Arno Minnikin

 Arno Minnikin's work as a self portrait photographer seems to use his own sort of poetic license when taking his pictures, as rather than displaying the human face, he displays other things like arms and legs, often submerging himself in water, or somehow hiding the rest of his body. The extraordinary amount of detail/crispness of his images stands out to me too, as proper focus is a very difficult part of self portraiture, and is something I myself have struggled with immensely. 

 

Minnikin's Porttaits often feature subjects or backgrounds of nature. The obvious desire for extreme contrast is apparent here, but in some of his other shoots, he tries to make himself seem as if he is part of the scene. His ability to sort of conform to the landscape makes for some astonishing photos too.

 

His ability to sort of set scenes with parts of himself, relating to either experiences or the background itself is all part of his art. Rather than using his surroundings to make his portraits more pretty, his style is more of "the background is the portrait" and he is just another part of it. Some obvious techniques used here would be a shutter timer, manual focusing, a tripod, and definitely some assistance. It is often extremely hard to get focus correct without another person to stand as a subject. Sure, the use of background objects that are close to the subject make focusing easier, but without that, portraits are nearly impossible to do without an assistant, even if it is something to stand where the subject will be.