'On March 30th 1995, I started doing at least one Self-Portrait everyday for the rest of my life. At present I have over 7,900 of them. [...] After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of the self. So I devised another experiment where everyday I took a different drug and drew myself under the influence.'
posted by shakespeherian on Jan 19, 2011 - 47 comments

Alexander Pavlovich Lobanov was a Russian deaf-mute confined to psychiatric institutions for over 50 years. He liked to draw pictures of himself with guns. Lots of guns.
posted by hydrophonic on Jun 12, 2007 - 12 comments

A View In Your Mirror: Painter Jan Verhulst compiles self portraits made by artists in their preferred medium.
posted by fair_game on Feb 24, 2007 - 8 comments

Self-portrait: A portrait an artist makes using himself or herself as its subject, typically drawn or painted from a reflection in a mirror. There are many famous painted self portraits, but now that everyone has a digital camera, more and more photographic self portaits are popping up everywhere. Whether you think of it as vanity, narcissism, self-invovlment, or just art, it is hard to deny that there are a lot of interesting and well-composed shots out there. Sure, there are plenty of arm-length camera angles, but there is also work being done with black and white images, hands and feet, and, of course, eyes. Even photoshop is used sometimes. People are still speculating on what exactly all these pictures mean, but I think it is clear that from totally innocent to intensely personal to NSFW, self portraits are here to stay.
posted by nuclear_soup on Mar 20, 2006 - 14 comments