July 5, 2011

Narcissist Me!

Ramble warning (Don’t say I didn’t warn you..)

Recently I started two photography projects, 365 grateful and a-self-portrait-a day. Well, the main aim was to keep myself busy. The secondary aim was to improve my photography.

The first project, 365 grateful, lasted for about 15 days. To be honest, I was pessimistic about it since beginning. Why, you ask? Well, firstly, being the sarcastic, pessimistic person I am, I don’t think I can find something to be grateful for, for an entire year! And soon I was taking picture of chairs and shoes. No honestly…

Grate_03_100Grate_11

Secondly, it’s a 365 day long project. If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you would know I have a history of not keeping such long commitments (just search Project Snapshot or Tuesday Tag on my blog). I have commitment issues, I guess. So project that has “365” in its title is certainly not going to continue for long…

The second project “a-self-portrait-a day” has been going fine for past 39 days now. Actually, it’s a slightly deviated version of more popular project “365 self portraits” but I didn’t want two projects with “365” in its title so I changed it to “a-self-portrait-a day”.

Anyway, I started the two projects some time in May. I have been posting the photographs on my FB profile since then. However, initially I didn’t make the albums visible to my friends on FB. However, after about 15 days into the project, I changed the settings. After all, what is an artist without an audience? (Isn’t that’s why we blog instead of writing diaries like good old days?)

Recently, I changed the settings of the album (album self portraits, of course) back to be visible only to me. Well, the change happened after I read this post.

Okay, to be completely honest, my first hesitation about sharing the albums publicly was due to the same reasons voiced in the post. “A 100+ photos of only me in different poses, photoshoped, tinted, altered and what-not”. But again, as I said, an artist do seek an audience, so did I. I wasn’t comfortable putting those pictures on the world wide web for every Tom, Dick, Harry to see. So I chose Facebook as my platform. At least I know people in my friend’s list and I can block the ones that I feel uncomfortable sharing those pictures with. I think that way Facebook do provide a great platform.

Anyway, at the moment I am not sure whether I should or shouldn’t share my photography project, namely, “come and see a 100+ photos of me and only me” with anyone.

On one hand, the project has been an inspiration, a motivation in my otherwise not-so-good-days. It makes me think about things other than my problems and be creative. I am not sure how long will the project last without an audience. I have learned quite a bit about photography while doing the project.

On the other hand, I am inclined to agree with Priyanka here. Why put 100+ photos of myself in different poses for people to see?

Either way, its me caring about other people’s opinion which is unusual for me. Well it happens. The bigger question here  is: Am I really a narcissist? 

2 comments:

  1. OUCH! Please don't take that personally! I meant that for a particular set in my circles.

    And also, no. Not a narcissist. 
    Why? Because it is different when the person concerned is an artist.  
    And that's what they are supposed to do.
    I never had/have a problem with model-friends posting up pictures because that was their JOB and their career depends on their popularity too.

    I was taking a gouge at those who *think* they are pretty, like looking at themselves in the mirror, have a feeling that they are the next hit item since Marilyn Monroe and assume that other people have the same opinion.

    Nice post, btw:)

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  2. Oh, please don't worry about it. I loved your post and was nodding my head while reading it. Your post simply made me rethink about my earlier fear: my personal photos in a public forum for everyone to judge and comment. 

    I consider myself an artist but what about others who have never considered photography as an art form? Will they take it in the same spirit? 

    I have been thinking to write about this ever since I stopped my 365 grateful project. Just psychoanalyzing myself. What does it says about me that I can't find one thing each day to be grateful for but I can take my own pictures of myself in different poses everyday. May be I wouldn't call it narcissism but there is something really wrong with this picture, don't you think? 

    BTW, thanks for dropping by :)

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