“The subject of self-portraiture by women photographers is a subject unto itself. Joyce Tenneson, during her class at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in 1995, noted that most women involved in photography for any length of time tend to produce a sizable body of self-portraits—something that is very rare among the men.

“That concept was explored again in 1997 in another of Tenneson’s workshops. One of her student thought she had the best explanation for why that is, and Joyce agreed.

“According to Karen Lee Schultz, a photographer in Tucson (and a guest artist on this site), women start taking self-portraits when they are about eleven years- old, only they don’t use a camera—they use their mind’s eye. They start looking at themselves to see how they look to themselves, to see how they will look to other women, and (lastly) in time to see how they will look to men.

“Men tend to look in the mirror to see if their hair is combed, and that’s about it. Girls look in the mirror to see how they look overall: how their hair looks, how their makeup looks, whether their clothes are color coordinated, whether their shoulders are straight, etc.

“Karen said that women have so much to check for that its easier to get a space shuttle launched than to get a woman out from her room!

“In addition, women with camera’s seem to use the self-portrait as a means to both check out who they are and at the same time practice their craft. We know that what we see and record, as photographers, is a reflection of who we are and how we feel. The camera then, is a tool for a form of self-analysis. It’s a way of getting in touch with how we really see and feel about ourselves and the world around us.

“In Ralph Hattersly’s book Discovering Yourself Through Photography, he explains that the power of the nude lies in its ability to force us to understand ourselves. To those who will listen, the nude teaches us about our attitudes—plus the attitudes of others—about sex and nudity, about our relationships with the opposite sex, and about our opinions about ourselves and our bodies.

“In going beyond the simple ‘easy, breezy’ nudes, every photographer that does serious self portrait work, ends up going well beyond being a simple student of photography. Through our images of ourselves as the nude, we become a teacher about the nature of ourselves.”

This pages show examples of Alexa’s work using strong available light from an open window of her studio.