The Importance of The Self Portrait, Devon and Cornwall Photography

Expressing yourself via photography is not an easy one. The mood, the atmosphere, the message and the feelings can only be portrayed by one sense. You must use light and only light to get across all of your points.

I’m a huge believer in using photography to invoke emotions. A simple studio portrait with no context shouldn’t just show someone’s appearance, but their story or the story that they are trying to tell.

I often tell my mentees to take self potraits, not only as an easy way to try out new techniques, but also as a way to explore their creativity and get outside of their comfort zone. The majority of people really don’t like photos of themselves (this was me a few years ago), but the more images you take, the more in tune with yourself and comfortable you become. From a photographer’s point of view, it is very important to be able to understand things from in front of the camera as well as behind it.

Being able to explore ideas that I have, techniques that I have discovered through self portraits as well as appearing in my own art definitely makes me a better photographer, and now that I’m living in beautiful Devon and there are so many stunning places to visit, I have even more of a reason to create.

Some of my self portraiture below…