Over 10 years ago I had the distinct pleasure of viewing an exhibit of self-portraiture called "Rembrandt, by Himself".  I was amazed at how Rembrandt polished his craft as the pundits in the audiotour talked about what the self portraits meant to art and what it said about Rembrandt.  I have to say that the exhibit was truly inspiring to me and represented one of those "special moments" that sticks with you and influences you the rest of your life.

Since that time, I've been interested in artists and photographers who have used self-portraits as a means of honing their craft AND a means of furthering their education about themselves.  Some of these self portraits are literal interpretations, while others are quite representation.  One set of examples that come to mind are from Picasso.

The first image is Picasso as a young man.  A charcoal sketch showing a fairly typical depiction without the many periods that Picasso explored during his lifetime.  You see the intensity, the passion, and the youth.

The second image is much later, stylized, full of cubism and reflecting Picasso on a bad day.  You feel the anguish, the eerie eyes, and age. 

Viewing artists self-portraiture whether literal or figurative represents an epiphany moment for me---self-portraiture and self-expression in a visual autobiography.

What interests me now is how to take this concept of self-portraiture and transform it into a means to capture the essence of where the person is over time.  It's a way of using digital imaging via a digital camera, phone, scanning old photographs, or some other means to capture a moment and then creatively use post-processing to further create the mood in order to self-express and to self-discover.  I call this approach, Photoautobiography, and I will be periodically adding blog entries about this in the future.