Be Yourself

.

• What is the subject of your image?

The subject is a message to the viewers to “be yourself.” Instead of wearing a mask of someone else, wear one of yourself, the one person you truly should be.

• What is the content of your image?

The content of the image is a picture of myself wearing a mask of my own face. I am standing in the middle of a blankish-gradient background with myself as the main focus.

• Why did you make the choices that led to the composition?

After reading the Guy Debord’s quotes for the homework assignment about the spectacle, it made me realize how there are a lot of people out there that try to be someone they’re not, and only show the side of themselves which isn’t truly themselves. I wanted to do something that showed the opposite, which is a message to be yourself. After coming up with some ideas, I ended up thinking about how people put on a “mask” of others.

• Explain the process and steps you went through and why you made those decisions.

I started to look on Google Images for project ideas, ideas that I eventually put aside, once the idea of the mask spoke out to me. I then posed for a picture by a wall, and then continued to completely use Photoshop to manipulate my picture. I made the picture through a series of using the gradient tool for the background, and then the quick selection and refine edges functions to remove myself from the original background and to make sure my hair is properly detailed. I also played around with masking layers and using the pen tool to cut out my face and arm. I continued to make my mask a little bit glossy, and applied a shadow behind it to give it a more realistic “mask” appearance. At the end I had to fix things, like seeing a double arm, hand, or face, and just quickly erased it by going to the correct layer. Last but not least, I created the string from my hand to the mask by using the pen tool on Photoshop and applying a stroke path using the brush tool. By testing different sizes and angles, I was able to find one that satisfied my liking.

• How you would categorize your work (ex. collage, graphic print, mixed media, etc).

I categorize this as an act of digital photo manipulation because I was able to change the original photo to a picture that ended up to not actually be real, but manipulated through online software.

• What artists or works are appropriate to compare your work to?

I think my work is appropriate to be compared to pictures of celebrities that are over-photo-shopped to look like someone they’re not. My picture can speak out to these pictures in magazines and the media, because it will show the message to be yourself, instead of portraying oneself as someone or something else.

• What quote from Society of the Spectacle best illustrates the themes in your self portrait? Please explain this.

I believe that the quote that best matches the theme of my portrait is Quote 30: “…the individual’s gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him….”

What this quote means is that whenever someone sees someone or something, they may want to be that way. They may want something that they see to appear a certain way and act a certain way. When a person takes their time contemplating whether to do one thing or another, all they will think of is what they want more and what they want to be like, instead of actually living and being themselves. In this sense, they become alienated from their self, and use the ideas of the unconscious to desire and identify the images they see to relate and replicate into their own lives.

• What do you think this image conveys to the audience?

It is clearly a message to the viewers to “be yourself” instead of trying to appear a certain way because of someone else. It is an idea for one to become closer to themselves, and to become less alienated to the self.

• What are the differences between the midterm self-portrait and your final self-portrait?

For the midterm self-portrait it was more about myself, and who I am; basically what I’m made up of for people to get an idea of myself.  For this final self-portrait, my idea was to give out a message. It was also a picture of me, it didn’t tell someone who I was, but it put an emphasis on “being myself.”

• What influenced these changes (events, readings, information, artists)?

The change of ideas were primarily influenced by the reading of Guy Debord’s quotes, where I came to realize how there are people that are always alienating themselves from their own self, only to try and be someone they’re not. The pictures and portraits that I saw on the internet also gave me ideas to finalize my project.