Perhaps the most obvious thing in our surroundings which is an occasion for “unselfing” … is what is popularly called beauty. … I am looking out of my window in an anxious and resentful state of mind, oblivious of my surroundings, brooding perhaps on some damage done to my prestige. Then suddenly I observe a hovering kestrel. In a moment everything is altered. The brooding self with its hurt vanity has disappeared. There is nothing now but kestrel.

—Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good (1970)

Ming Smith’s self-portraits are not of the self as it is usually understood: one’s own person, separate and apart. The difficulty lies in the term self-portrait . Each word on its own suggests singularity and enclosure. The self , contained. The portrait , framed.…