Talk - Who am I? The self-portrait as a performance.

A conversation with an amazing panel of artists such as Max Barnett, Editor-in-chief of Pylot Magazine, Trish Morrissey, visual artist using photography and film, and Steven Barritt, senior lecturer in photography and artist.

Why do artists choose to use self-portraiture in their art, particularly in contemporary photography? What's the difference between a self-portrait and a selfie?
There is an essential research of control, as making a self-portrait is taking on a double role: you are looking at yourself as a photographer and as a model. But compared to the selfie, self-portraiture can become a major exercise: the artist must create and compose a vision, sit for it, and capture it, all by him/herself.
There is an important part of study and preparation in the process, involving as well psychologic and physical training to incarnate the characters they create.

Trish Morrissey and Steven Barritt have been experiencing so many different characters through their self-portraits, interpreting sometimes both feminine and masculine roles, sometimes complete strangers or modern representation of mythologic figures.
These two artists may have a different approach to the self-portrait, but in their own way, they both identify themselves as performers.

Join us for another evening of conversation about photography at the creative studio Factory 45. We will finish the talk with a Q&A and drinks - Hope to see you there!

Information about the panel

The Host

Max Barnett - Editor-in-chief of Pylot Magazine and photographer

Max Barnett is a Photographer, Magazine Editor, and Image Editor based in London.
He moved to London in September 2010 in order to complete a BA in Photographic Arts at the University of Westminster. While studying he developed the original concept for a new magazine, which later became PYLOT Magazine.
PYLOT was officially launched in 2014 after Max assembled a small team, who worked together to create the magazine’s identity. He currently works as the Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of the magazine.
Alongside starting a magazine, Max has established a career as a photographer, working with a range of clients and magazines.
https://www.instagram.com/maxbarnettphoto/?hl=en

The speakers

Trish Morrissey - visual artist

My work is a study of the language of photography through still and moving images. I use performance and wit as tools to investigate the boundaries of photographic meaning. Although most of my work features myself as the protagonist, I don't consider them to be self-portraits per se, though they can be read that way. I use humour as a tool to disarm the viewer, which I hope evaporates leaving a slow-burning psychologically tense afterglow. Weaving fact and fiction, I plunge into the heart of such issues as family experiences and national identities, feminine and masculine roles, and relationships between strangers.

Born in Dublin, I now live in the UK. My work is exhibited widely, most recently at Francesca Maffeo Gallery, 2018, Bohusläns Museum, Sweden, 2017, Serlachius Fine Art Foundation, Finland and Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK, both in 2015. I was a finalist in the Video section of Celeste Prize in 2012. My work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The National Media Museum, Bradford and the Wilson Centre for Photography, London.

My work is included in several survey publications, including 'The Photograph as Contemporary Art' by Charlotte Cotton, (Thames and Hudson, 2005) 'Vitamin Ph, Survey of International Contemporary Photography,' (Phaidon 2006), 'Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography', by Susan Bright (Thames and Hudson 2010), Photography and Ireland by Justin Carville, published by Exposures 2012 and 'Making it up: Photographic Fictions' by Marta Weiss published by V&A and Thames and Hudson 2018.

http://www.trishmorrissey.com/

Steven Barritt - Artist and senior lecturer in photography

I was born in Wrexham, Wales and grew up in Cornwall. After working as a computer programmer and running my own pub I returned to higher education to pursue my love of photography. Now working in London I am a lecturer in photography and a photographer/artist. My work has been shown in The National Portrait Gallery, The Photographers Gallery, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, as well as selected group shows and solo exhibitions.
My work encompasses portraiture, landscape and constructed narrative, exploring recurring themes of human relationships with the environment and relationships with each other. I am interested in questioning of the reality of the photograph as it presents itself on the surface. This is exemplified in an attraction to man-made or altered landscapes and the manipulation of our environment, the manipulation of a sitter to extract a portrait that both reveals yet obscures meaning, or constructing entire alternate realities and personas exploring the darker reality of the human condition.

http://www.stevenbarritt.com/