It wasn’t until 1984, at an age where most expected him to retire, that he embarked upon his series of self-portraits. In these pictures, which are enlarged to gigantic proportions, he refuses to flatter his own naked image with nothing corrected or beautified. He highlights every crack, discolouration, hair, unevenness of the skin and fold of fat of his age-distorted body against a neutral background giving an impression of profound humanity.
The naked, faceless body of John Coplans’ photographs is stripped of class, culture and era. In a social context of youth and beauty he addresses and challenges a taboo. The taboo being "oldness" in a society which tends to worship beauty and youth and sees aging, old bodies as something which should be hidden from view due to its imperfections.