All sorts of people appear in photographic portraits. Often we are given clues to the identity of the subject. Backgrounds can indicate character traits, give clues to profession or status. Sometimes we can see that the photograph is conceptual and the person we see is representing something we need to think about through their gestures, portrayal or stance. Perhaps identity has been stripped of its specific individuality and somehow conceptualized, prescribed to direct our thoughts to what the photographer is visually ‘up to’.

Here we are looking at our photographer. Tousled dark hair surrounds her. Her face is confrontational and appeals, alarmingly so, to be looked at. Her rather unsettling blank look must conceal something deeper, darker, and more painful, perhaps? The raw confrontation that she offers to the viewer is compelling and aches with honesty. Even if I hadn’t extracted this picture from a project I would want to know more about her story and her photographic practice that appears to be autobiographical and diaristic. Why is she looking at us like that? So deeply and honestly into the camera? She reels me in to understand her story, visit her other pictures and piece together the very personal narrative that has tempted her to pick up a camera and share an aspect of her life.

Louise's self-portrait is part of a project entitled ‘About Him’. We don’t really need more information than that as the self-portrait, accompanied by other pictures that describe the family life that has changed are enough for us to share her sense of loss. We are given just enough information to know the project deals with the painful reverberations of ‘him’ being elsewhere. Other pictures from the project visualize details from the domestic environment that remains. Details which are mesmerizingly important following a lost presence from the home. Family life has changed now and Louise’s camera stills the ongoing time as she looks anew at her home space and family, and forges a new path.

I have always been intrigued by the act of pulling one photograph from a body of work that functions as a whole. Sometimes a portfolio is built of tasters of the photographer’s talent and sometimes a project in its entirety needs to become the portfolio. This portrait represents the wider project, quite perfectly – it invites us straight into the heart of the project and asks us to look at an issue that is both deeply personal yet sadly so common to many of us.

Helen James is a photographic historian who writes and lectures independently. She has previously worked at Open Eye Gallery, Photoworks and the National Portrait Gallery as an education manager.