Taking care through self portraiture
What do you truly look like? We were really only meant to see our reflections in pools of water, I think.
Portraits offer a moment to reflect on how we really look in a time and a place. They show the blurred world around us, bending and changing under the sun, and how it shapes us as we age.
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I took the photo above in the early morning in my side yard. I stood in my driveway by the big orb weaver web and sighed. Being a mom to a 6-month-old baby and working and pumping and walking and taking care of myself and caring about the world and making healthy food and and and.
It stops for a moment. It all stops and all there is is blue sky and green weeds and cool asphalt.
Portraits are time keepers. I remember the days when I was pregnant with baby Sylvia through these photos—the last leg of a beautiful time where I felt much more confident and at home in myself than I ever have before. I think, in hindsight, that my small smile and playful poses showcase a bounty of levity and silliness in an otherwise scary and life-altering time. I was having fun dreaming up something—someone—new.
When I recognize that I am all of these selves, interwoven and jumbled together, it helps my brain catch up with my body. It makes it feel okay to be inconsistent. To change and age and see all of the smiles collected by my eyes. I can feel like a giant in a small room or a miniscule nothing on this blue dot depending on the way I frame myself in space.
Photos are art and art is magic. Painting with the camera, loosening up and letting color and texture be our guide, is where it resides. I can almost smell the peonies I grabbed from the front yard, toting them in by their long, viridescent stems to create a camera halo. A flower aura.
Thanks for being here and reading my little missive about self portraits.
Wishing you a joyful end of summer,
Zoë
⚘⚘⚘@zoeharveyphoto / zoeharveyphoto@gmail.com / photography offerings