i´ve been looking at some self portraits lately.
a few things i noticed:
-on social network sites, girls and women often take pictures of themselves in mirrors with a strange kind of inanimate expression, a mask-like doll face).
-on the same social network sites, boys and men often portray themselves with other girls surrounding them. usually they don't use a mirror as a device but look straight into the camera with an expression often seeming "knowing" or "capable".
-artists´self-portraits often display scepticism, gravity and earnestness. they never smile and often look at themselves in pretended shock, hypocritical contempt and vain aversion.
the three self-portraits above are from gustave courbet, jenny saville and egon schiele.
what i like about saville´s and schiele´s self-portrait is that they show their bodies as face. distorted, strange and instinct driven, unintentional bodies.
what i find so strange and kind of awkward when looking at all these self-portraits is all the intention, design and meaningfulness in the facial expression.
