The multiple self-portrait

1. Paul Smith
The Multiple Self-Portrait

2. Artist Rifles

3. “The multiple self-portraits
emphasise the effect of the
military structure on a person's
identity as it is subsumed into the
unit, to become as it were,
brothers in arms.”
http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk

4. Robert Capa - Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment
of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936
The image of falling soldiers
perhaps refers to Robert Capa’s
iconic photograph from the
Spanish Civil War.

6. Make My Night
“Using the snapshot as a stylistic
template, Paul employed an
almost forensic approach to
reproduce the variable quality that
machine printing of pictures taken
with a standard point and shoot
camera generate in the hands of
revellers; bleached out faces, over
cropped subject matter or the
slight blur of the finger over the
lens, the hallmarks of an
impromptu celebration.”

7. Harsh flash lighting
Off-centre subjects out of focus
Dark Shadows
The visual language of point and shoot photography

8. Subject slightly out of focus and over-exposed

9. Robbie Williams

10. “In a light-hearted take on
Paul's previous work, Robbie
was to be his own fantasy
football team; plus opposition,
management, fans, touts and
policemen. Unlike his other
projects, Paul had to complete
the shoot in three days and the
whole project, from initial
research to the finished body of
work, in three months. A task
that would ordinarily take a
whole year.”

11. “Over the last decade Paul Smith
has consistently examined the
meaning and construction of
masculinity, concentrating on the
cultural and visual creation of
various alpha male identities. He has
subjected various forms of heroic
behaviour and status to scrutiny.”