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Self Portraits and the Brocken Spectre

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Self Portraits and the Brocken Spectre

Many people love to "make love to the camera" as they say, to be photographed. Many others, don't. Lots of individuals do ask photographers to take their portraits, headshots, but that doesn't necessarily mean that these individuals enjoy being in front of the camera.

In my experience, photographers don't necessarily enjoy being photographed. That's because they love being behind the camera, not in front of it.

Still, a few photographers have reached a celebrity status because of their self-portraits. Cindy Sherman's self-portraits are shown at the Museum of Modern Arts in New York City. Award-winning, legally blind photographer Kurt Weston created a series of self-portraits through which to express his vision loss. Images from Weston's Blind Vision series ( a collection of black-and-white self-portraits) have won awards and been featured in various art galleries and museums. For example, Losing the Light was featured in the 2006 VSA (Very Special Arts) show called Transformation, which opened in Washington, DC. at the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. Another self-portrait from the same series, Journey Through Darkness, is part of the AIDS Museum permanent collection.

As photographers, we sometimes have to have our picture taken. In these situations some of us would rather take the picture ourselves. Hence, the dreaded self-portrait.

What is about a self-portrait that's so scary, sometime unappealing? And what is a self-portrait? What does it take to make one worth showing to the public audience?

I've asked professional photographers these questions too many times. And while answers were few and with minimum of useful info, I decided to ask yours truly the same question, and then go seek the answer myself... and share it here, with you, even though in short form.

Truth is, much can be said about self-portraits, but I'd begin with the question: What's in a self-portrait?

A self-portrait is a... portrait of oneself. An image in which the photographer is also the model, the subject of the photograph. But changing these two hats is much easier said than done.

As any other portrait, a self-portrait can be:

* a headshot

* an environmental portrait

* a reflection

* a shadow

* Brocken Specter (I'll explain what this is a little bit later)

* any other portrait in which the model/subject is also the photographer

That means, a self-portrait can blur the barriers between reality and fantasy, ranging from fashion photography to an editorial or a work of fine art. It can be taken outside, using only ambient light, or in the studio, using strobes. It can be a pinhole photograph (taken with a pinhole camera) or a lensbaby image (taken with the Composer lensbaby, for example).

A self-portrait can show the subject's face, parts of the body, or subject's reflection or shadow. Depending on what the photographer wants to express through the photograph (self-portrait), the pose, make-up, hair, location and lighting (to mention only a few) can help achieve that goal. And let's not forget about all the options available through post (production) workflow, including converting the image black-and-white or sepia tones, perhaps to add or emphasize dramatic elements in the image.

So, let's take them one at a time... Let's start not with the obvious headshot, but with a shadow as a self-portrait. I'm not talking about just shadow. I'm talking about the Brocken Spectre, an optical illusion also known as the Ghost of Brocken.

A brief history, first:

Brocken Spectre, Brocken Bow, Gravity Rainbow, Brockengespenst. They are all names for an optical illusion originally observed and described by Johann Esaias Silberschlag (16 Nov 1721 - 22 Nov 1791) in 1780 on Brocken Mountain, Germany. Silberschalg was a theologian and natural scientist. A lunar crater is named after him.

Brocken Mountain is part of the Harz Mountain range (highest peak is Bocksberg), located in Northern Germany, near Schierke, in Saxony-Anhalt, Wurnberg, between rivers Weser and Elbe. Brocken Spectre appears as a halo-like ring of glory, also called a saint's halo or god- shadows. The spectre is an enlarged shadow of the observer surrounded by the rainbow. This hallo becomes visible on mountain regions, at sunset, when clouds, fog or rain are present. The above Brocken Spectre images were taken on top of Haleakala Mountain (10k ft or 3048 m above sea level) in Maui, Hawaii.

Famous visitors on Brocken Mountain include Goethe, who mentioned the Spectre in Faust, and Heinrich-Heine, who mentioned the spectre in Harzreise (1826). An un-sourced register entry says: "Viele Steine, müde Beine, Aussicht keine, Heinrich-Heine." The phrase relates to the trying mountain ascent in foggy conditions.

That brings me to my bucket list. I'll have to add a visit to Brocken Mountain in Germany. There's more to it than ghosts....

Thanks for visiting!

Alina Oswald
Author of Journeys Through Darkness: A Biography of AIDS