Posted by Bill Wilson on February 26, 19101 at 17:18:32:
In Reply to: duchamps mulitple selfportrait posted by stephanie on February 26, 19101 at 05:59:32:
: i am writing an ouline fon an exhibition project about mulitple selfportraits in contemporary photography. i found out that there are a lot of contemporaries who work with mulitple selfpotraits. as often good old duchamp was one of the first who made use of this device. if anyone has some information about duchamps multiple selfportrait (him sitting aroud a table as five persons, which is reprinted in the lebel monography) and its influence on contemporary, please mail me: stephmanstein@hotmail.com
: in exchange i have to offer informations abou duchamps influence on jasper johns, on which i wrote my masterthesis.
: thanks in advance.
: stephanie
In what sense is a photograph made by a process that was patented by someone else, with the shutter snapped by someone else, a "self-portrait"? If you accept that question, then you may awaken themes that will combine with other parts of Duchamp's work. I have such a mirrored-portrait photograph of an anonymous man, with no implication that it is a "self-portrait." Your interesting project, the mechanically mediated portrait, may discover Duchamp appropriating his portrait, for surely he did not snap the shutter, yet he was, at least by sitting for the camera, directing the event. Similar questions arise with photographed "self-portraits" by Edward Munch, for one can see that sometimes the operation of the camera was by a woman, I think unnamed and certainly uncredited, while the poses for the photographs may have been conceived by Munch. Duchamp's work influenced Ray Johnson in those of his self-portraits which show the face frontally and from the side in one image (with a nod toward Picasso). Many people who consult this board might want to hear more about your thesis of relations between Duchamp and Johns.