How to photography yourself

Calton Hill September 11th after a workshop with Eastern Surf and Emma Balkind

Dropped into the fly through
of a Sketch-Up of Calton Hill
“What is all this face shit” 
my brother writes in a text
after seeing Instagram 
saturated with pictures of
me
wearing a mask.
“Art” I tell him 
he accepts that. 

I try to work out how 
to lounge on the grass
and wait for Fran
to take a photo,
one pose in a whole crowd
- apparently - I look -
like a Henry Moore sculpture.

Lines, dots,
shapes - designed to mimic
facial recognition software.
Reflecting back
the binary efforts
of the machines 
in all their suspiciousness. 
 
Oh yes, yes - it is just like
a mirror, it is just like with 
Narcissus maybe.
The computer dazzled by
its own likeness, is that it? 

--

It turns out
a selfie 
is trickier to take
than you think. 
You have to hold it just right and just 
far enough away so that your phone can
see you clearly, you look yourself in the eye
press the button and thats it 
you’ve made it. And - then - you have 
maybe
made 
something.