I take self-portraits to explore my internal emotional landscape. My self-portraits examine the deeply personal emotional cycles I feel and go through. Each photograph reveals a raw emotional baseline, and as a set represent a range of emotions that are my lived experience.
Specifically, my photographs lay bare a deep-seated and life long struggle with self-acceptance. It’s my way of connecting with the world in a way that makes sense to me as I work though fears and powerful feelings in order that I may reach my fullest potential as a human being.
Sharing intimate images of myself that reveal my most vulnerable sides has been a gateway to self discovery of those fundamental human traits that I have kept locked away for so long: self-love and the self-confidence. But it isn’t only about me. My hope is that by confronting my fears and vulnerability I will emerge stronger and better able to give more of myself to the world.
When I think about my self-portraits the word cycle frequently comes to mind. My mind constantly cycles through contradictory and sometimes frightening feelings. Each of my self-portraits can be thought of as a solitary attempt to capture, as inspiration struck, an example of a cycle.
-Natalie A Wheeler
View my most recent self-portrait work here.