In 1999, ten years after coming to critical attention in Australia, Tracey Moffatt AO (b. 1960) created the one and only self-portrait in her oeuvre. In the hand-coloured photograph, Moffatt presented herself as a photographer, holding a camera in her hands. The black-and-white photograph in this diptych is a different shot from the Self portrait of 1999, although it was clearly taken on the same occasion, with the artist wearing the same knitted olive-green top and head scarf. It features Moffatt's instructions for the retouching of the second image, which was hand-painted at a studio in New York in 2005. Although it appears as though Moffatt is standing in a sun-drenched landscape, the original photographs were taken in a studio in front of a painted set, a reference to the movie-style painted landscape sets in her photographic series Something More (1989) and her short film Night Cries – A Rural Tragedy (1989).
Purchased with funds provided by Tim Fairfax AM 2013
© Tracey Moffatt
Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
