My interest in taking auto-portraits was renewed when I began photographing with a small format camera and external flash. I’d long admired the work of many photographers who used flash, especially the photographer Toby Old. His black and white work during the disco era of New York City allows us to glimpse into another world, now long gone, but preserved in his beautiful, thought-provoking photographs. The flash technique he continues to use adds another layer to the image, beyond simply the description of objects within the frame. It also brings out detail that would not be visible otherwise. In many ways, flash photography can be considered the most honest — and perhaps even most vulgar — technique in photography because it emphasizes everything, announces your presence (aren’t photographers supposed to be ‘stealthy’?) and temporarily blinds your subjects. It is intrusive. That said, in the past few years I have been experimenting with it, and these qualities are wonderful to play around with when photographing certain things. Using flash with auto-portraits allows me to emphasize myself within the scene, adding another layer of interest to the photograph.

These three auto-portraits are extracted from various projects.