Self-Portrait Artists

Richard Avedon was an American fashion and portrait photographer. His portraits, contrary to the fashion photographs, are very stripped down to represent human emotion rather than any brand; he seeked out tragic beauty. In his self-portraits, Avedon used the same setting as fashion photography does (stark white back drop), but showed a lot of hidden emotion which he intensified with the contrast.


Robert Mapplethorpe wasa New York artist the 70s and 80s. He liked exhibiting erotic nudes, still lifes of flowers, and celebrity portraits. In his self-portraits, the photographer explored homoerotic themes, usually in black and white. He questioned what it is to be a stereotypical "man or "woman by blurring his identity in some images.