2. THE PROCESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
SELF-PORTRAIT FOR LEE FRIEDLANDER, 1971
Sometime after completing Homage to Niépce I wanted to verify another aspect of the reality of photography: the camera. There is a mirror up against the window, the sun shines on the window, it projects the shadow of an upright
against the wall and at the same time my shadow. This shadow shows that I am taking a picture, and my action is also visible in the mirror. Both cases have one element in common: the camera eliminates the photographer’s face because it (the camera) is at eye level, and it conceals the facial features. This verification is dedicated to the
photographer who, I believe, was most keenly aware of this problem, and who tried to overcome the barrier that is
the camera, that is, the very medium he used for his work and of his way of knowing and creating.
Perhaps, here as in the following self-portrait with Nini, there is the obsession of being present, of seeing myself as
I see, of participating, of involving myself. Or rather, there is an awareness that the camera does not belong to me,
it is an additional medium the importance of which we can neither exaggerate nor underestimate, but precisely for
this reason it is a medium where the more I am present the more it excludes me.
