Roseman1

 

Self Portrait 1 by Carrie Roseman

This photograph is part of a long term self-portrait project that I started during David Alan Harvey and James Nachtwey’s LOOK3 workshop, aptly entitled “The Art of the Photographic Essay”. The subject of the essay that I would create eluded me until the start of the workshop. Really wanting to challenge myself, I decided to point the camera to myself, and create images that reflect this exciting time in my life. After having experienced some hardships over the last few years, I wanted to celebrate the good that is happening and show a beautiful hopefulness in this project. My goal was to create fine art photographs that hold a dreamlike quality and emit an ethereal feeling. I knew that I wanted to capture myself in a very artful way, and I feel that I really got into a groove when I made this picture. This photograph was the shining moment of the start of this self-portrait project.

Website: Carrie Roseman

14 thoughts on “carrie roseman – self portrait 1”

  4. Patricia Lay-Dorsey

    Carrie, I love this shot and look forward to seeing an entire essay of your self portraits. The ones you took in DAH’s and Jim’s workshop have stayed imprinted in my mind and heart. Amazing work! Have you been able to continue working on the series at home? I hope so because you have such a magical start…

    xxoo
    Patricia

  5. kathleen fonseca

    bizarre, earthy, sensual, artistic, suggestive, innocent, original, playfully hidden, provocatively revealed..all this and more including great composition, lovely bucolic mood, subtle and realistic colors and contrast (now that alone is refreshing!)..Carrie, dis is goot! Agree with Steve, more please!

    best–
    Kathleen

  7. bob black

    Carrie :)))

    love it….love the fragility and the deathly-strength…the river of hair and the bone post cut out and the long, meandering line of the fence toward the horizon…that it contains both beauty and fear (for me), about living and dying, for the best (to me) self-portraits always accomplish that: the joy and the sorrow inside each of us…the life is stalked by death and that from death still comes this extraordinary act of living….

    and i hate to be redudant ;))), as i posted the name of the book on the last essay, but u should check out Wisconsin Death Trip…and one of my favorite photographs from that book/novel/history is this one…

    it reminds of the same…

    http://teenageghosts.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/horse.jpg

    haunted and haunting….

    beautiful…

    cheers
    bob

  8. Carrie Roseman

    Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to consider this work and comment. I appreciate all of your gracious words and thoughts. Bob Black, thank you for the reference…I had not known of it…and yes, haunted and haunting. There’s such an attractive element in the combination of those two qualities, and it draws me in…I’m glad that I was successful in achieving that here. It was a struggle for me to decide that color would be best for this project (considering all the images) because I’m so gravitated towards black and white, especially when seeking a dreamlike, haunted, ethereal feel. But, that’s just proves to be another challenge that I’m happy to take on. Yes, Patricia, I’m continuing the project, though it’s been on hold for a minute because I’ve been busy shooting other people, but this has allowed me to scout some of the greatest locations to continue on. And fall and winter should provide some awesome atmosphere in such places. In the meantime, I’m a busy bee with many projects under way.

  9. Andrea

    This is a very weird and mysterious picture, for me it is a bit “wrong” somehow. With the strong middle-centering, and it is not possible to see where this beautiful hear comes from.. And I think that is why I really like this picture… And it also reminds me of a horse… Good luck with your project Carrie!

  10. Reimar

    I like this photo very much! It is very simple, almost abstract, reduced in colour and composition and yet so very powerful! The texture of the old paint falling of the wood and the red hair create an interesting combination. A photograph that I can look at for a long time.
    Carrie, where is the rest of you? Just joking ;-)
    This picture is a brilliant start and I hope there will be more images like this coming up in your future self-portrait work!
    Reimar

  11. wendy

    peeling paint….
    dry
    and
    cracked….
    a
    running fence,
    a lone
    tree…..
    and
    a
    mustang,
    waiting
    to
    be
    wild
    and
    free……..
    xox

  12. AndreaC

    This is a striking portrait. It reminds me very much of Magritte. There’s one picture in particular, but i can’t quite think of it. Is it the man with the hat, hat and hair… Anyway, the strange juxtaposition of things does give this image its strength and mystery but particularly the hair because that much hair is not so common – and disembodied hair even less so. And the colour of this much hair. – Ah now I think of that romantic painter – is it Rosetti? . I am glad you’ve chosen colour to work with. I like being reminded of paintings/painters, which colour does better than black and white. Dreamlike romantic effects especially done in black and white is a bit old for me. Cliched. I love the fence. The little tuft of dark bushes on the right is a little troubling but can also be considered as mysterious. I love the composition – different points of interest separated by space. If you can create mystery by using sharpness and colour, then in my view you are doing something interesting. What does it say about you? No idea. Nothing probably. But who cares about that? Self portraits are a chance to play with the idea of yourself. Certainly its got to be a lot easier than taking pictures of other people. Have a good time. Good luck with the rest of your project.

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