The With Camera series (2001—06) marked the first time Joan Semmel purposefully posed in front of the mirror with a camera. Like her earlier Locker-Roomworks (1988—91), these paintings celebrate the aging process through their accurate portrayal of the artist’s body. Semmel continued to develop these ideas in her Framed series (2005—2006), which presented images of her taking photographs framed inside a mirror. As she expands, “[both series address the] multiple ways in which we view images of ourselves and others create a virtual reality, one we tend to accept as true and real when, in fact, these images are all facsimiles that disconnect us from life. By revealing the way in which I construct my images, I posed the question: how do we create our own reality?”
With Camera: 2001–2006
Joan Semmel, Baroque, 2002