For years on one of my HDDs I’ve been keeping a folder titled Little red book. It is filled with with hundreds of self-portraits taken over last five years. I made the folder to collect some of my favorite selfies and it served a purpose of being sort of a virtual visual diary. I can’t remember why I named it Little red book, I guess it just sounded cool. Last few days, as I was backing up some of my files I found the folder again and an idea dawned on me- why not put together a little book of self-portraits? Most of the pictures I took during last five years are digital and I haven’t been making many prints ( I don’t think I made any prints of my self-portraits at all, maybe just a few at a request of my family :)) so it would be nice to actually have some of them printed, to have them on paper.
As I was going through photos I took over last five year I got a bit sentimental. Shooting self portraits has been a big part of my creative expression over the past 10 years. I was thinking I should maybe put together a book of selfies taken during the past decade but most of my pictures taken from 2003.-2008. are stored on DVDs and CDs and my laptop refuses to read them. But if a freind borrows me her computer book of 10 years of selfies might still happen. Even if it doesn’t I’m still satisfied with putting together selected images from last five years.
Anyway, I’ve been very consistent in shooting selfies all through my twenties, it’s how I learned about myself and about photography as well. Now, I feel my attitude towards photography as well as my interests are changing and putting together this little book feels very cathartic, like I’m releasing a part of my personal history and making room for new experiences! It feels great.
As you can see from these screen captures, this booklet is still a work in progress. It’s a bit challenging to pick out favorite images from thousands and thousands I took over the years so by the time I’m done with selecting photos and editing this book might look completely different than current selection :)
I’m planning to finish this fun project till mid June and then I’ll write another post about it or maybe present it in a short video so you can see how it turened out. I’m not planning to make this book public I’m doing it just for myself to have as a memento and a reference point for future photo project as well as a reminder of my very humble, modest , sometimes awkward but very fun beginnings in photography :)
