In this essay I will focus on the works of Francesca Woodman and Keith Arnatt, exploring the act of posing in the self-portrait as a performance effect. Although one of the first posed photographs to be produced undertook a conceptual and artistic innovation ("Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man" by Hippolyte Bayard, 1840 - a photograph in which the artists create a scene to stage their own death), the proposal of the The posed image is more commonly associated with the editorial, fashion and advertising fields; thus imposing upon us certain connotations and fantasy expectations within the photographic, essentially agreeing that we understand that what we are looking at has in fact been created. Furthermore, the studio, we recognize, is a place where the construction and manipulation of the environment takes place. Using the idea of ​​our common associations to their advantage, some artists evoke an illusion of complexity by providing elements of realistic perception within a space that is conventionally recognized as fictional "the studio", or conversely, bringing characteristics of the fictional in a space recognized as everyday and usual. These are both themes evoked by Francesca Woodman's 1976 "Providence, Rhode Island" and Keith Arnatt's 1969-72 "Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self." Therefore, I argue that these works exist within imaginary dialogue and can be understood within the context of surrealist theory. David Bate discusses this concept of contrasting conventions, as he looks at what constitutes a surrealist photograph and recognizes the exploits of the surrealist movement. “Surrealism shows itself as an interruption within the 'rational' discourse... half sheet...pany explains how the use of traces in photography can elude the recording of time and reality, a predominant characteristic in both artists work. “A photograph is an image that bears the imprint of reality. The light that illuminates the world is the light that records its image. In this sense all photographs are traces. Yet the world itself contains traces or signs…. The photograph of a track is perhaps the opposite of the 'decisive moment'. It's the next moment. It records the signs left by the world on the body and by the body on the world. Both performance and conceptual art used photography as a means of recording tracks.” (2003:88). The consideration that Campany suggests of the trace as “the opposite of the 'decisive moment'” once again indicates the idea of ​​the staged image. In this particular image, that's exactly what Arnatt looks like