It all started when I wanted to apply for college. All I had in my portfolio were images of my cats, chickens and the kids of the neighbors. I wanted to shake things up a bit, but I didn't want to bother anyone, so I decided to take some selfportraits.
I did not own a remote at that time, so all I had was the 10 second timer and off I went.

Asking someone to model for you felt like a way too great of a deal to me. Someone was investing their time and in return I of course wanted to give them some great images. The pressure of having to deliver content to someone else felt too big for me, so I continued to do selfportraits. 
After I got into college I got into contact with the online community of Flickr. A big pool of awesomely creative photographers that did things that I could only dream of. They definitely took selfportraiture to the next level. 
At that time the 365 projects were a big hit and I decided to join in on the commitment of photographing myself for a whole year. At least, that was the goal. I never made it past the one hundred mark. But the project did invite me to dive deeper into the conceptual part of photography. I didn't want to just create cool images, I really wanted to say something with them. Create a story. And so I experimented a lot in that stage. 
If you are interested to see how my art started, here's the link to my Flickr page (warning, it's very old and very ugly imagery ;) ) :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lhaertjens/albums/72157622577256672

To me, selfportraiture is not about me being in the photo. It's just that I like to create by myself. I love to wander around and explore nature. I love to create without having the pressure of it having to turn out awesome (that's what I feel if someone's modelling for me). I love to experiment and try new things. And when doing selfportraits, you do not need anybody else. No excuses for you to not create!

Another reason why I adore selfportraiture is it clears my mind.
Creating for me, is a way of dealing with the struggles, emotions and tough things we encounter in life.
Creating is therapeutic.

If you want to give selfportraiture a go, a very handy tool is a remote control for your camera. That way you don't have to walk into the frame within however many seconds your camera grants you. Here are a few behind the scenes shots of where you can see me use that thang:

English subtitles can be found in the bottom right corner of the YouTube video!

English subtitles can be found in the bottom right corner of the YouTube video!