1. BEYOND THE Selfie

While reflecting on his extensive voyages in self-portraiture, the great British painter Stanley Spencer once wrote, “I have always looked forward to seeing what I could fish out of myself, I am a treasure island seeker and the island is myself.”

I first read these words in his journal many years ago. I took them in my hands as if being given an invisible map, one that I knew would reveal hidden realms but of which only I could be the cartographer. Since then I’ve explored the genre many times and have painted such an array of self-portraits over three decades that you might suppose that my map is complete. Not so: much as Spencer might have been intimating, the more I have searched, the more I have traversed uncharted territory.

In this visually saturated age, most of us are more than accustomed to readying our faces for the camera, often in a split second with a well-rehearsed pose. Similarly, when we take pause to look