Me, My Self and the Photographic Eye

The Photographer's Daughter

The metamorphosis of Me from a child in a family of photographers to a practitioner in my own right.

This is a photograph of Me. It was taken in 1963 or thereabouts, by my father. It is a formal, posed shot taken during a family portrait session. I still have the image.

I am portrayed here as the cute little girl, the photogenic one, (dare I say it, as it grates so much, 'daddy's little princess'). It shows a well cared for child with neatly tended hair, wearing a pretty frock and her favourite aliceband. I am clearly at ease with the portraiture process (having done it many times) and am content to hold the pose as directed. The image symbolises a childhood spent in front of the lens as 'preferred model' for my father's photography.

Over the years this picture has gained almost iconic status as 'Me as child'. There are many, many others like it in the archive, yet relatively few shots which one would call candid or informal. It is a powerful image, therefore, in my understanding of Me-ness.

I decided to use this image to represent my starting point in life, as the photographer's daughter who, whilst frequently the subject of the photographic process, had already been bought a camera and was taking pictures in her own right.

I wanted this piece to demonstrate the status passage from subject to operator; from compliant model to autonomous practitioner. This image is important, so it needed to occupy a prominent position in the piece. I achieved this by creating a large (45"x60") version of this image on clear acetate:

behind which I constructed a montage of 136 of my own photographs, carefully chosen from my personal portfolio and all taken over the last few years:

section for illustrative purposes