Portraits at twilight

I love seeing other people's self portraits, since I'm always curious about them and what they look like, having "listened" to their voice on an almost daily basis. However, I've also been reluctant to post too many pictures of myself on my blog, I think for fear of seeming self absorbed. This is odd because I never think of people as self absorbed when they post self portraits.

I've read a few posts on others' blogs about self portraits lately though, and I'm intrigued. I'm interested in the value that these images can have when we look at them at a later date. In analyzing a portrait of yourself that you took, the way you would analyze someone else's for clues about that person's life and personality, I wonder what you would find.





I could spend hours looking at a photo of someone, even if I don't know them! It's as though I feel like if I'm careful I'll be able to find a hole in the photo, through which I can sneak into and discover exactly what they were thinking at that moment. I also find myself wondering about the mundane aspects of the person's life before the photo was taken; what did they eat for breakfast, did they select that outfit with the intention of being photographed early that morning, was the predominant thought of the day to do with a lingering headache...and did it cross their mind that at some moment twenty or fifty years later someone would be looking at this photo of them wondering these things? The mental space given to this small event having shrunk and shrunk until the memory of having had this photograph taken was all but pushed out of the person's mind all together as the days and years wore on.
And yet, it survives in this piece of paper, for me to look at!