Gerlo Beernink Photography

For my self portrait, I used the studio backdrop with natural light from the windows. I have always been a fan of natural daylight but I want to experiment more with the studio so I decided to use the backdrop. Things that interest me in photography are how the body moves, how light reflects off the body, and what shapes the body can make. I have been working recently with a Mamiya C220 which is a medium format camera that shoots square negatives, and I have found that I really enjoy the square crop. The square helps me see compositions that I might not have previously, and in this photo in particular, nearly all of the grid points of the rule of thirds are hit with different parts of my body, making the square a fitting crop for this photo. Since the Mamiya is very hard to do self portraits with, I mimicked the way that I shoot on that camera with this self portrait. For me, inserting myself as a model into the same types of photographs that I would normally take of someone else is the best way for me to create a self portrait. I can’t see what reflects me more than the art I choose to create, and this is fully connecting myself with the art I am drawn to.