Self Portraits

I've heard people say that real self portraits are impossible, because humans are far too vain to be objective about themselves. I can certainly see where they're coming from with that, since after all I usually represent myself as either dressed up and made up and perfumed like a little china doll or else ultra stylized and too cool for school looking. Like this:


Still, the other day a friend took a quick and random photo of me while we were out sledding. I'm not doing anything cool. I'm not anywhere astonishing. I'm wearing snow clothes and not a drop of makeup. My hair is gross and all over the place. My squinty eye is pretty squinty. But I'm smiling - and not a photo smile, either. I'm with friends. I look happy. I loved the photo the second I saw it, because the person in it didn't seem like a stranger. I think it's one of the more honest pictures of myself that I have: