Self-portraits

I've always admired artists who do selfportraits.
Personally I am not good at taking them. One of my first attempts was Reflection and took me hours to take. At that time (I took that photo in February 2009) I was really happy with it.. But now I know better ;).
Two months later I took Discover, I liked it, but not as much as Reflection.

After those two I kind of quit taking selfportraits. I just didn't like looking at myself. I'd rather be photographing my (perfect looking) dolls.

Then in November 2009, when I was still a student at the Arts Academy in Breda, I got the assignment to take three selfportraits for our 2D class. It's then when I made Suppress. It's a self-portrait I'm still proud of. It represents how I felt at that moment; suppressed.

And eventhough I was so proud of that certain photo, I never decided to take more self-portraits. I think for the same reason as earlier that year.

(Okay, one small exception is the quick photo which is on the frontpage of my website. It isn't anything spectacular, which is also why I didn't upload it on dA. Or why I should talk more about it. Let's move on...)

It's not because I didn't get enough inspiration from other photographers, certainly not.
Two of my favorite photographers, Zhang Jingna and Lara Jade, happen to be extremely good at taking self-portraits (by far not all photographers or self-portrait photographers are).
The moments after... by Zhang Jingna is undoubtfully a very good self-portrait just as Cell: Prison for the Lonely I. The one I love the most by Zhang Jingna is Snows and Skies.

However, Zhang Jingna is a great photographer, but I think Lara Jade is a better self-portrait photographer.
Lara Jade has around 25 self-portraits on her dA and they're just all great. Self Portrait: Contrast is one of my personal favorite ones. Two other great ones are Through and Darkness. Her most famous one is most probably No Easy Way Out due to the whole plagiarism / TVX Case.
Two of her most recent ones are those from the Self Portrait October 2010 series. Which are this one and this one. I really like them.
What I like about Lara Jade's self-portraits is that you can she how she has grown. Not only physically but also when it comes to her photography. I have to admit that these two are less experimental than her previous ones, but still gorgeous.

So you may already saw this coming, but today I made a new self-portrait. I had an idea in my mind already for a while and when I tried to execute it today I failed.
Although, "failed"...? Decide yourself.

Can't do, won't do.

Viorella