Having your picture taken, in action or not

School has started for me, and my current assignment for a graduate seminar is to make a short selection of images from Archives Canada on a particular angle, and provide commentary to the pictures.

I choose to look at photographs of other photographers, because I find it interesting how turning the lens back on us displays either, humour, elaborate setups, or just that rather annoyed look of having your picture taken while you're busy trying to take pictures of other people!

I'm personally not camera shy in general, having been snapped endlessly by my dad when I was living home (my family albums are almost substitute for my memory!), but the more elaborate studio portrait setup make me awkward. I also have very few picture of myself "as a photographer", meaning that I don't tend to represent myself as such. I also have very few portraits of myself as an (x), for all the jobs I did in my life. I guess I'm more used to being a person than a professional.

So I was wondering what you thought, as photographers, about having your portrait taken? Either the formal, sit-down portrait, the mise en scène, or the candid snapshot, and whether you liked better pictures that showed you as yourself or "as a photographer"?

I'll post my selection from the archives later, when it's tighter, but I will have some fun stuff to show...

I don't mind but I insist on a waiver that if your lens or camera breaks as a direct result of photographing me, I don't have to pay anything!

Mike

Even though I don't like being in front of the camera, I usually get over it. Between 1996 and 1999 I did a long series of self-portraits (which I have shown to almost nobody).

Often I take a photo of the other photographer at the same time, so the most common shot of me is the "photographer in action" picture.