Autoportraits

Autoportraits was the first exhibition curated and organised by Autograph, featuring new work by artists Mon­ika Baker, Allan deSouza, Joy Gregory, Sunil Gupta, Lyle Har­ris, Mumtaz Karimjee and Rosh­ini Kempadoo. Self-portraiture was chosen as the first theme to be addressed by an Autograph exhibition, as it is a question photographers often come back to and - by definition - an idea central to Autograph.

The body/self is not photographed, but positioned, worked on. It has become a place of inscription; literally, something to be written upon and 'read'; an 'autograph'

— Professor Stuart Hall

At this time, Autograph did not have a dedicated gallery space and Autoportraits opened at CameraWork before touring to other venues.

The artists in Autoportraits described their work on display for Autograph's March 1990 newsletter: Monica Baker's photographs explored her role as woman/mother and her relationship with a teenaged son in the post-feminist 1990, ''the mystique of the menstruation and its role in child-bearing is en­meshed with child-rearing''. Sunil Gupta addressed issues "that have predomi­nated in the political construc­tion of myself", and Lyle Harris's photographs were "a response to my experience of marginality as a Black gay man". Mumtaz Karimjee stated "Fear - Alien­ates - The Small Child - Runs - Adult - Dreams - Shatter". Roshini Kempadoo's work concerned "the creation of the self-portrait, belief in the truth of the self and the objectivity of the photographic record disap­pear simultaneously. It is the creation of the other, the imagi­nary distortion, playing the game around identity, the form and fiction of identity."

Professor Stuart Hall wrote a new essay, Black Narcissus, to accompany the Autoportraits exhibition.