Self Portraits: High School and Early College (1996-1998)

I suppose that in one sense obsessions with self potraits could be a bit suspect (of who knows what) but ever since I really started into photography my second semester of my junior year of high school I became my own most frequented subject.  Part of this has to do with the fact that it's easier to work with one's self than with another person because you know exactly what you want and how you want it, and generally don't get impatient with yourself if it takes a while to get it.  The other aspect of it is that when I look at my self-portraits from over the years it helps me remember who I was and where I've been: looking at my old self portraits is very much like looking back in time. 

In this first 'self-portrait' posting, I'm posting a collection of self portraits that I took throughout the second half of my junior year of high school through the first semester of my sophomore year of college.  You'll notice that a lot of these photos are a bit beat up: the reason is that they were once all a part of a 7-foot high cross sculpture that I had covered with these photos and then wrapped with barbed wire.  The scupture is gone (but I have photos - see my 'sculpture' postings) but I wanted to preserve the photos so I removed them all and scanned them.  Most of these photos were shot with a Konica FS-1 camera using the self-timer.  Others were taken with my Canon A2e, and still others taking with a Ciroflex Twins Lens Reflex (medium format 2 1/4). 

Note and Disclaimer:
These photos are not in chronological order.  The disclaimer is that I'm well aware of how horribly these photos are printed.  They're all early attempts at printing each photo which I tossed in my 'reject but maybe I'll think of a use for it later' bin.  When I had the idea for the cross sculpture, all of these poorly printed silver gelatin prints suddenly got new life.  I've given many of the originals away so in many instances these are the only copies of these prints that I have left.  All of the shots below were shot, processed, and printed by me.  It's been quite some time since I've been in a darkroom and I miss it terribly...digital will never touch the beauty of film.

Disclaimer #2:
We all had angst in high school and early college.  It's just that I have photographic proof of mine.