Reflected Self-Portraits is a series of self-portraits taken using the reflective surfaces of different artworks. This process, ongoing since 2007, has resulted in an archive of 790 images (12th January 2025), which can all be viewed online through Instagram (@reflectedselfportrait) and a page of the Research Catalogue.
The photographs serve as a record of myself over time and as details of other artists’ works. I search for and parasitically inhabit artworks featuring reflective surfaces. The selection of artists is non-hierarchical, ranging from current art students to internationally recognized contemporary artists, varied in nationality, age, and medium, including installation, appropriation, painting, and sculpture. The sole criterion is whether the reflective materiality of the artwork’s surface can generate a self-portrait.
In Reflected Self-Portraits,I explore the dynamic between subject and reflective artworks. I am both the subject and a minor character, a ‘mere’ reflection in other artists' works. This project suggests that engaging with artworks involves projecting a part of ourselves onto them, and vice versa. The theoretical implications blur the boundary between observer and observed, questioning who holds agency in this exchange—myself, the ‘original’ artists, the artworks, the gallery, or a combination.
I am primarily interested in becoming ‘one’ with the artwork, ephemerally inhabiting it. This recognizes the agency of the art object (Mitchell, 2006; Bennett, 2010; Brown, 2010) and aligns with Susan Sontag’s notion that “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed” (Sontag, 1979, 174). Sontag likens photographs to a hunter’s ‘trophy,’ a souvenir of cosmopolitan travel (Sontag, 1979, 11). Following this logic, the Reflected Self-Portraits photographs are trophies, records of my attempts to inhabit the art object.
I could be seen as acting parasitically, akin to a ‘mooch,’ ‘sponger,’ or ‘toady’ who lives at the expense of others (Drisdelle, 2010, 36). In this case, I am not engaged with a rich understanding or dialogue with the other artist’s work but purely using this one material quality within the existing artworks to generate new ones. On the other hand, I fully acknowledge the use of the other artists within the exhibition and am not ‘plagiarising’ or appropriating the other artist’s artwork to claim authorship of them.
I am not motivated to create good photographs of artworks; many are ‘noisy,’ blurry, and fuzzy, resembling Hito Steyerl’s notion of the ‘poor image,’ as a “copy in motion.” (Steyerl, 2012, 32), adding a digital materiality to the work. Steyerl extends Benjamin's critique of the aura of 'original' artwork to the digital age, where reproduced images evolve through widespread distribution. In the digital realm, the aura shifts from the permanence of the original to the transience of the copy (Steyerl, 2012, 42-43). Steyerl's "poor image" reflects this change, as its value lies not in authenticity but in its digital existence—subject to circulation, fragmentation, and exploitation (Steyerl, 2012, 44). This idea is relevant to Reflected Self-Portraits, especially with the artwork’s Instagram account that takes it beyond my control; released from the permanence of the original artwork and aligning with the transience of the digital copy, allowing for global and democratic encounter.
The archive of images has been configured into a three-part video that can be viewed on another page of the Research Catalogue. A slide-show projection scrolls through the self-portraits, accompanied by a screen that acts as both a text panel acknowledging the artists I appropriate and a text-work questioning authorship. The installation's soundtrack features a video of me smashing a mirror, adding another self-portrait made with a ‘humble’ mirror rather than an existing artwork. This was configured as a video installation that was first shown at General Practice, Lincoln, from 1st – 16th March 2024.
Ingredients:
· Camera/Mobile phone (with camera)
· Computer
· Dropbox
· Photoshop
· Premiere
· Projector(s) and/or Flatscreen(s)
· Speakers
Method:
1. When in galleries (or in fact anywhere there is art) be alert to artworks with reflective material qualities.
2. If artwork reflects my face then take an image of this.
3. Upload to Dropbox folder and rename with the name of the artist.
4. Using Photoshop trim the image of any unnecessary peripheral visual information so that the compositional focus is largely on self-portrait, and to a square format.
5. Create a text panel jpeg for the image with the following information Andrew Bracey, Reflected Self Portrait (insert name of artist).
6. Upload the edited image to the Instagram profile @reflectedselfportrait with the same text for every image except with the correct title.
7. When it is time to show work in a gallery then create three new video files so that the most up-to-date archive of Reflected Self-Portrait is being displayed. The three video files consist of one with the Reflected Self-Portrait with a time of 7 seconds for each image. The accompanying title panel jpeg for the image is set to a time of 7 seconds; one with the video image of the mirror being smashed is repeated for the same length as the total for the other two films.
8. When shown in a gallery the three films should be shown synced on projectors and/or flatscreens, but the slideshow of images should always be the largest.
Reference list
Bennett, J. (2010) Vibrant matter: a political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University Press.
Brown, B. (2010) Objects, Others, and Us (The Refabrication of Things). Critical Inquiry, 36(2) 183–217.
Drisdelle, R. (2010) Parasites: Tales of Humanity’s Most Unwelcome Guests. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mitchell, W.J.T. (2006) What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images. New edition. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
Sontag, S. (1979) On Photography. London: Penguin Books.
to view click - @reflectedselfportrait