• HOME
  • CAJAL ART PORTFOLIO
  • ARTIST STATEMENT
  • BIOGRAPHY
  • RESUME and CV
  • NEWS | UPCOMING EXHIBITS
  • StudioCurrents™ Blog
  • Thematic Portfolios | dawnhuntergallery.com
  • Teaching Portfolio | dawnhuntergallery.com
  • USC Profile
  • CONTACT

Personas and Selfies



"Time and concentration allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of
the most complex problem."

― Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Advice for a Young Investigator



Self-portraits and selfies are not the same things. Historical self-portraits have frequently been identified as selfies, and I would argue that majority of these images are not selfies. Selfies are about behavior, and more specifically, repeated action. We can indulge in selfies during the digital age without any tremendous financial consequence or personal inconvenience - thus, it becomes easy for us to repeat our behavior frequently. The most basic definition of a selfie is: "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media."


Cajal had a fascination with photography and his image at a young age. He invented some early color photography techniques through his intellectual prowess. Instead of buying prepared photographic plates, he often created emulsion for his photos' plates with a recipe he made. Cajal's emulsified plates were sought after by others wishing to print their photos. His plates were so popular among his flock that many plates were created and sold to locals with his wife's help.


Cajal's ingenuity enabled him to create countless "selfies" throughout his lifetime, and many of them were sent to newspapers for articles or traded with colleagues at conferences. He so prevalently made images of himself that I would argue that the regularity of their creation and exchange places his self-portraits in the realm of selfies and how we understand selfies as a modern concept.



Dawn Hunter



Colorizing Cajal's 19th Century World: Drawing of a Cajal "selfie" - the original self-portrait was black and white, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14", 2018.



Dawn Hunter



This drawing is a recreation (three times) a mini self-portrait from Cajal's first sketchbook from Valencia (see drawing of the sketchbook page below) juxtaposed with recreations of Cajal's neuron drawings and drawn silhouettes of cast shadows from the original mold of Cajal's death mask, ink, pen and gold leaf on paper, 11" x 14", 2018.



Continued



Cajal's selfies were often sent with press releases to accompany news articles about his scientific discoveries. I believe the concept of how he represented himself in his photos influenced how others perceived him and how photographers created content about him. Besides exploring his "persona" through photographic images of himself, Cajal took photos of people who were integrated into his life, like his wife, Silveria. He considered photography to be an outlet of emotional and creative expression thus, others as the subject in his photos could be interpreted and regarded as surrogates for his emotional state.

While serving as a Fulbright España Senior Research Scholar at the Instituto Cajal in Madrid, I made it a point to explore the Cajal "persona" created by Cajal and others. I aimed to perceive content that I felt was symbolically important and metaphorically representative of who he was as a person and/or items that helped construct his public identity. This page is a sampling of those explorations.

― Dawn Hunter, March 2021


Dawn Hunter



Dueling Cajals - profiles of Cajal drawn by casting shadows of the original mold of his death mask on paper and juxtaposing those images with regenerative neurons and two Don Quixotes, marker and pen on paper, 2017.



Dawn Hunter



Cajal's Chair: Museo de Cajal, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14"



Dawn Hunter



Drawing of Cajal's Death Mask, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14"



Dawn Hunter



Portrait of Cajal from observation of Jorge Zockoll's oversized photograph at the Instituto Cajal, Madrid, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14"



Dawn Hunter



Re-creation of Cajal's school photo badge and a "selfie" he took after returning to Spain from a tour as a military doctor in Cuba. The plant foliage was drawn from the observation of plants that are at the Instituto Cajal, Madrid, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14"



Dawn Hunter



In the top left corner is a mini self-portrait drawn by Cajal. Re-creation of inside back cover of Cajal's first sketchbook from Valencia, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14"



Dawn Hunter



Silveria in juxtaposition - drawing was created through observation of black and white photographs of Cajal's, color has been added to the imagery by me, maker and pen on paper, 11" x 14", 2017.



Cajal took the photos of Silveria that were referenced in the creation of this drawing. He did not, however, print them in juxtaposition. Whoever printed them would have done that approximately 15 years after his death. The paper that the photos are printed on was not produced until the mid-1940s. Despite that, I found the juxtaposition interesting and used the printed black and white images as a reference to create this work in color.



Dawn Hunter



Silveria: head, heart and spine, graphite, ink and acrylic on paper, 11" x 14", 2016.



Dawn Hunter



Re-creation of a tourist photo of Cajal's taken in 1906, Cajal is in the foreground and two of his research assistants are in the background - the original photo is black and white, I have added color to the imagery, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14."



Dawn Hunter



Preliminary studies: Silveria in Sanguine, 2017.



Dawn Hunter



Silveria in Sanguine, acrylic on oval canvas,12" x 19" - approximately



Dawn Hunter



Cajal's hands, microscope, pyramidal neuron, and mini self-portrait from his sketchbook juxtaposed with his retirement statement and design details from his Nobel Prize - the photographic source imagery was originally black and white. Color has been added and the color of the Nobel Prize design details has been altered, marker and pen on paper, 11" x 14."



#dawnhunter #dawnhunterart #dawnhunterartist



©2007-2023

The copyright of dawnhunterart.com is registered to the author of this website and it's content, Dawn Hunter, with the Library of Congress, USA.

FOR CITATION: HUNTER, DAWN. [TITLE OF WEBPAGE FEATURE], Dawn Hunter Art, 2007-2022. WWW.DAWNHUNTERART.COM