Self-Portrait in the Age of Photography by Bertoli: book review

Self-Portrait in the Age of Photography: Photographers reflecting their own image (1985), published by Bertoli and edited by Erika Billeter, is a large coffee-table book of predominantly black and white photographs – self-portraits.

It is huge at 248 pages.

A brief introduction describes the ‘art of the self-portrait’ in a time before smart-phone selfies.

Some photographers indicated that their first self-portrait originated from a creative block about what to do next. Francis Bacon says, ‘why not paint myself?’’ Others discuss their ‘confessional’ nature and their ‘sense of loneliness’ in their selfies.

Self-portrait artists in this book include Eugene Delacroix (1842), Victor Hugo (1853), Hippolyte Bayard (1870), Fred Boissonas (1891), J.H. Lartigue (1919), Marianne Breslauer (1929), Anton Stankowksi (1929 and 1957), Florence Henri (1938), Man Ray (1940), Imogen Cunningham (1974), Robert Mapplethorpe (1975), Gisele Freund (1978), Andy Warhol (1978), and many others.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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