What is more important in self-portraiture – envisioning who you are (i.e. your “true self”) or envisioning who you wish to be (i.e. your “best self”)? Why?



I believe your true self is the most important part of a self portrait. In my opinion, if you're calling it a "self" portrait, it should really represent yourself. If you want to call it "What I Aim To Be", then I believe who you wish to be is good to use, but I believe it is misleading to use it and say it really describes you otherwise. In a self portrait, I'd want to give people a look at what I'm really like, show them something they didn't see before, like maybe a hidden trait I have. However, I would not put a picture up, calling it a self portrait, if it wasn't really descriptive of how I am, unless I clearly said it was how I want to be. If I'm terrible at sports but my self portrait shows me dunking a basketball, I believe that is, in a way, lying to the viewer. They now see "self portrait" and they see this image and assume it's true. I believe that takes away from the essence of self portraiture. It will be very cool to do a portrait of what we wish to be, but when we do, I will make sure it is not misleading as to say "this is how I really am".