Paweł Bajew’s Comedic Self-Portraits

Yesterday, arthaus featured Paweł Bajew‘s Freaks series of photographs. Today, we examine Bajew‘s self-portraits. They share the same comedic, slightly absurd aesthetic. In these, Bajew inhabits different “characters” through the use of dramatic expressions, hairstyles, and props. His willingness to contort his face into strange positions and emulate embarrassing situations (such as wearing a sweat-stained shirt or having a shirt stick out from his pants’ fly) shows that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. It provides amusing results that subtly mock beauty- and fashion-obsessed mainstream photography. Several of the portraits are black-and-white, but others are in muted color. In one, Bajew has taken a photograph of a photograph of his face, which has been placed beneath a plant growing on a wall –  to look like a crown of laurels. In another, he holds a pen and crossword puzzle, with ink lines covering his face and hand. The photographic techniques used are typical for portraits, but the humor and creativity comes from Bajew’s expressions and poses. Bajew is from Poland.