I have been meaning to write a reply back to you but I wanted to make sure I give a full reply and great contribution to the reply so that you could understand from my perspective of why I have chosen certain issues and certain artists and certain questions.

Without further ado allow me to begin my explanation or my reply.

I need to understand few more things to get a clearer focus, and then fully narrow down my research.

I'd like to ask from you to have a look at some of the questions that I came up with and advise me on, which one of the questions would suit better with my concept.

The title that I am aiming at the moment is Shadow Reflection...

Why Shadow Reflection?...What are you trying to explain?...

Well...as I have been trying to express what I am going through, I devised a different route into expressing and exposing the self portrait concept. The sketch below shows me standing or walking down ordinary streets of London. However if you observe my shadows, they are weird, in one way they are deformed by the amount of personalities that I inhale in myself.
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I am not the most narrative person however I would improve my skills as I progress from my mistakes. Please bare with me in trying to understand my perspective.
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Shadow Reflection
The reason why the shadows are distorted and wavy or even deformed is because each shadow reflects to each one of my behavior and feelings or even personalities. For this instance in the sketch I have drawn myself walking away from the portrait and allowing more space on the photo for the shadows to take effect. I may not see all of them, but I surely know they exist, maybe in my realm.

How I would approach to accomplish this portrait?...

I am a Photographer, not a Professional but I have a good experience with photography and I would be using my own equipments in order to capture high quality photo with a twist and manipulation edited using photoshop to illustrate my self-portrait. I hope this post has made your mind a bit clearer about my idea.

Essay Questions
As for the essay questions I have been doing a little brainstorming to compromise all of the information together to come up with a great deal of title or question.

Below I'd like to include my draft notes that I had kept to form my essay question: (in random order)

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Is self portrait really a self portrait?

Person viewing the self portrait will project/associate their own life experiences on the image, creating a unique identification of the self portrait.

The power is in the viewers hands

The power shift from the person being painted to the artist to the viewer is the self portrait really a portrait of me when it will be judged by others based on their own initiative?

Can a Psychology be a part of portrait?

What is the power of the portrait?

Psychology vs Portrait

Self reflection
Reflection of personalities
Distortion
Artists perception
Artists control
Ozy Mandis

How the power moves from one to another, Who really has the power ... ?
The power is in the viewers hands ?

The power shifted from the sitter to the artist and to the viewer, is the self portrait really a portrait, when it will be judged by others based on their own initiative/experiences.

The power of a portrait?
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The note is a mess but I have been trying to narrow down the questions that reflects to my self-portrait concept.

With the combination of all the notes that I had written down, I can think of this question:

The invasion of Photography with the reflection of psychology in portrait

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To explain the question further:
I would talk about how the psychology is played out within a photography and how much it can affect the audiences/viewers.

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One of the artist or photographer who did similar concept with shadows is William.M Gatesman and here is his link. http://wmgphoto.com/thumbnails-1.html

The above image is exactly the type of feeling that I want to portray but with a different twist that would hopefully make the viewers feel uneasy. My intention is not to make the audience feel uneasy but I am only doing this concept because it is a self-portrait project.

I'd like to pursue this concept and the structure of the essay could consist:

  • Small introduction about the importance of portrait
  • Exposing the nature of photography with the reflection of psychology through portraiture
  • Conclusion
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I am too tired to fix this post for now...I hope you understand my reasons. If you still insist more information I shall provide as requested.