Self-Portraits

This week I have been given the assignment of doing a portrait and a self-portrait. I am supposed to take as many pictures as I want until I find the one perfect one to turn in for each assignment. That's it. One each...

My teacher was giving us some examples in class of self-portraits done by some of the famous photographers. As I was listening to the lecture, I started getting really upset. It took me a little while to realize that it was because nearly all of the self-portraits of the women were just pictures of them naked. The pictures done of the men were creative and interesting, while the ones of the woman pretty much all looked the same. It made me angry because I don't feel that taking a picture of yourself naked tells a story about you... not really. If a self-portrait is supposed to be a story about you, revealing something about you that maybe someone else never knew about you, I think that just taking your clothes of isn't enough. Seeing a picture of a naked woman doesn't tell me anything about them. It isn't a story. I think that mainly it is just an easy fall back to keep from having to actually reveal something personal about yourself.

I can see how some of them might have been. As dumb as this sounds, the example I have is from Titanic. With how trapped she felt, and how planned out her whole life was, I know that her getting drawn naked was something that she felt she needed to do to break out of the cage that she had been placed it. However, even though I know there can be a reason for it, can anyone explain why almost all of those women took their picture like that?

As a side note, to get ideas for the pictures I need this week, he gave us a couple questions that we could answer to get ideas:

1-How the person wishes to be viewed.
2- How people see them
3- How I see the person

Natalie agreed to help me out with this one. So, any ideas? What do you guys think of when you think of Natalie? How about what you think of me? Any interesting pictures ideas that I can do by Sunday?