The self-portrait of the back of my head is something that helped me learn more about the art of this type of photo along with a little something about my gender. In the photo of the back of my head you can see my hair is in a knot with my two arms pulling it into this knot on either side of my head. The background of the photo is completely white and there is a spotlight focusing on the knot in my hair. There are many reasons why I chose to take a picture like this and certain works that influenced my creativity for this picture.
Similar to the artist Jeanne Dunning’s pictures I decided to focus on the back of my head. I wanted this picture to display emotion and something more than just hair on a head. In her photo called "Neck" she focuses on the models neck and the beauty of it. I decided to expose my neck as well, but instead of it symbolizing beauty, I wanted it to symbolize confusion and frustration. The hairs on my neck and many strands of hair are loose pointing in different directions. This symbolizes frustration and anger.
The artist Lorna Simpson also influenced my photo by incorporating the white background and black spotlight focusing in on the knot in my hair. In her photo called "Coiffure" she uses a contrast in colors to focus on the neck and back of the model. I thought this was a unique technique and decided to focus on the knot in my hair by having it spotlighted, making it the focus point of the piece of art.
The poem we read for class that was written by Sapphos on jealousy, also inspired this picture. I thought it was brave how she was expressing her feelings and frustration through the poem to the world during a time period when women’s opinions did not matter. When I was reading the many versions of the poem as well as constructing my own poem, I noticed her jealousy and great expression of emotion and it inspired me. I realized that no matter what emotion you are expressing you should express it, gender does not matter. I have a personality where I do not like to say no to people. I want to help everyone out even if it is severely inconveniencing me. This picture displays my frustration and rejection to other people. I think it can be complicated being a woman because women are suppose to be helpful to others, while men have the “I don’t really care attitude.” So through this picture I am displaying what I learned about not having to always say yes, or be the nice girl when I am continually going out of my way for others that don’t reciprocate. This picture is me before, when I was pulling out my hair and when I would get myself in a knot, which isn’t going to happen anymore
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