"All self-portraits have the advantage of having an available model when and where you want him," Ivan Albright humorously noted. "Conversation can be held to a tight minimum." Despite the convenience, self-portrayal is rarely as simple as we might think. In most portraiture, we "meet" the subject indirectly through an intermediary—the artist. In self-portraiture, it is just the two of us. We discount the mirror that may have been there. The face appears to confront us, the viewers, directly, and we expect some privileged revelation.

The promise of intimacy that the viewer expects is, of course, only an illusion. Self-portraiture can be a teasing masquerade, concealing more than reveling. In the end, we may not gain any personal insights. For all our attempts to grasp the specific, it may be something more universal that moves us: the mysteries of human expression, connection, and understanding.