How the creator of the Selfie Project taught herself to take incredible portraits

Stuck at home one night, with no one around to sit for a photo, Véronique Duplain started taking selfies. She'd become obsessed with photography recently, and if she was going to learn the craft, she needed practice. So every day for a month, she gave herself the same challenge: create a scene and take a self-portrait. 

It sounds like a typical story of lockdown boredom — but it's been eight years since Duplain started, and her daily self-portraits have become a long-running series with a deceptively simple title: the Selfie Project.

Every year, for the entire month of February, Duplain runs through the same feat of creative endurance. In part, it's her way of shaking up the drudgery of winter. But over time, the Selfie Project has evolved into more than a sort of independent-study course. Increasingly ambitious, it's her calling card as a professional photographer. Featuring outlandish sets which she designs and builds herself, the concepts have become more elaborate, and in recent years, the month-long shoot has outgrown her Montreal apartment. She now takes up residence at the city's Arsenal Contemporary Art gallery instead. 

Because of COVID-19, this year's edition is viewable solely through social media, but Duplain is at the gallery daily, assisted by a small team (including two set builders and a makeup artist) who help her execute her vision.

"The project has been very personal through the years. It's all scenes of everyday life," says Duplain. "This year, of course, with the pandemic [...] I'm trying to express how I feel through all this mess." 

For Day 1, she created a two-for-one selfie, a sort of dark fantasy version of lockdown fatigue. Duplain's drooling face is lit by the pallid blue light of her TV screen, literally rooted to her grubby armchair while watching the news. (That's her playing the anchor, too.) Everything in the scene was conjured from scratch, she says, and she collects props and costumes and art supplies constantly. (The tree roots? They're made of wire and brown paper towels.)

I wish everybody could just take a moment and do it at some point, just to learn and see how fun this is.- Véronique Duplain, artist

The concepts are sketched in advance, but not so much that she has all 28 days mapped out. "I'm a last-minute person," she laughs. "I procrastinate." 

Last year, Duplain self-published an e-book that breaks down the time and cost of every set piece from the 2020 edition of the Selfie Project. Featuring exhaustive lists of each shot's technical specs, the book might inspire readers to have a go at trying a selfie project of their own. "It's a crazy world of colour, texture, light and learning," says Duplain, talking about photography. "I wish everybody could just take a moment and do it at some point, just to learn and see how fun this is."

Interested? If you have a camera — even just the one on your phone — she has some tips for getting started.

Just do it

"The most important part is to do it," says Duplain, and her own passion for photography started simply enough: playing around with an iPhone. For guidance, she'd watch YouTube tutorials. But ultimately, she says experience was the best teacher. "It has to be a process," she says. "Play with the light, play with poses, play with camera settings — and figure out what you love, what you don't. You won't learn anything if you don't do it."

Set the scene

As the photographer, you get to decide what appears in the frame with you. Duplain makes every detail count, and building a scene through props and wardrobe is part of how she tells a story. Even if you're not turning your TV room into a ball pit, be intentional when creating the composition of your self-portrait. "Everything has a meaning in the pictures," says Duplain. "The scene is revealing as much as I am about the theme [of the image]." 

Lighting tips

No fancy equipment? No problem. Set yourself up near a window, says Duplain. "Natural light is probably the most flattering light ever." And in the unfortunate event that you're shooting at midnight from a windowless basement apartment, there's still hope. "Just one light can do wonders," she says. The important thing is finding something — anything — to play with: a floor lamp, a reading light, some cheap LEDs. For the Selfie Project, she's frequently improvising new lighting solutions. In this shot, for example, the flash inside the bubble is created by a lamp she ordered on Amazon. "Photography is light, right? Whatever you can find that is a source of light is going to be fun."

But what should you do with your hands … and face ... and everything?

Not everyone dreams of being signed to IMG Models. "If anybody else is taking pictures of me, I'm automatically uncomfortable in front of the camera," says Duplain. She's more at ease when she's calling the shots, but still — like everything else, posing takes work. To learn your best angles, she suggests this common-sense tip: practise in front of a mirror. "Look at yourself and figure out what is the best me possible."

Getting the shot

When Duplain is building a set, she has an idea of where she'll be in the frame. In essence, she's already creating the composition. That sort of advanced planning is crucial. She can't be on both sides of the lens at once, after all. (Duplain uses a remote shutter to take her photos, a gadget that's small enough to conceal in her hand. A nearby laptop lets her view each shot as it's captured.) Still, be prepared for plenty of trial and error. Duplain says she might take 100 frames before she's nailed a scene — and she'll vary her pose, lights, props, etc., experimenting until she hits the right look. It's all part of the joy of it, she says. "The most important thing is to get off of your sofa and install a camera and just freaking do it! It's just so much fun."

Follow the Selfie Project on Instagram (@v.duplain).