Assignment 3 – Different Selves

The greatest journey we make is life, from this odyssey we build our own unique collage that we call identity.

“I am multiples of myself.”

If I am to ask myself who am I? My true answer would be more complex than simply Shaun Mullins. So who am I?

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I am a child; I’m young with hopes and dreams; I’m married with property, responsibilities and commitments; I’m middle aged, looking both to the past and to the future; I am a traveller.

Beneath the surface, I am multiples of myself; I am a four image-repertoires portrait.  To quote Roland Barthes, ‘The portrait-photograph is a closed field of forces. Four image-repertoires intersect here, oppose and distort each other. In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art.’ (Barthes, 2000, p.13).

My own four image-repertoires are:

1. I regard myself as young and I have all the hopes, dreams and aspirations as both a child and a young man for enjoying life, gazing at pretty girls and having fun. 
2. This is tempered by my commitments, ties and responsibilities.
3. My middle age acts as a reality check and looking back I miss my childhood innocence and I regret the missed possibilities and opportunities I had as a youth. Looking forward I make plans and I see my mortality much more clearly.
4. I create a front, a performance to others, as I hope to be seen as someone with a mixture of both a maturity and yet a youthful and healthy optimistic attitude to life.

Mullins_PH5SAO_Assignment_3_Differnt_SelvesDownload

Bibliography