Balcony - acrylic on paper

This is part of a series of six (at the moment).  Many of my paintings are leading me to ideas about how we feel being photographed.  I don’t know about you, but I have always felt very self-conscious in front of a camera.  What sort of expression should I arrange my face into?  How should I stand?  What should I do with my hands?  The problem with having a camera pointing at you is that you know there is going to be a permanent record made, a photographic image which you will then have as ‘evidence’ to judge yourself against.  And with digital cameras, camcorders, mobile phone cameras and CCTV, we are very often in front of a camera, and a lot of ‘evidence’ is being made.  What does this do to our sense of self, and how we present ourselves?  And just how many images of ourselves are ‘out there’?  Then, of course, we put our photos onto the internet.  Who knows what happens to them then?  My painting has led me to a whole discussion about surveillance and identity.  Next stop – the library!