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July contest theme: Self-Portraits

Posted by Teresa Hanafin  July 1, 2010 06:00 AM
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I admit it: I was quite taken with POTW Korri Leigh Crowley's self-portraiture. I had been thinking about self-portraits as a contest category, but seeing Korri's variety and creativity sealed the deal.

So what the heck -- let's give it a shot (so to speak). Pretty much anything goes -- you can take an arms-length photo of yourself, a reflected image, a funny picture. You can wear a mask, take a photo of your shadow, or shoot a body part other than your face (but keep it clean).

Simple rules:

> Some part of your body must be in the photo.

> Remember the storytelling part of photography and make your photo revelatory about yourself. Are you curious, experimental, pensive, silly, hungry, a birdwatcher, a runner, a parent, a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker? Try to capture an image that will tell viewers something about you.

You can dig into your archives this month, but please consider shooting something new.

This month's Flickr contest tags are:

Boston.com contest July2010 self

If you're new to our contests, set up a Flickr account ASAP and upload at least 5 photos so that it becomes activated in Flickr's Search index. Then upload the photo you want to enter in the contest by midnight July 31 and in the right column of that photo page, add the four tags above. In fact, you can just copy and paste the line above into the Tags box. Don't add any commas.

Please make sure that you read these contest rules.

That's it! Questions? Post a comment below, or send a private email to raw@boston.com.

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13 comments so far...

  1. Ooh, that will be tough. And it will have to be taken this month as there is no self portrait in the archives!

    Posted by Anonymous July 1, 10 10:41 AM

  1. Scanned copy of my childhood photo (B&W) taken 64 years ago. Is this allowed for the contest?

    Posted by Ken Sundaram July 2, 10 07:48 AM

  1. Only if you took the photo of yourself, Ken ...

    Posted by Teresa Hanafin Author Profile Page July 2, 10 12:26 PM

  1. Can I use a tripod?

    Posted by Jaden July 3, 10 11:02 AM

  1. Awesome! I completely loved Korri Leigh Crowley's self-portraits! Cool contest!

    Posted by Shannon July 4, 10 11:52 AM

  1. Jaden: Absolutely.

    Posted by Teresa Hanafin Author Profile Page July 5, 10 04:06 PM

  1. Speaking of Korri, thanks to your feature on her last week, my fiancee and I just booked her yesterday to do our wedding next September.

    Posted by Christopher July 6, 10 08:26 AM

  1. There are lots of people, mostly women, who are into self-portraiture on sites like Flickr.com and some of them are very good at it. One subset of these are putting multiple photographs of themselves in a single image (probably a name for that technique, but I forget).

    Posted by Simone Smith July 10, 10 07:20 PM

  1. What's going on with the June Lines and Curves contest? Has a judge been chosen yet?

    Posted by windyjammer July 11, 10 12:41 PM

  1. Sorry for the delay, windy ... I escaped to Maine to cool off last week, and before I left I couldn't find a pro who was available to judge. Since it's summer, many of them are giving or taking workshops, traveling, exhibiting, etc. So a Globe staff photographer will do the judging for June, starting Tuesday.

    Posted by Teresa Hanafin Author Profile Page July 11, 10 02:30 PM

  1. I am new to flickr. I've had an account for a while but I just uploaded my first pic for this contest, and I'm hoping it shows up in the search. http://www.flickr.com/photos/45898895@N05/4816558234/

    Posted by ella July 21, 10 05:29 PM

  1. Hi ella -- Your tags are correct, but your photo isn't showing up in a search of those Flickr contest tags, which you can see here (we have 3 pages worth so far):

    http://www.flickr.com/search/?z=m&w=all&q=boston.com+contest+july2010+self&m=tags

    I would guess that either your account is too new for Flickr to have found it yet (you uploaded photos for the first time about a week ago).

    Or perhaps your privacy settings are preventing Flickr from adding your photos to its search index. Make sure that all 3 boxes are UNchecked on this page:

    http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/optout

    Nonetheless, we will add your photo to Gallery 3 tomorrow.

    Posted by Teresa Hanafin Author Profile Page July 28, 10 04:06 PM

  1. Hey folks - I'm excited to get under the wire on this one.

    Simone - to piggy back on what you said, there have been two books of self-portraiture by women. (The second book I was lucky to have been a part of.)

    Here are some links for your viewing pleasure!

    http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/312943
    http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/793560

    Posted by Kate July 29, 10 04:03 PM
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