I went on to look up on different artists and photographers but mostly photographers, to try and find some influences. Below are couple of photos that I found from DeviantArt and FlickR. I hope to use one of these photos to be part of my influences and help me guide through my project to finalize.

IMAGE 1 - THE KEY OF THE HAPPINESS by PABLO BARRA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitaro_san/459299691/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

"How different everthing would be if we could erase the mistakes of our personality such as pride and prejudice"

This picture captured my interest because of the effects being used. When you look at this image without having to read the title of the picture and the caption provided by artist, you would have thought that the person in the photo is trying to erase himself from the reality or at least wishing that he could. The written words in the photo I think includes: suicidal and other disturbing words, however everything is written in Spanish. So it doesn't resemble anything about suicidal.

IMAGE 2 - NOT SO MUCH... by HERPIPEDREAMhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminasher/3065924614/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

" ... "

This portrait feels to me it has a strong dynamic and feel. The subject is furious and wants to reveal something but at the same time very unhappy and angry that it could take a lot more courage than he thought it would. I liked this photo because of its dynamic feel.

IMAGE 3 - JANUARY by FREYJA
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsombrerodepensar/3313746841/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

"Manipulation"

I really liked this portrait because of its manipulative feel to it, we are all in some sense manipulated somehow. We may not realize the truth but unconsciously we are manipulated mostly by the media. The media uses psychology games with their audiences and sends out messages that we may not realize but our brain would suck in all the information that we see, hear and feel but all this process is done unconsciously and we end up reacting to the message. For example, when you are in a cinema and watching a movie, throughout the scenes your eyes would see a logo of Coca Cola or any kind of refreshments somewhere in the scene and unconsciously you are being manipulated and then you start to feel very thirsty and then you end up buying a certain drink. But you might have thought that you are just being thirsty but you don't realize is that you are being manipulated by the media. There are tons of ways for psychologists to control us. Media is a very strong industry. Despite all the manipulation, we LOVE media.

IMAGE 4 - UNDERCOVER - by Death and Gravity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deathandgravity/3215185604/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

This portrait may not tell you a lot about its concept however from my point of view this portrait is quite strong and effective photo. Reason being, we can't see the person's eye or the full face but we can only judge this photo by his appearance. His appearance shows us that this person could be a homeless person, or a person who has lost his soul but at the same time, he is kinda smiling, which suggests us that he may not be homeless but someone who is pretending to be someone who is not, which could explain his reason for the title "Undercover".

IMAGE 5 - DREAMS - by Gosia Janik
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gosiajanik/3515499165/

For this concept of portrait I liked the idea of the typography being floating up in the air. This gave me the idea of releasing information from the subject, whilst the subject is unaware. I would definitely do a rough concept with this idea and post it up soon.

IMAGE 6 - SNAKES INSTEAD OF ARMS by MICHEL OMAR
http://tasteofomi.deviantart.com/art/Snakes-instead-of-arms-113842545

I really liked this portrait, everything is written in Spanish but the idea of things being written on his back and he is trying to capture those words and perhaps erase them from his back. His back could be the representation of his sins.

IMAGE 7 - I WANT TO LIVE IN THE WOODS by Kennedy Garrett
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turn_your_swag_on/3878553563/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

This picture portrays the subject being locked in their room and probably hiding from the reality.


IMAGE 8 - by Big Daddy K
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdaddyk/3794442592/in/pool-me_-_only_the_best_self_portraits

I think this would be my favorite portrait, this photo shows a lot about the subjects life. There is so much emotion and story exposed on his face. However I have seen better portrait in similar context and this photo doesn't even touch that portrait.