POSTCARD: 1



Hi, my name is Delia and I am now obsessed with bathroom self-portraits to the point where even when little old ladies at country club weddings are staring curiously at me just beyond the edge of the camera lens as I shoot frame after frame of myself trying to get the angle I want, I smile at them like it is the most natural thing in the world and just keep going. Why this matters is that a little over a year ago, I was the girl hiding her face behind her hands and screaming, "Oh, don't take my picture!" whenever a camera made an appearance. Something about fixing my image permanently always made me concentrate more intently on the imperfections and shadows of my physical self to the point where I couldn't see anything else. Frequent self-portraiture has given me a certain level of familiarity with my face and body and now I notice the ways I resemble my parents and siblings...how my children make the same facial expressions I do...that the genetic expressions of my ancestry and my progeny give me both roots in family history and a glimpse at the generations yet to be. Snapping photos at a wedding yesterday and asking myself: "Will you be willing to own the lasting picture of yourself which you are daily painting by your thoughts and deeds? Will you be ready to own the self- portrait created by your life?" {O.Hyde}