Self Portrait

My self portrait is a quick poem about people of color in the LGBT+ community and how the representation we get is few and far in between. I chose to represent myself through poetry because it's a way that I enjoy expressing my feelings and experiences. It also gave me the chance to tie in the idea that this is life and many POC or LGBT people including myself do have to work through the steryeotypes the media portrays to get people to understand who we are. Through my self portrait I wanted to show that I am very much for representing any group of people in an accurate and not harmless way. I really enjoyed Maleah's video because in marching band we work with the dance team but they're only out there with us for an hour each day. So, it was interesting to see what they do when they're inside.

The framing I used in my portrait is me on the opposite side of a POC gay flag that I hung on my wall. I hung the fag to almost mirror what the poem I wrote is about and I sat beside it to almost portray that I do identify with the flags meaning. That's pretty much the only meaningful choices behind the camera work in my self portrait.

I want anyone who views my self portrait to realize that good representation is completely necessary and that not all representation I the media should be taken seriously. I do believe I was successful in getting my post across by referencing different movie tropes and stereotypes that can be harmful to how different groups of people are viewed.

The most challenging part of completing my self portrait was writing a decent poem to read since I don't usually write anything as fast as I had to so I could complete the project. This could be fixed by spending more time writing and figuring how I wanted the poem to flow. If I were to redo this self portrait I would spend more time developing a poem that's more thought out and complete.  In the process of creating this self portrait I learned how nerve-racking being in front of the camera can be.