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Paul Mpagi Sepuya — James (Self-portrait)
Paul Mpagi Sepuya

James (Self-portrait)

2013

Paul Mpagi Sepuya's *James (Self-portrait)* from 2013 presents a quietly charged meditation on identity, intimacy, and the negotiated space between photographer and subject. Working in archival pigment print at a commanding 91.4 by 61 centimeters, Sepuya collapses the conventional distance between portraitist and sitter, embedding himself within a tender and psychologically layered image. The work belongs to an early body of practice in which the artist developed his signature inquiry into Black queer subjectivity, using the studio and the bodies within it as primary material rather than mere backdrop. The photograph rewards sustained looking. Sepuya's compositions from this period consistently blur the boundaries of self-portraiture and collaborative portraiture, turning the act of being photographed into a form of mutual disclosure. The title's dual attribution, invoking both James and the self, signals that the image refuses a single origin or a single gaze. This deliberate ambiguity is not evasion but method, positioning the work as an ongoing negotiation between visibility and privacy, presence and representation. Printed to archival standards and signed by the artist, *James (Self-portrait)* is a substantive and historically significant early work by a figure whose practice has since gained considerable critical recognition. Currently offered through Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, the piece presents collectors with an opportunity to acquire a foundational example of Sepuya's thinking at a formative moment in his career, one that anticipates the conceptual depth and formal sophistication that now define his mature output.

Medium
Archival pigment print
Sheet
Signed
Yes

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About this work

Paul Mpagi Sepuya, James (Self-portrait), 2013

Paul Mpagi Sepuya's *James (Self-portrait)* from 2013 presents a quietly charged meditation on identity, intimacy, and the negotiated space between photographer and subject. Working in archival pigment print at a commanding 91.4 by 61 centimeters, Sepuya collapses the conventional distance between portraitist and sitter, embedding himself within a tender and psychologically layered image. The work belongs to an early body of practice in which the artist developed his signature inquiry into Black queer subjectivity, using the studio and the bodies within it as primary material rather than mere backdrop. The photograph rewards sustained looking. Sepuya's compositions from this period consistently blur the boundaries of self-portraiture and collaborative portraiture, turning the act of being photographed into a form of mutual disclosure. The title's dual attribution, invoking both James and the self, signals that the image refuses a single origin or a single gaze. This deliberate ambiguity is not evasion but method, positioning the work as an ongoing negotiation between visibility and privacy, presence and representation. Printed to archival standards and signed by the artist, *James (Self-portrait)* is a substantive and historically significant early work by a figure whose practice has since gained considerable critical recognition. Currently offered through Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery at Haverford College, the piece presents collectors with an opportunity to acquire a foundational example of Sepuya's thinking at a formative moment in his career, one that anticipates the conceptual depth and formal sophistication that now define his mature output.

Medium
Archival pigment print
Dimensions
sheet: 91.4 x 61 cm
Year
2013
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College

Related themes

Mohn Art Collective

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Collected by

Gavin Kennedy