Category Archives: L.08.8

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This is me 80% of the daylight hours. Note the headphones – they are for listening to meditation or relaxation tapes. Also the towel under my head is to keep my pillow dry from all the moisture leaking from the back of my head – some would call it sweat.

Ha!  You want multiple personalities?  Here’s six!  Take that, Funt!  And I get to be all of mine, so there!

I think I would replace the lower left one with one of me out in the Lichtenbergian space, and of course the two in the study aren’t really different, other than to show the astounding range of dissheveledness my hair is capable of.

Not very creative at all as a self portrait, but Mike’s struck a chord.

In my mind I am at any given time a pirate, a cartoon character, a wildlife biologist, or a vaudeville comedian. Or any combination of the four. None of which I can ever actually be in real life.

Additionally, loathe as I am to admit this, I don’t know how to use Photoshop. I used this assignment as an excuse to fiddle around with it. While that may sound a bit ambitious for our group, true to form I put off a great many things I should have been working on today to learn a little about Photoshop.

I went with the easy interpretation of the challenge theme: contrast.  As the month goes on I may try to do some more metaphorical interpretation, but for a quickie, I figured a study in chiaroscuro would do. I took a whole series of me in basically this pose, this composition, with the computer’s built-in camera, then ran it through a couple of filters in Photoshop.  I like the original a lot, but I figured it needed to be artsier.

I like the way the strong ceiling angle behind me helps cut the whole thing in half. I also like the way the artistic filter has created large blocks of tonality, with just a few odd patches of color here and there.  It was not my intention to create a mostly colorless portrait, but it works, especially since my flesh-tones provide a great deal of focus.

Self-portrait—in what way?  I’m in my study, my natural habitat.  I’m not looking at the camera, which is typical of my connection to the world around me, or lack thereof.  I’m brightly lit and shirtless, but there is nonetheless a veil over my image.  It is not clear who I am.  Do I sound mysterious enough?

The object, the photo in this case,  should clear out a space for contemplation.  If it is successful, the viewer will be called to .  And then read it to me.  Tell me who I am.  For God’s sake.

I will unveil two secret jokes not apparent in the result but part the process and certainly  playing a part in the portrait from my point of view.  My computer’s camera captures images as mirror reflections, so originally the titles of the books were truly “reflective” but downright dyslexic, a deciphering challenge.  I decided, ultimately, that the challenge would not be worth the effort (in deference and tribute to my fellow Lichtenbergians).  The other secret detail is that my photo editor includes an effect called “antique.”  Seemed an apt click to make at the finish.

Go here, check out the current challenge, read all the rules, and get to it.  You have all month.