Focus

See Yourself In Photos

Self-Portrait

We look at photos of ourselves much more carefully and critically than our image in a mirror – usually with a negative emphasis. A stagnant photograph reveals something we don’t pay attention to in a living, moving mirror image where we can adjust our facial expression or body position to please ourselves more. A photo causes us to stop.

We are not only the physical body captured in the picture. We are also what happens in our minds and emotions.

Looking at your own image creates a spiral of thoughts, feelings, and even bodily sensations, emotions and actions. It might be met with approval, satisfaction, or critical internal speech. It might leave you unable to recognise the person in the image, or feeling a need to explain or deny what is true.

A photo can speak of fatigue or passage of years. When we are deep in our heads people might interpret what is sometimes called "resting bitch face" (something we introverts might have), as annoyance, condescension, or tiredness. Which of course can sometimes be the case… But maybe a relative took a photo at a family gathering, and there you are, “sulking” in the corner on your own while others seem to have the best time.

On the other hand, laughter captured in a photo, taken so that we didn’t notice, reminds us that we can be beautiful when relaxed like that.

Do you find it easy to be photographed and to see yourself in photos? Or are you like me? You hide behind others and find selfies really hard to take.

To be seen, not overlooked

The experience of being seen and accepted arises at an early stage in human development. It is present in a baby’s first interactions. The need for acceptance and fear of rejection are fundamental parts of human life.

It is easier to look at yourself with acceptance and compassion if you feel you’ve been lovingly seen and encountered. How we have seen this modelled has an impact. For example, in how parents saw themselves when we grew up. Did they have a self-critical or self-accepting view of themselves?

If you don’t have experiences of acceptance in your childhood, you might easily adopt a habit or even a need to be invisible. Being in front of the camera and in a picture – becoming visible – can make you feel queasy. For someone else, from a similar starting point, there might be a need to be strongly visible. We are all different, a mixture of our personality and experiences.

Photos, especially self-portraits, are one way to learn genuine self-acceptance. Self-portraits can bring all kind of emotions to the surface. They can also bring forward different parts of ourselves. For example, playfulness or hidden sadness.

Warning, possibly triggering:

Seeing photos from our childhood may change the time-distorted memories of how we were encountered, seen and comforted as a child. It can be very comforting to look at a picture of yourself as a baby in the arms of your father, mother or another caregiver. The image can tell about love that may not have been shown in words or deeds very often.

Our brain creates images from what we see, notice, think, feel and interpret, but also our expectations and mental images affect what we “see”.

You are used to seeing yourself as a mirror image, with the ‘mirror expression‘ you unconsciously take. You may always look at yourself from the same perspective. That’s why you might look good to others but like a stranger to yourself in photos.

“You can see my face, I can’t.”

There is a paradox here. While you know what it looks like to be you on the inside, you can’t see your whole external physical self. Whereas others see how you appear on the outside but don't know what you look like on the inside. Is this frustrating? Maybe it's comfortable?

Feeling of self-alienation opens the door to the desire to smooth out the truth?

Our mental self-image can be a wishful, slightly improved image of reality. But this may not correspond to what others find pleasant or natural. Studies have shown that subjects usually select a picture enhanced by image-processing as the most self-similar image, while their acquaintances view the processed image as least resembling the subject.

Studies have also shown that people make lasting judgements about a person in a fraction of a second when they see an image. When choosing the most representative image it might be worth asking someone else to choose it for you!

In this course, we are not looking for the most representative photos of ourselves. We will take photos that show a wide variety of realities: vulnerability, strength, play, emotions.

Ask yourself

Do I shoot selfies dozens of times and still put the best filters on before publishing it?
Would you recognise the "me" from my photos if we meet in real life?
What is the truth? What longs to be seen without smoothing, practice, or clownery?
Do I treat myself and my own images with the same gentleness, attention, and understanding as I would treat a person I might meet and photograph?
Do I feel relaxed and confident in front of the camera as I am? Or...
Do I avoid being photographed? Am I horrified to see photos taken of me because they don’t please me or match my own desire or image of myself?
Do I recognise myself from pictures?
How do my insecurities, my desire to please people, or my natural joy and personal style show through me in photo albums?

Being self-aware also makes it easier to identify essential, often hidden, in others and to capture it in your own personal style.

Go To The Prompts

It has been really hard to see myself in photos since I was a teenager, and I avoid being photographed. As a mother’s legacy, I freeze in front of camera. I don’t blink and don’t breathe, like I'm in a passport photo. And of course I always think I fail in photos. I am also currently in the middle of the first age crisis and I see only old age in me. I don’t recognise or accept myself in photos, just as I don’t recognise my own name – an invisible child who wasn’t called by her name.

I needed a photo of myself for Photoyoga in 2017 and figured that if I’m half behind a tree, it’s interesting and creative… Actually I just wanted to remain protected, partly invisible. I have dreamed for a long time of taking a self-portrait which would show the hidden part of me – the mystery and playfulness. I would be in front of the camera in a carefully chosen costume, make-up in a mystical, magical location. And there I would look young again

Photography can be used to bring things into light that might not otherwise be seen, asked about, or spoken of. Photographs that are relevant to a person can be used in many ways to help him/her get to know themselves better.

…

Phototherapy pioneer Judy Weiser (2008) divides phototherapy methods into five areas that can be utilized in photographic work. The first is the pictures taken or created by the customer, also collected. The second is pictures taken of the client (both posed and spontaneous snapshots). The third is self-portraits (taken by the client), the fourth is family photos (childhood family and current family) and the fifth is image projections showing the subject’s own process and creation.

Satu Jokiniemi and Heidi Kantonen
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BEING SEEN
The use of the method of photography working in a day care center

Don't overthink it as you begin this Photoyoga journey. Allow your unique sound to let itself known.

Read the prompts below and share your photos and thoughts in the WhatsApp Group.

PROMPTS | Part 1

1. Stopping: The Real Me

When shooting photos take a moment to calm down. This is not just about completing the assignment. Get yourself to a point where you feel present, open, and ready to photograph your true self.

When you're ready, take a photo of yourself (take advantage of tools like a time trigger, selfie stick, or reflective surfaces).

Notice how you feel when you're taking a self-portrait. And pay attention to how you feel when you look at your self-portrait.
How much of yourself are you ready to reveal, from what direction, in what environment?
How do you see yourself, what do you tend to hide? And what do you allow to be shown with full acceptance?

Challenge your comfort zone when you take the photo and stay in your comfort zone when you share your photo and notes.

2. Letting Go: Feeling Free

We might not be feeling very free at the moment. Pay attention to the kinds of situations and environments you are able to experience even a fleeting sense of freedom. Not just physical freedom, but free from things such as other peoples' expectations, social roles, shame, obligations, pressures etc.

I dare you to let go. Experience freedom by releasing your body into movement. Allow your soul to sing, dance, and laugh. Giggle. Jump. Wave.

Play, be wild, show a hidden dream, or build a character…

And in the midst of this moment, take a photo of yourself. Save this feeling and document the moment.

This doesn’t have to be anything miraculous and spectacular. You could just do something slightly different: wake up earlier than usual and go outside and dance. Stand upside down. Let whatever arises from your body be…ignore the dog walkers (the camera usually gives a good explanation for weird behavior …). Or you could sneak out of work and grab a picture of yourself experiencing rebellious moment of freedom.

The main thing is that you do something: you move, you break away from the ordinary.

Consider using music to get you in the mood for letting go! Watch a perfect example of this from our friend, Honestrox, on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSKYOyJDPFJ/

Is it easier to be in front of camera under the protection of a character? Or did you find it easier to throw yourself into a moment of crazy play because you were given permission from the assignment?

How did you feel afterwards?

On what basis did you choose the picture that describes your situation and your feelings?

Upload your photos to the Photoyoga WhatsApp Group

Mark your photos: THE REAL ME and FEELING FREE

"Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?"

Pablo Picasso

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