The camera i : photographic self-portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection /

This exhibition catalog from a fall 1994 exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art includes introductory essays written by Irmas and Sobieszek, curators of the exhibition. Accompanying the essays are margin notes, primarily from literary sources. An exhibition checklist consists of 130 biographies of photographers in the exhibit and also a brief bibliography with 25 entries. The text is more philosophical and critical than historical. It is directed toward an informed audience with interest in critical issues relative to self-portraiture in photography rather than toward one interested in doing historical research on this topic. Self-Portrait in the Age of Photography, ed. by Erika Billeter (1985), is a more thorough documentation of the history of self-portraits with a wider number of images (more than 700). This book, however, is beautifully printed on heavyweight, coated paper. The 135 images, one to a page, are beautifully printed and in chronological order, from an 1853 portrait by Alphonse-Louis Poitevin to a 1988 self-portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe. Many of the photographers included here are not widely known, and for that reason alone it is worth reading even for people well informed on the subject. Although the text is not directed specifically toward someone conducting historical research in this area, the catalog will aid anyone who might want to locate these images for research purposes. General; lower-division undergraduate through professional. C. Stroh; Kansas State University

"[T]he outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character." Arthur Schopenhauer jotted this down sometime in 1850, and after spending some time with these photographic self-portraits, one will be well able to appreciate his words. Gathered from the private collection of Audrey and Sydney Irmas, these photographs come across as short stories, sometimes even as poems, each of them a reflection of an individual, a document of a space in time that was fully realized, wholly lived. Some are straight and formal, like Edward Curtis' 1899 photo, which reminds us of the dignity with which he documented Native Americans. Edward Steichen's shows him holding a paint brush in a self-portrait that looks almost as if it were painted. Otto Umbehr's 1930 shot shows the shadow of his camera falling over his own face, looking very contemporary in sun~glasses--and in expression. Diane Arbus captured herself in underwear only in a photo so subtle it's almost forgettable--except for the slight tummy pushing at her navel; in Deborah Irmas' opening comments, we read that this image was sent to Arbus' husband to announce her pregnancy. Cecil Beaton is Cecil Beaton, looking dapper with slight grin and props galore. One of the most poetic photos is Lou Stoumen's 1935 shot of his bare feet standing next to his exhausted shoes, as if the shoes have had enough. An intriguing collection that, peeked at, piques interest, and if long indulged in, satisfies in volume. ~--Raul Nino

Trendy sophistication of title, design and interpretation mark this startling catalogue of a traveling exhibition of an unusual photographic art form. ``Self-portraiture is ultimately a confrontation with the self's mortality,'' writes Sobieszek, curator of photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The 149 images span photography's history and crown a 15-year effort by collectors Audrey and Sydney Irmas, here chronicled by their daughter Deborah. Offerings encompass Nadar and Roger Fenton posing as exotic travelers, Stieglitz and Steichen going for mood, André Kertész intermingling with female nudes and Diane Arbus appearing seminude and pregnant in a shot she took to show her husband overseas that she was pregnant. Altogether a visual treat, which includes a picture checklist with brief biographies. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved