They Who Reveal Themselves Begin To Know Themselves. They Who Know Themselves Explore How To Reveal Themselves.

People have been looking at their own reflections in water, polished metal or stone, glass and mirrors and artists have been making self portraits as long as artists have been making art. Spoiler alert: it’s been a long time!

The way that artists are represented to us today reflect a very skewed social understanding of artist and the roles they have played in human history. Today, many view artists and the art they make as an unproductive part of society. Many believe that there is no value or ultimate good that comes from the artists’ pursuit and ultimately doesn’t have anything to add to society.

There are just too many counter examples to this view, which is often parroted by those who have a surface level understanding of capitalism and its relationship to how we function socially and develop our views of ourselves. The hardcore & punk shows we used to put on when I was younger is a good example of this. The music that we made not only represented us and how we felt about the world, but we were also able to project our ideas about reality into the world and make them real.

All art is self-reflective and should not only cause self-reflection, but can serve as a conduit to self-reflection in the way we interact with it. We can listen to our favorite album, we can look at our favorite photographs, paintings and illustrations. We can explore new forms of art and learn something not only from the art we experience, but through many aspects of the experience. The methods an artist uses, their chosen medium and the content of the art itself.

Doing something - anything - creates a seam in the world, which presents itself to us as something that can be tapped into either on accident or on purpose.

Art has the ability to neatly package social sentiments. So, who an artist is and the art they are producing can often times give insight into that particular culture.

When we bring this all back to the idea of the self portrait - it makes one wonder what the self portrait represents & what purpose it might serve within the context of not only creating (in general), but also within the context of understanding ourselves socially.

The Role Art And The Artist Plays In Human Society

When you look up self portraiture, you’ll find some info that points you to the 1430s and the emergence of the renaissance self-portrait. However, portraits and self-portraits have been found throughout human history. The media used were vast and varying as technologies evolved over the years, but the basic requirements of portraiture were still met.

That being said, my interpretation of portraiture, which considers both the personal and social aspects of art is broad and abstract. G.F.W. Hegel said in one of his lectures on aesthetics that a nation stores its values in its artwork (very paraphrased).

One of the ideas that he was getting at is that we represent our values in our art. We bundle up our sentiments and produce heroes for us to understand the social goal - the ethos. This is why I include sculpture and other art forms within the category of portraiture and even self-portraiture in some cases.

When we look at the statures made and displayed across the United States, we begins to understand this point. What anyone of us aspires to be in this country is clearly laid out within the artwork: an American is to either be or to become a white man uniformed and in middle to late age with some aspirations to be “socially productive.”

This is one of the many hero archetypes in western societies and the U.S. in particular.

The work of the artist is not only to express who they are and their view of the world through their art, but to also understand themselves within the context they find themselves within. This can become a really interesting conversation if we talk about commissioned art work such as the statues mentioned before, the commissioning of classical music or contemporary pop-music, statues and religious artwork. Some of the commissioned art from the late middle ages and renaissance are still influential on how people understand metaphysics, theology and politics.

I am not a 9th century poet creating self portraiture through my writing. I am not an 11th century knight honing my skills of chivalry. I am not a 4th century b.c.e. painter seeking to understand form and self while challenging the metaphysical argument that art is the second copy of the first copy and is a pointless attempt at reaching the ideal.

What I am, and what I intuit many artists throughout history were, is a self-critical person who is seeking to understand the perplexity that exists when the the perceived meets the expected and the quest one must take to approach what so many claim to lay hold of: Truth.

Where Do You See Yourself?

This, or a version of this question is often asked in job interviews. It’s the first one that I was taught to anticipate when I entered the work-force when I was 14: “where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?”

I remember answering, “hopefully finishing up high school,” during my first job interview at Starbucks.

For many, and definitely for artists, this is more of an abstract question. In the context of the self-portrait I consider this question to be one of the most important questions to answer, and the way in which I answer it is often an item for self reflection and self discovery.

You should know by now that I tend to contextualize (almost) everything within a social or political context. I’ve been doing this even before I was a philosopher. I find great comfort and understanding in abstracting my own experience.

One thing that I tend to do is think of governments in terms of a “self” whose body is made up of those who run it. The allegory is an old one and isn’t original to me, but I think it’s a good one. There are outcomes that have to be committed to so that motives and ultimately actions can be informed.

I’m only using this to then think about where the United States has chosen to display its “self portraits.” The statues and monuments. The paintings and murals. If a nation can be thought of as a “self,” these assorted displays of art would be their self portraits.

Where a portrait is made and displayed says a lot about the meaning of the portrait.

You Are Worthy To Be Seen

As a portrait photographer, I get to create portraits of others. Before we make them, we dive into the reason why they want or need their photos made as well as what the photos are supposed to represent as well as how they would like to represented in the photos. Some folks get more abstract than others, but my process for others and for myself is a very similar one.

At the moment where do you imagine yourself to be in a “natural” state? Is it a room, a specific place, an imagined landscape? What sort of expression are you wearing on your face? What sort of posture does your body have? What colors are around you? What colors are on you? What other aspects do you imagine that might not exactly align with reality? What elements can we add in order to build an image of how you currently see yourself?

These can be hard questions to answer and a lot of people tell me that they feel insecure about being honest about some of these answers because it feels as if the answers might reveal parts of themselves they would have otherwise kept hidden from themselves or others.

I totally get that. I feel the same way when it comes to answering hard, reflective questions.

I have made all of my self portraits within a very small space, with very minimal setup. This feels true to who I am, and until recently, anything else would have felt wrong and untrue.

Lately, I’ve been understanding myself within larger contexts, and I’ve been wanting to share my view of myself within different mediums and within different these different environments.

By the time I set up my camera and stand in front of it, I’ve already considered and (attempted to) answered these questions. It’s never about having a perfect representation of myself, but it’s about understanding myself within the context of not being who I was and not yet who I will be. I am who I am, and my view of myself and my beliefs about myself need to be listened to, entertained and ultimately trusted.

Strictly speaking you may not identify with being an artist. But understanding the space in which we represent ourselves to the experience of ourselves can open us up to be interacted with - reacted to by others. And, in their reactions to us, we can learn about ourselves.

It takes a lot of courage to allow others to see us, and it can be hard to begin to understand what being seen by others means. But, this process of exploring ourselves can be extremely beneficial and can lead us into not only understanding ourselves, but also helping us to understand the greater relationships we have to the people, places and other things in our life.

You are worthy to be seen, if only by yourself.

NEXT WEEKS POST…

Next weeks post is about some of the difference between healthy and unhealthy self-criticism and how living an examined life can lead to a lot of satisfaction and even the experience of joy and happiness.

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NATE STEVENS PHOTOGRAPHY

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