Get To Know Your Self
By Teri Georgiou
6 February 2007
In High School, I began falling in love with my camera. It all started as a silly project, and learning to frame things well. Back then I used a point and shoot little Kodak that had enough bumps and scrapes on it for it to be considered handicapped... Well, as time went by, I could do more and more with that little thing, and next thing I know, college.
In college I had for the first time, access to manual Canon's from back in the day. I learned a lot about composition and developing film.
But, my images always felt like they were lacking something. It wasn't that they weren't good. I received praise for them.
Somehow though, I was missing the point.
Last year, 2006, brought a lot of change into my life. Turmoil, travel and rebirth as well. So, in my sadder moments, I felt the need for expression. I was back in Canada, after a long, long time, and decided to explore the world around me. And the same problem persisted.
One day, the weather pinned me indoors, but I was itching to use my camera. And somehow, I wound up putting my makeup on, making myself all pretty, finding something interesting to wear, and playing around with the lamps in my bedroom in order to be able to shoot.
My impromptu studio was done! And I just went for it. Never before had I taken self-portraits. Ofcourse, not all of them good. Maybe 2-3 shots of 100. But what I discovered was simple. When you learn more about yourself, you learn more about the world.
I have taken thousands of self-portraits since. Not many of them make the cut, but I always keep a few from each shoot, and learn from them. Not only have a learned a lot about me, and what I am as a person, but as a photographer, it gave me a very different view of all I see.
Depths and colours look more intense to me, and I feel as though everything I photograph is a portrait. Looking at my images, I am a portrait photographer, even when what I am photographing is a little slice of nature.
So, take your time, spend an evening with your self. Play and learn and experiment. Be who you are. Be honest. Be free. And what you learn will push all your photographs to a new level.
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