Autoportret fotografii
Self-Portrait in Photography

Summary/Abstract: Self portraits can be considered in the context of photography’s self-portraiture’. We can analyze photographic self-portraits in order to reveal the most important elements in photography. We can use that analysis in the process of analyzing photographic medium. Those theses were the motto of the exhibition entitled ‘I – and – Others: Photography’s Self-portrait’ organized as part of the Lower- Silesian Art Festival. Andrzej Saj was the curator of the show. In 1995, there was a show entitled ‘Identity and Alternity’, which accompanied the Biennial in Venice. The show referred to the post-modernist problems of semantic fuzziness and cultural indistinctness. The shows in Jelenia Góra, Lodz, Poznañ and Wroc³aw also referred to post-modernist problems. When we concentrate on self-portraiture, we start thinking about the role of subjects in creative process, and about the attributes of photographic medium. Self-portraiture can be considered as the test of photogenic elements in art. Many Polish artist-photographers were interested in selfportraits. Stanis³aw Ignacy Witkiewicz, for example, produced a series of self-portraits, in which he showed different grimaces, as if he played different theatrical roles in front of a mirror. Conceptual and photo-medial artists, such as Robakowski, Lachowicz, Sosnowski, Dudek-Dürer were particularly interested in self-portraiture. Also, other artists, who didn’t belong to that group, concentrated on self-portraits in their work (Rytka, Ró¿ycki, Kulik, Truszkowski, Orzechowska, Orwat). Piotrowska, Natalia LL, Orwat use self-portraits as parts of different art-work. Direct photographic portraits were shown by Gardulski, Lech, Konopka, Andrzejewska, Lewczyñski, Leoeniak and Zawadzki. Theatrical effects were used by such artists as Bator, Komorowski, Nowacki, Machciñski, ak. One of the characteristic attitudes towards ‘pure’ photographic self-portraits, is that of the artists, who seem to be afraid of showing their faces. Other artists try to reveal their inner features, refer to historic and documentary aspects of portraiture, show their shadows as symbols of transcendental presence, and use masks in order to show different aspects of their personality. Also, there are artists who are interested in computer generated self-portraits and in film.

• Details
• Contents