“SELFIE” (2013)
Selfie;
noun (plural selfies)
a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website
(source: Oxforddictionaries.com)
In the summer of 2013 it was announced that “Selfie” was inducted into the Oxford Dictionary. I for one have never heard of the word but evidently have been doing it for years. While walking in my hometown Miami, I posed myself in front of a Wynood area mural and proceeded to take yet another photo of myself with my camera phone. Right when I hit the capture button, a group of young men drove by and yelled out their car window “SELFIE!!!” and laughed. Selfie? What’s that? I realized then that what I was doing officially has a name. Selfie.
For this project I took an ethnographic approach to study the Selfie phenomenon. I originally wanted to portray a few examples of the hundreds of my personal Selfies, however this obsession of taking a photo of oneself goes beyond me. With the advances of camera phones, the emergence of social media sites like “Instagram” and the need for the perfect profile picture, personal photographers all around the world are taking control of their self-image and self-expression.
I asked friends of mine to send me a Selfie because I assumed like myself they already had some on their phones. Sure enough the photos came rolling in. Happy selfie, sad selfie, silly selfie, intense selfie, bored in my car selfie, damn I look good today selfie, seductive selfie, girls night out selfie, trip to the bathroom mirror selfie, and look away as if you’re unaware of the camera dramatic selfie. All different but, they all had the same characteristic of the shoulders at an angle with the one arm/arms sticking out/up.
However, I’m not interested in the selfies themselves, but what influences them. How does one know when to select “keep” or “delete”? What is it about that particular moment one feels that they must take a photo of themselves? Does it go into the social media profile picture reserves? Some may call it narcissistic behavior. Others say it’s the ultimate display of confidence. Either way, we can’t seem to get enough of ourselves.
******FOR COMMISSIONED DRAWINGS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE SELFIE PROJECT, SUBMIT A SELFIE IMAGE TO >>>>>> [email protected]
Selfie;
noun (plural selfies)
a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website
(source: Oxforddictionaries.com)
In the summer of 2013 it was announced that “Selfie” was inducted into the Oxford Dictionary. I for one have never heard of the word but evidently have been doing it for years. While walking in my hometown Miami, I posed myself in front of a Wynood area mural and proceeded to take yet another photo of myself with my camera phone. Right when I hit the capture button, a group of young men drove by and yelled out their car window “SELFIE!!!” and laughed. Selfie? What’s that? I realized then that what I was doing officially has a name. Selfie.
For this project I took an ethnographic approach to study the Selfie phenomenon. I originally wanted to portray a few examples of the hundreds of my personal Selfies, however this obsession of taking a photo of oneself goes beyond me. With the advances of camera phones, the emergence of social media sites like “Instagram” and the need for the perfect profile picture, personal photographers all around the world are taking control of their self-image and self-expression.
I asked friends of mine to send me a Selfie because I assumed like myself they already had some on their phones. Sure enough the photos came rolling in. Happy selfie, sad selfie, silly selfie, intense selfie, bored in my car selfie, damn I look good today selfie, seductive selfie, girls night out selfie, trip to the bathroom mirror selfie, and look away as if you’re unaware of the camera dramatic selfie. All different but, they all had the same characteristic of the shoulders at an angle with the one arm/arms sticking out/up.
However, I’m not interested in the selfies themselves, but what influences them. How does one know when to select “keep” or “delete”? What is it about that particular moment one feels that they must take a photo of themselves? Does it go into the social media profile picture reserves? Some may call it narcissistic behavior. Others say it’s the ultimate display of confidence. Either way, we can’t seem to get enough of ourselves.
******FOR COMMISSIONED DRAWINGS AND PARTICIPATION IN THE SELFIE PROJECT, SUBMIT A SELFIE IMAGE TO >>>>>> [email protected]
