People with too many pictures of themselves remind me of Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard." Enough said.

I have ONE small picture of myself and ONE 8x10" pen-and-ink portrait of myself on display. That's it.

I have many friends who are artists and as a result I have 23 portraits. Is that too many?

Years ago, I worked for a company that sold and installed built-in furniture systems (now defunct)...

I was in the bedroom of a prospective client's home measuring the space for built-ins where I noticed a prominently displayed framed photograph of the client standing next to Ronald Reagan on the wall exactly opposite the bed: It was the only thing on that wall.

Since the proposed furniture was to be installed on the opposite wall, I needed to measure that wall (rooms very rarely being exactly square) and since there was a large amount of furniture on that wall, it made more sense to slide the measuring tape under the head of her bed - and in doing so, I couldn't help but notice that there was a very large "personal-pleasure electrical appliance" hidden by the dust ruffle!

I remained completely poker-faced, but I couldn't help but think that she would most naturally gaze at that photo of herself w/ Ronald Reagan while she was in bed using her appliance...

I have family photos in an album in the living room that I or my guests can page through if they want, but covering the walls?? Uh, that's strange. Ditto the wall of wedding photos, that kind of thing I see all the time.

excessive narcissism or healthy self-love?

Staged family photos always look like a family desperately trying to convince others and themselves that they are happy. Snapshots and other informal photos are different, but those sometimes quite expensive family portraits always leave me cold.

My "domestic partner" once won an award for some of his software engineering, and they had a professional portrait taken of him to display (with other award winners) at the event. Afterward he received the portrait as a gift. It's framed and poster sized! It stays in the closet! (I keep telling him he should hang it in his home office, since it proves that he once wore a suit and tie!)

I have no pictures of myself, I rarely let people aim cameras at me. This pleases me. If you win beauty pagents or work in entertainment, maybe it's a different story. But more than one portrait in any medium seems rather vain to me. (I would like to see shoepins' 23 artist portraits, though -- sounds interesting.)

i once knew a woman who had some highly inappropriate glamour-shotesque pics of herself rotating on her computer screensaver at work. it was pretty awful. with regard to shoepins' collection of portraits...i feel there's a big distinction between having lots of portraits of yourself painted by friends (like shoepins) than having a warhol-esque wall monument to yourself. i can't fully articulate what i think the difference is, but perhaps it's because i think of paintings as representative of the artist as they are of the subject. there's something less self-obsessed in the painterly translation.

what about pics of your children???? i once counted 96 photos of a boy who is an only child (in a house of about 2000sf) and i couldn't help but say a silent prayer for him. am i the crazy one??? on second thought, don't answer that last question!! after all, i did travel 'round just to count.

I can beat you all. I once went to a house where the woman had 10 framed boudoir pics of herself sitting on shelves in her living room.

I think placement is key. Many images of yourself (or anyone else) all together in one place looks like a shrine

Several professionally done portraits of herself? Was this person Cindy Sherman or something? Maybe a personal friend of Annie Leibowitz? Somehow that's weirder to me than just having a bunch of snapshots of yourself in front of tourist attractions or something.

Having a bunch of things that your friends have made that just happen to be of you isn't weird. Having a bunch of portraits of yourself made just because you like portraits of yourself is sorta odd.

I have one photo of myself up in my apartment. It is small. I took it in a mirror on the side of a road & I'm looking down into my camera (it has a waist-level viewfinder). I love it. It is a really nice photo and reminds me of the trip that I was on at the time. But I still feel weird about having it up. :/

This is what myspace and facebook is for.

I had a coworker whose cubicle was completely plastered with dozens of pictures of herself--a few professionally done, and the rest were self-portraits (she volunteered this information). None were from graduation, or any ceremonies, oddly. In all the dozens of pictures, only one other person appeared, and only once. It was her and her fiancee at their engagement dinner. And she was in a ballgown with a tiara.

My mother (I still live at home, I'm twenty-two and at uni and can't afford to move out... sigh) insists on having baby photos on the bookshelf in the lounge room. A lot of them. Okay, one or two of each kid is cute, but five or six? EACH? (Blended family - there's five of us.)

Some photos I understand - I rather adore the vintage photos taken of, say, my great-grandmother, or my grandparents, when they were young (there's a photo of my grandmother when she was twenty, she's eighty-two now), but seriously, we don't need THAT many pictures of us as kids!

The only reasonably recent photos I have of myself are two smallish ones of my best friend and I when I went to the US and met her for the first time, and they're stuck up on my bulletin board. I think that's acceptable *shrug*

I think people who keep photos or even artistic portraits feel the need to reaffirm themselves because they have low self-esteem. Even if someone does a portrait of you, it's kind of creepy. Give the portrait to your mother or grandmother! Stick to Sarahh's guidelines, I think.

It's just as bad as too many mirrors.

I do not have any photo's of myself out for public view...that's what picasa and flickr are for. The only pics I do have are of my babies...my dog and cat.

I only have one photo of myself on display. A photo of myself and my best friend, aged four and three respectively, that she framed and gave to me for my sixteenth birthday.

I don't feel good in a place that is crowded with self portraits. At my place, I don't have any pics of myself or my SO at our livingroom. I stick to artwork, prints and posters. In the kitchen we have some (2 or 3) of gatherings with friends and cats.
The only pic (it is a uber cheezy one, taken 2005 at my partner's birthday in NYC at the Empire State Building) that shows me and my partner, is at the desk of our bedroom. I have a small desk there I use for sewing and reading and really enjoy this pic!

I work as an art nude model, so I have a bajillion photos that are done by professionals. None on display. Though, I've thought of blowing one up to put in my bedroom... maybe a cool b&w torso shot or something.

I'm not sure why people who don't model have a million professional shots... that sounds expensive!

My mom had me while she was in art school, so there are billions of art projects of me around the house. But most of them are abstract enough not to really look like me, so it doesn't bother me. I might ask her for the topless toddler with the lollypop one (which is not on display.) It's funny and quirky and not terribly obvious that I'm the subject.

At my own place, I have some snapshots of myself among other family and friends at various places. But it's pretty low-key. Lots of professionally done photos would weird me out, too. Reminds me of my husband's co-worker, who had a glamor shot of herself as her desktop. But, eh, whatever floats your boat. So long as I don't have to visit too often.

Love everybody's stories, but bepsf gets my vote for funniest.

I used to be a photographer in a certain, rather famous, children's portrait studio. We took pictures of adults all of the time, but the children (or their mothers, specifically) were the target audience.

Anyway, there was a middle-aged woman who would regularly come in and have her picture taken in all different kinds of outfits (one time even in her "sexy" nightgown!), she said for her husband. Now, it could have very well been for her husband, but in any case no one needs that many portraits.

As for those who think this could be expensive, it doesn't have to be. Our studio, for example, would regularly give out coupons for a free 8x10 or 10x13 (one size, any picture). And if you got on their mailing list you'd get two or three of these coupons a month. If you used every coupon you could have anywhere from 20-30 free portraits! And no strings attached (other than getting their direct/junk mail.)

i have exactly one photo of myself up: a candid shot of my husband and i on our wedding day, in black and white. our friend (who is a working artist/professional photographer) had it framed and gave it to us as a wedding gift. it hangs in our bedroom.
as for the other excessive expressions of self-love.... maybe they prefer to spend money on a photographer rather than a psychiatrist. whatever's therapeutic for them, man

Ha! My husband put up several photos of me (arty shots by photographer pals) around our apartment (before I moved in) and now doesn't want to remove them. We also have a framed wedding and one engagement photo up. Guess we're tacky! I think it's sweet.

Oh, and he also insists on displaying a totally random magazine cover I graced (a stock photo that ended up on something akin to "OCD Monthly") because he thinks it's funny.

Now it's the first time (in my life!) that I want to actually hang any photos of people I know on the walls. I want to put a few of family/close friends on - mostly because I live far away from them, and see them maybe once a year. But the photos I chose are one me with my mom (a few years old, I love this photo!), one of my brother with his wife (I took it, it's very sweet and romantic), and a few b&w from childhood (me with my dog, me as a baby, mom&brother&me etc.) - all look artsy (both my father and mother were good in photography) and are cute and sweet. But I want to put them in one place, in carefully prepared frames, and that's it. Putting huge photos of oneself (or a lot of smaller ones) is creepy and vain. If I had artistically taken photo or painting - I would probably feel good about hanging it somewhere - but somewhere not too obvious, maybe office or bedroom. I would feel weird looking at myself! I wouldn't be surprised if I finally gave it my mom ;-)

I have a friend who has a shrine (that's how it feels) in her living room... every horizontal surface is packed with frames of her three children in various ages, plus a few more hanging of (some fake looking staged ones) mostly her close family... it's so weird! I never liked the mantel/piano shrines, it's awkward. a few carefully chosen pieces is one thing, but more? weird.

My favorite example of this sort of photogenic behavior involves a place I'd ride by on my way to and from Crissy Field, so not a place I ever entered.
Facing the SF Marina one finds rather mansionish places with big windows, and in one of them there were massive, nearly life-sized photo portraits of a wedding couple. Three of them, one on each wall that wasn't taken up with window.
Amazing. I haven't been by in a while, but I think they moved, and I will always miss the strangeness of seeing several large bride and grooms mirrored on all the walls of the house.

Say what you will, but IMO you can never have too many pictures of the sexy man portraying Dorian Gray. He is a dreamboat!!