We stand in front of a mirror to wash our face, brush our hair, apply our makeup. We are looking at our reflection as we do each one of those tasks. And we see our reflection in that mirror. Sometimes we just might approve of what we see looking back at us. Occasionally, we might shrink away from the reflected image. Our mood and the little workings of our mind seem to dictate which way it will be.
We have mirrors, photographs, films...each one telling us and others a little bit about us at that particular moment. It might be a fleeting moment, but it is captured permanently or for a mere few seconds. We can never fully capture the depth of a person via those means.
How many times have we put on a nice smile for the person with a camera, and the resulting photograph portrayed a seemingly happy individual? To the casual observer, it does appear to be the case. Ah, but we know otherwise. We view the picture, and we can see that our smile did not reach our eyes. Genuine smiles always reach the eyes, casting a bit of a twinkle in them. Only we and those who love and know us well can see the real emotion that photograph has caught.
Yet, we keep on trying to fool ourselves.
(Self-Portrait Challenge theme for July is "Self-portrait as...")
12 comments:
Oh Nikki, this is great and I agree with you on this one :) I think your spirit shines through here!
HUGS
Thanks for your comment. I just used some photoshopping to smear the lines. Anyway, there's a link to the astro site I used on my page. It right under the picture. :)
That's a beautiful portrait, and what you say is so true.
I get ragged on sometimes for not smiling in many of my self-portraits, but when they're TRULY SPs (pics I take myself OF myself), I rarely feel like smiling for the camera and when I try to make myself, I hate how fake it looks. Maybe no one else can tell I'm faking, but I can, and I'd rather look sad or pissed than fake.
Beautiful picture!
I love this post and picture. I'm fascinated by images of the eye.
wonderful image
I love what you did with this, not only is the image both beautiful and haunting but what you wrote honestly expreses that inner struggle we all have.
very cool portrait and true, true thoughts.
This one is really, really neat!
What a wonderful idea and a lovely portrait. I love that it is sepia colored - that just really makes it work even more for me.
Neatly Done!
V
Wow! What a great entry and photo!
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