Where I Came From

What makes a self portrait a self portrait? Something that indeniably is you. Myke's double exposure prints from Photo 1 were really interesting to me and I would now like to try my own double take. I thought it would be interesting to double expose my mom and dad for a self portrait of myself.

I searched double exposures on google, and found a neat example of this kind of idea. The photos were part of a murder investigation (dated 1935) in which the skull had to be reconstructed to be identified. The reconstructed skull was photographed and printed on a transperancy, then imposed onto an existing photo of the proposed victim. I think it's a neat link between science and photography! The technique is not the same as a double exposure but the effect makes me wonder if the mix of my parents will resemble my own face.




http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/exhibition/views.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/cases/ruxton.html

 


I think the 4x5 field camera would be a good candidate for experimenting with this kind of double exposure. I think it would be a good choice because of the large view you have to work with to get the positioning the same. Also, I could easily just remove the film holder between exposures to align both faces instead of rewinding a roll of film. I would make a simple template to keep record of where my parents' face were in the previous shot.