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Self Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (on Fire Island)
is a single frame from 16mm colour film shot in the 1960s/70s.
This is the second work created by the artist from the same 16mm source material. The earlier work -
Self Portrait (on Fire Island),
(2021.7)
- is a 6-frame gif, showing the artist in a classic 'muscle pose'. The sea, sky and skin tones are all animated by inconsistencies in the 16mm frames suggesting youth, health, virility.
This second version of the portrait depicts the artist in a less selfconscious or defiant pose. His back is half turned to camera, and part of his right buttock is exposed, suggestive of a youthful, unwitting vulnerability.
In both portraits there is doubt as to whether or not this is the artist. The image is sufficiently degraded to provide room for uncertainty, neither confirming nor denying the subject's true identity.