Figure 1 – Self portrait at the 1912 Cafe, Freeport, ME. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

Figure 1 is an experiment in self portraiture.  Selfies today are generally taken with the front facing camera.  A generation ago the common form was to take a picture of yourself in the mirror.  Vivian Maier offers some wonderful examples of this genre.

The in-the-mirror photograph in general betrays a problem or fault with photography.  The photographer ceases to participate. That is why photography often appeals to the shy among us.  You don’t have to be part of events.  You can abstract yourself from them.  This self portrait, I hope, takes this abstraction to a new level.  There I am reflected in the window of the 1912 Cafe.  Perhaps the name of the cafe creates a sense of irony, emphasizing further abstraction, as the cell phone is totally antithetical to the simpler life of the early twentieth century.

With a cell phone you needn’t really look into the camera.  You could as well be reading an email.  You become totally abstracted from the act of taking the picture, even though in secret you are quite actively involved in framing the image.

I am also trying here to create a sense of the commonplace, to mimic so many photorealistic paintings of diners and people in everyday activities.  Of course, nothing could be more photorealistic than a photograph.  And also, the abstraction of the photograph to events pales in comparison to the pose of people on cell phones.  It is the ultimate ambiguity that in connecting with others we disconnect with those immediately around us.