that how we look is not how we feel.

Another paradox in portraiture is connected to our basic humanity—the fact that how we look is not how we feel. These spheres, of internal feeling and being, can’t be reconciled with how we look on the outside, and how we appear to other people. This is a fundamental puzzle of being—and this spectacle, the collision of internal and external worlds and intentions is often what makes portraits compelling.

Who is doing the looking is important too. Is the photographer empathetic or opportunistic? Is it possible to be both? Is the photographer testing our expectations and visual consumption, or adding to the heap of stereotypes and reinforcing social norms?

My professor, photographer Dawoud Bey was the first to really impress upon me how formal portrait photography could be both artfully disruptive and socially important. His work at the time upended expectations by depicting young African-American men and other racially diverse men in poses that echoed postures of historical portrait paintings. The dignity, pride and intimacy of the large-scale color portraits contrasted with popular media images of young African-Americans and underscored the absence of these men in traditional art history.

Bey’s book of portraits—published by Aperture— Class Pictures , is one I’ve gone back to again and again. Class Pictures is a collection of portraits of an economically and racially diverse group of high school students. The portraits are plain, shot simply with basic lighting, with no attempt at flattery. There is no technical sizzle or dramatic pop. They are simply deeply empathetic portraits of young people. Autobiographical statements from the students were published alongside their portraits. In this way, the students and the photographer guided the narrative. The pairings of the photographs and the statements let viewers confront unexamined, and perhaps even subconscious, ideas about people who do or don’t look like us.

Meanwhile, “The Birmingham Project” (2012) commemorates the four young girls and two boys whose lives were lost on September 15, 1963, in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama and the violent aftermath. Dawoud Bey photographed current residents of Birmingham: girls, women, boys, and men. The subjects paired are the ages of the young victims at the time of their deaths, and the ages they would be were they alive today.

The photographs were made in two Birmingham locations, Bethel Baptist Church (which was a very active church in the Civil Rights Movement) and the Birmingham Museum of Art (which during the 1960s was a segregated institution). Each participant was photographed separately and then paired into diptychs afterwards, using gesture, psychology, temperament and physical resemblance to create a connection between the two subjects.

A self-described visual activist, Zanele Muholi is another photographer who has chosen the tradition of portraiture to challenge sociopolitical structures, to build and archive community. Muholi’s oeuvre includes films and still portraits of the LGBTI community in South Africa as well as self portraits. Her portraits of the LGBTI community bring this group into the spotlight, documenting their triumphs and struggles in a country that has legalized same-sex marriage, but where homophobia and hate crimes are all too common.

Muholi’s recent multiple exhibitions in New York City are particularly timely in the United States, where race and sexual identity have both entered the national dialogue in a new way. Her transcendent self portraits are not only political; they cut across categories, confronting the viewer with a dazzling array of contradictions and complexities. The life and energy coming from the portraits made me feel as though I was actually being seen by the artist as well as seeing her.

Muholi has collapsed the role of the subject and the photographer into one, directing and simultaneously offering herself up intimately. The portraits ask what it means to be female, to be black, to be sexual, to be desired, to be hated, and to be loved. In Bona, Charlottesville, 2015 (the final picture in the slideshow above), the artist is naked on a bed, top of her head to the camera, but her direct eye contact is redirected back to the viewer in a round mirror. She flips the gaze that would attempt to view her body as a object. The picture asks what it means to look, and to be looked at. In her self-portraits, confrontation and vulnerability, authority and playfulness, deep existential questions and humour square off, forcing viewers to face preconceptions of race and identity.

What makes a truly great portrait? Fortunately, there is no formula.

What makes a truly great portrait? Fortunately, there is no formula. Many talented photographers will never be able to make successful portraits, or will spend years slowly learning. Empathy is important, but empathy alone does not make a strong portrait. Successful portraits are the result of a mysterious alchemy between the photographer and subject, or the artist and the audience.

For a formal portrait to work, the subject must collaborate, and give something to the photographer. When this happens, viewers are given a kind of unearned intimacy with the subject. What is it we see in these portraits? Do they allow viewers an opportunity to construe their own interpretations, or do they truly show something of the subject? It may be that great portraits reflect big questions back at us, tugging at something interior that acknowledges and recognizes others as both separate from and part of ourselves.

—Rebecca Horne

Rebecca Horne is a photographer, and she writes on photography, science and art in national publications and the multimedia mobile platform Storehouse . Recent writing includes Wild Pigeon for Daylight and What do these uploaded videos say about society? for CNN. Recent writing in print includes a book essay for California based-artist Johnna Arnold’s In/Finite Potential .

Dawoud Bey is an American photographer and educator renowned for his large-scale color portraits of adolescents and other, often marginalized subjects. He recently was named a More of his excellent and wide-ranging work can be found on his gallery’s website .

Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and visual activist. Muholi is a visual activist who tries to bring light to the importance of black lesbian women in South Africa. She is represented by Stevenson Gallery in Johannesburg and Cape Town, where you can find out more about her work .

Rebecca Horne

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Showing Migrants Through a New Lens: Their Own

As many waited on the U.S.-Mexican border, hoping to enter the United States despite the government’s message to stay away, a photographer let them be seen on their own terms.

By Sarah Bahr

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

Migrants seeking to enter the United States today find themselves in a difficult position: They have been told by the government not to come, but many feel they need to flee the conditions they face in their home countries. To add context to this complicated issue, the Brooklyn-based freelance photographer Adam Ferguson asked migrants at shelters on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border to take self-portraits this spring (with some guidance from him), giving them a chance to express themselves visually.

The migrants were waiting to cross and hoping to be allowed to stay. Mr. Ferguson talked with them about his vision, explained how the equipment worked and handled technical details like lighting and composition, but the final shots ultimately were of their own making. The outcome was a photo essay published online Monday.

In a recent conversation, Mr. Ferguson discussed the genesis of the project, the challenges of navigating a language barrier and how he, a white, English-speaking foreigner, gained his subjects’ trust.

How did you get the idea to have migrants take self-portraits?

I’d seen so many photos of poor, marginalized migrants scrambling across the river in makeshift watercraft, crying and being detained. I wanted to make a set of photos of people we so often see as victims and make them more human and relatable.

How many people did you ask?

I spent nine days in shelters and on the street over the end of May and the beginning of June. I conducted 27 portrait sittings, with subjects ranging from a one-month-old baby to a 57-year-old woman.

You don’t speak Spanish. How did you navigate the language barrier?

I was working with local journalists, and I can’t sing their praises enough. They were integral in developing trust with people.

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Self-portrait in the studio, first person.

The art and life of Mark di Suvero

All images courtesy of the author.

A form of life that keeps itself in relation to a poetic practice, however that might be, is always in the studio, always in its studio.

Its —but in what way do that place and practice belong to it? Isn’t the opposite true—that this form of life is at the mercy of its studio?

In the mess of papers and books, open or piled upon one another, in the disordered scene of brushes and paints, canvases leaning against the wall, the studio preserves the rough drafts of creation; it records the traces of the arduous process leading from potentiality to act, from the hand that writes to the written page, from the palette to the painting. The studio is the image of potentiality—of the writer’s potentiality to write, of the painter’s or sculptor’s potentiality to paint or sculpt. Attempting to describe one’s own studio thus means attempting to describe the modes and forms of one’s own potentiality—a task that is, at least on first glance, impossible.

How does one have a potentiality? One cannot have a potentiality; one can only inhabit it.

Habito is a frequentative of habeo : to inhabit is a special mode of having, a having so intense that it is no longer possession at all. By dint of having something, we inhabit it, we belong to it.

The objects of my studio have remained the same, and years later in the photographs of them in different places and cities, they seem unchanged. The studio is the form of its inhabiting—how could it change?

In the wicker letter tray against the wall at the center of the desk in both my studio in Rome and the one in Venice, on the left there is an invitation to the dinner celebrating Jean Beaufret’s seventieth birthday, on the front of which is written this line from Simone Weil: “Un homme qui a quelque chose de nouveau à dire ne peut être d’abord écouté que de ceux qui l’aiment.” The invitation carries the date May 22, 1977. Since then, it has always remained on my desk.

One knows something only if one loves it—or as Elsa would say, “only one who loves knows.” The Indo-European root that means “to know” is a homonym for the one that means “to be born.” To know [ conoscere ] means to be born together, to be generated or regenerated by the thing known. This, and nothing but this, is the meaning of loving. And yet, it is precisely this type of love that is so difficult to find among those who believe they know. In fact, the opposite often occurs—that those who dedicate themselves to the study of a writer or an object end up developing a feeling of superiority towards them, almost a sort of contempt. This is why it is best to expunge from the verb “to know” all merely cognitive claims ( cognitio in Latin is originally a legal term meaning the procedures for a judge’s inquiry). For my own part, I do not think we can pick up a book we love without feeling our heart racing, or truly know a creature or thing without being reborn in them and with them.

The photograph with Heidegger to my left, in my studio on Vicolo del Giglio in Rome, was taken in the countryside of Vaucluse during one of the walks that punctuated the first seminar at Le Thor in 1966. At a distance of half a century, I cannot forget the landscape of Provence immersed in the September light, the white rocks of the boris , the great, steep hump of Mont Ventoux, the ruins of Sade’s Château de Lacoste perched on the rocks. And the feverish, star-pierced night sky, which the moist gauze of the Milky Way seemed to want to soothe. It is perhaps the first place I wanted to hide my heart—and there, untouched and unripe as it was, my heart must have remained, even if I could no longer say where—perhaps under a boulder in Saumane, in a cabin of Le Rebanqué, or in the garden of the little hotel where Heidegger held his seminar every morning.

What did the meeting with Heidegger in Provence mean to me? I certainly cannot separate it from the place where happened—his face at once gentle and stern, intense and uncompromising eyes that I have never seen elsewhere save in a dream. In life there are events and meetings that are so decisive that it is impossible for them to enter into reality completely. They happen, to be sure, and the mark out the path—but they never cease to happen, so to speak. Continuous meetings, in this sense, as theologians say that God never ceases to create the world, that there is a continuous creation of the world. These meetings never cease to accompany us until the end. They are part of what remains unfinished in a life, what goes beyond it. And what goes beyond life is what remains of it.

I remember, in the dilapidated church of Thouzon, which we visited on one of our excursions in Vaucluse, the Cathar dove carved inside the architrave of a window in such a way that no one could see it without looking in the opposite of the usual direction.

That small group of men who, in the photograph from September 1966, walk together toward Thouzon—what ever became of it? Each in his own way had more or less consciously meant to make something of his life—the two seen from the back on the right are René Char and Heidegger, behind them myself and Dominique—what became of them, what became of us? Two have been dead a long time; the other two are, as they say, getting on in years (getting on toward what?). What matters here is not work, but life. Because on that late sunny afternoon (the shadows are long) they were alive and felt it, each intent in his thoughts, that is, in the bit of good that he had glimpsed. What has become of that good, wherein thought and life were not yet divided, wherein the feeling of the sun on the skin and the shadow of words in the mind so happily merged?

Smara in Sanskrit means both love and memory. We love someone because we remember them and, vice versa, we remember because we love. In loving we remember and in remembering we love, and in the end we love the memory—that is, love itself—and we remember love—that is, memory itself. This is why loving means being unable to forget, being unable to get a face, a gesture, a light out of your mind. But in truth it also means that we can no longer have a memory of it, that love is beyond memory, immemorably, ceaselessly present.

A page from Nicola Chiaromonte’s notebooks contains an extraordinary meditation on what remains of a life. For him the essential issue is not what we have or have not had—the true question is, rather, “what remains? . . . what remains of all the days and years that we lived as we could, that is, lived according to a necessity whose law we cannot even now decipher, but at the same time lived as it happened, which is to say, by chance?” The answer is that what remains, if it remains, is “that which one is, that which one was: the memory of having been ‘beautiful,’ as Plotinus would say, and the ability to keep it alive even now. Love remains, if one felt it, the enthusiasm for noble actions, for the traces of nobility and valor found in the dross of life. What remains, if it remains, is the ability to hold that what was good was good, what was bad was bad, and that nothing one might do can change that. What remains is what was, what deserves to continue and last, what stays .”

The answer seems so clear and forthright that the words that conclude the brief meditation pass unobserved: “And of us, of that Ego from which we can never detach ourselves and which we can never abjure, nothing remains.” And yet, I believe that these final, quiet words lend sense to the answer that precedes them. The good—even if Chiaromonte insists on its “staying” and “lasting”—is not a substance with no relation to our witnessing of it—rather, only this “of us nothing remains” guarantees that something good remains. The good is somehow indiscernible from our cancelling ourselves in it; it lives only by the seal and arabesque that our disappearance marks upon it. This is why we cannot detach ourselves from ourselves or abjure ourselves. Who is “I”? Who are “we”? Only this vanishing, this holding our breath for something higher that, nevertheless, draws life and inspiration from our bated breath. And nothing says more, nothing is more unmistakably unique than that tacit vanishing, nothing more moving than that adventurous disappearance.

Every life always runs along two levels: one seemingly governed by necessity, even if, as Chiaromonte writes, we cannot decipher its law, and another that is abandoned to chance and contingency. There is no point in pretending there is some arcane, demonic harmony between these two (this is the hypocritical claim that I was never able to accept in Goethe), and yet, once we manage to look at ourselves without disgust, the two levels, though uncommunicating, do not exclude or contrast with each other; rather, they offer each other a sort of serene, reciprocal hospitality. This is the only reason why the thin fabric of our life can slip out of our hands almost imperceptibly, while the facts and events—that is, the errors—that lay its warp attract all our attention and all our useless care.

What accompanies us through life is also what nourishes us. To nourish does not simply mean to make something grow; above all, it means to let something reach the state to which it naturally tends. The meetings, the readings, and the places that nourish us help us to reach this state. And yet, something in us resists this maturation and, just when it seems close, stubbornly stops and turns back toward the unripe.

A medieval legend about Virgil, whom popular tradition had turned into a magician, relates that upon realizing he was old he employed his arts to regain his youth. After having given the necessary instructions to a faithful servant, he had himself cut up into pieces, salted, and cooked in a pot, warning that no one should look inside the pot before it was time. But the servant—or, according to another version, the emperor—opened the pot too soon. “At the point,” the legend recounts, “there was seen an entirely naked child who circled three times around the tub containing the meat of Virgil and then vanished and of the poet nothing remained.” Recalling this legend in the Diaspalmata , Kierkegaard bitterly comments, “I dare say that I also peered too soon into the cauldron, into the cauldron of life and the historical process, and most likely will never manage to become more than a child.”

Maturing is letting oneself be cooked by life, letting oneself blindly fall—like a fruit—wherever. Remaining an infant is wanting to open the pot, wanting to see immediately even what you are not supposed to look at. But how can one not feel sympathy for those people in the fables who recklessly open the forbidden door.

In her diaries, Etty Hillesum writes that a soul can be twelve years old forever. This means that our recorded age changes with time but the soul has an age of its own that remains unchanged from birth to death. I don’t know the exactly age of my soul, but it surely cannot be very old, in any case not more than nine, judging from the way I seem to recognize it in my memories from that age, which have thus remained so vivid and sharp. Every year that passes, the gap between my recorded age and the age of my soul widens and the feeling of this difference is an ineliminable part of the way I life my life, of both its great imbalances and its precarious equilibriums.

You can make out the title of the book lying on the left side of the desk on Vicolo del Giglio: La société du spectacle by Guy Debord. I don’t remember why I was rereading it—I first read it back in 1967, the very year of its publication. Guy and I became friends many years later, at the end of the eighties. I remember my first meeting with Guy and Alice at the bar of the Lutetia, the immediately intense conversation, the sure agreement about every aspect of the political situation. We had both arrived at one and the same clarity, Guy starting from the tradition of the artistic avant-gardes, myself from poetry and philosophy. For the first time I found myself speaking about politics without having to bang against the obstacle of useless and misguided ideas and writers (in a letter Guy wrote to me some time later, one of these glibly exalted writers was soberly liquidated as ce sombre dément d’Althusser . . . ) and the systematic exclusion of those who could have oriented the so-called movements in a less ruinous direction. In any case, it was clear to both of us that the main obstacle barring the way to a new politics was precisely what remained of the Marxist tradition (not of Marx!) and the workers’ movement, which was unwittingly complicit with the enemy it believed it was combatting.

During our subsequent meetings at his house on the rue du Bac, the relentless subtlety—worthy of a magister of Vico de li Strami or a seventeenth-century theologian—with which he analyzed both capital and its two shadows, one Stalinist (the “concentrated spectacle”) and one democratic (the “diffuse spectacle”), never ceased to amaze me.

The true problem, however, lay elsewhere—closer and, at the same time, more impenetrable. Already in one of his first films Guy had evoked “that clandestinity of private life regarding which we possess nothing but pitiful documents.” It was this most intimate stowaway that Guy, like the entire western political tradition, could not get to the bottom of. And yet the term “constructed situation,” from which the group took its name, implied that it was possible to find something like “the northwest passage of the geography of real life.” And if in his books and films Guy comes back so insistently to his biography, to the faces of his friends and the places where he had lived, it is because he obscurely sensed that this was exactly where the secret of politics lay hidden, the secret on which every biography and every revolution could not but run aground. The genuinely political element consists in the clandestinity of private life, and yet, if we try to grasp it, it leaves us holding only the incommunicable, tedious quotidian. It was the political significance of this stowaway—which Aristotle had, with the name zōē , both included in and excluded from the city—that I had begun to investigate in those very same years. I, too, albeit in a different way, was seeking the northwest passage of the geography of real life.

Guy did not care at all about his contemporaries, and he no longer expected anything from them. As he once told me, for him the problem of the political subject by now boiled down to the alternative between homme ou cave (to explain the meaning of this unknown argot term, he pointed me to a Simonin novel that he seemed fond of, Le cave se rebiffe ). I do not know what he might have thought of the “whatever singularity” that years later the Tiqqun group would make—with the name Bloom—the possible subject of the politics to come. In any case, when some years later he met the two Juliens—Coupat and Boudart—and Fulvia and Joël, I could not have imagined a closeness and, at the same time, distance greater than the one that separated them from him.

In contrast to Guy, who read narrowly but insistently (in the letter he wrote to me after reading my “Marginal Notes on Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle ” he referred to the writers I had cited as “quelques exotiques que j’ignore très regrettablement et [ . . . ] quatre ou cinque Français que je ne veux pas du tout lire”), in the readings of Julien Coupat and his young comrades you would find the author of the Zohar mingling with Pierre Clastres, Marx with Jacob Frank, De Martino with René Guénon, Walter Benjamin with Heidegger. And while Debord no longer hoped for anything from his peers—and if one despairs of others one also despairs of oneself—Tiqqun had wagered—albeit with all possible wariness—on the common man of the twentieth century, the Bloom as they called him, who precisely insofar as he had lost all identity and all belonging could be capable of anything, for better and for worse.

Our long discussions in the locale at 18 rue Saint-Ambroise—a café that they had left as it was, with its sign Au Vouvray , which still drew in a few passersby by mistake—and at the Verre à pied in Rue Mouffetard have remained as vivid in my memory as those that had animated the evenings at the farmhouse in Montechiarone in Tuscany ten years earlier.

In this farmhouse that Ginevra and I—following an unfathomable whim of that spirit that wanders where it will—rented in the Sienese countryside between 1978 and 1981, we spent evenings with Peppe, Massimo, Antonella, and later, Ruggero and Maries, that I can only describe as “unforgettable”—even if, as is the case with every truly unforgettable thing, there now remains nothing but a cloud of insignificant details, as if their truer meaning had sunk into the abyss somewhere—but the abyss, in heraldry, is the center of the shield and the unforgettable resembles an empty blazon. We talked about everything, a passage from Plato or Heidegger, a poem by Caproni or Penna, the colors in one of Ruggero’s painting or anecdotes from friends’ lives, but as in an ancient symposium, everything found its name, its delight, and its place. All this will be lost, is already lost, entrusted to the uncertain memory of four or five people and soon to be forgotten entirely (a faint echo of it can be found in the pages of the seminar on Language and Death )—but the unforgettable remains, because what is lost is God’s.

(What am I doing in this book? Am I not running the risk, as Ginevra says, of turning my studio into a little museum through which I lead readers by the hand? Do I not remain too present, while I would have liked to disappear in the faces of friends and our meetings? To be sure, for me inhabiting meant to experience these friendships and meetings with the greatest possible intensity. But instead of inhabiting , is it not having that has got the upper hand? I believe I must run this risk. There is one thing, though, that I would like to make clear: that I am an epigone in the literal sense of the word, a being that is generated only out of others, and that never renounces this dependency, living in a continuous, happy epigenesis).

From the window on Vicolo del Giglio you could see only a roof and a facing wall whose plaster, deteriorated in many places, left glimpses of bricks and stones. For years my gaze must have fallen, even distractedly, on that piece of ocher wall burnished by time, which only I could see. What is a wall? Something that guards and protects—the house or the city. Childlike tenderness of Italian cities, still enclosed within their own walls like a dream that stubbornly seeks shelter from reality. But a wall does not merely keep things out; it is also an obstacle that you cannot overcome, the Unsurmountable with which sooner or later you must contend. As every time one comes up against a boundary, various strategies are possible. A boundary is what separates an inside from an outside. We can, then, like Simone Weil, think of a wall as such, so that it remains thus up to the end, with no hope of leaving the prison. Or rather, like Kant, we might make the boundary the essential experience, which grants us a perfectly empty outside, a sort of metaphysical storage space in which to place the inaccessible Thing in itself. Or instead, like the land surveyor K., we might question and circumvent the borders that separate the inside from the outside, the castle from the village, the sky from the earth. Or even, like the painter Apelles in the anecdote related by Pliny, cut the borderline with an even finer line in such a way that outside and inside switch sides. Make the outside inside, as Manganelli would say. In any case, the last thing to do is bang our heads against it. The last—in every sense.

Translated from the Italian by Kevin Attell.

From Self-Portrait in the Studio , to be published this October by Seagull Books.

Giorgio Agamben is one of Italy’s foremost contemporary thinkers. 

Persona, Photo And Design Studio

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