Jean Baptiste-Mondino’s work also heavily influenced my work for my self-portrait image, as I also wanted to be photographed with a particular prop or distracting element to create a sense of theatricality within the image. I was most inspired by Mondino’s image of Daniel Craig, featuring small scrapes and blood stains on his hands – giving the image of a recent brutal exchange. The idea of blood appealed to me personally within the portrait, as I’ve always been fascinated with the workings of an unhinged brain, and with this in mind I decided on trying to evoke a psychotic/serial killer-esque portrayal of myself within my self-portrait.

My first attempt at my self-portrait was taken with my own equipment – a Nikon D3100 with a standard kit lens, a piece of equipment that regretfully is very temperamental and half of the time will not focus due to overuse throughout the years. Nevertheless I took the images in front of a black card backing which I had placed against my wall, and illuminated my bedroom with warm lighting to try and evoke the passion of madness within the colour. I purchased fake blood and then began to splatter it across my face in large strokes, giving a messy and unhinged look. At the time of taking the images I thought that another prop was needed, as the blood needed context behind it. It was then that I obtained a small blade (an antique letter opener) from one of my flatmates and held it up as if it were the cause of the blood.

The result wasn’t particularly pleasing. The warm light made everything within the image look soft against the backing, meaning that the blood didn’t stand out as much as I would have wanted. I imported the images into Photoshop and began to increase the contrast and aperture in an attempt to make the image more vivid, but it only highlighted the poor focusing of the equipment. Although the presence of a blade was nice, I felt as though it perhaps wasn’t needed if the blood was more present within the image. I also felt as though light clothing and backing were needed to highlight the vivid colour of the blood and to give off a ‘clinical-clean insanity’ feel rather than a gritty, unhinged feel I was going for here. More Hannibal Lecter and less Jason Vorhees in a way.

I then decided to take the self-portraits within the photography studio, allowing for a clean and professional feel to match the tone of psychotic I was going for – the professional pristine quality of the image juxtaposing with the messy blood stains on my face. Two white studio lights were then placed facing a grey backing in the studio to provide a clean feel behind me, I deliberately wore brighter, grey clothing that would blend in with the background too, which I thought highlighted the main attraction of the image – the blood on my face which juxtaposed the rest of the image colour-wise.
The off-center image above is something I quite like, as I made sure to be staring at something off camera sustaining a sense of dark mystery which, combined with the violent nature and the casual look on my face would make the photo thematically interesting. The shadow across half of my face also brings to mind the psychotic nature I wanted to get across, the stereotype of a ‘split personality’ is almost in full flow here.

This is something that I used to my advantage within the next image, a side-on portrait only depicting the illuminated half of my face. This image features the most clear visuals of the blood, whilst again my posture and monotone expression convey the idea that this may be a usual thing to happen – furthering the enigma behind the portrait which is something I wanted to convey. The way the backing darkens towards the border of these photos is something I like, as it signifies the isolation of the individual within the image. The colours in this photo, whilst slight, remain vibrant, the small blonde streaks in my hair are nicely littered whilst the change in colour on my clothing is also present more than in the previous image.

However, this is the image that I decided to use for my final self-portrait. The closer camera works with the blood-marks and the eye contact with the lens to hopefully make the viewer uncomfortable, whilst the one bloodshot eye evokes a shining example of madness, similar to the eyes of David Bowie. The casual pose combined with the almost ‘shhh’ action over the lips indicates that something bad has happened – again linking to the blood which is an effect I really like. The image seems to tell a very film-like story which is something I really wanted to capture. The image is well centered and the exposure is just short of becoming too much on my face, though this works nice too as it fits the white colour of the background. The only fault in the image is the inability to see the blood that was ran through my hair at the time too, as I feel that would have made the image even better.