ALL THE PRETTY SELFIES ARE HERE TO STAY
by
Alicia Eler
December 23, 2013
Selfie in the eye of a horse
<
http://tinyurl.com/kwp5f5e>
Just because
“selfies” was named Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year <
http://tinyurl.com/k3xzx8j> and Barack Obama shot that
funeral selfie <
http://tinyurl.com/ny86wex> doesn’t mean these internet
self-portraits are a passing fad. No, my friends, selfies are here to stay,
both in a public discourse and art vernacular kinda way. Visual communication
rules our technocentric lifestyles, and the selfie is a natural outgrowth of
how we communicate and connect in a hyper-social-networked world. Where are
selfies going next? Here are five selections to set the tone for
2014.
Karan Kapoor <
http://tinyurl.com/mjvrc5w>
Occupation: Creative at
JOINTHESTUDIO
Location: Austin
“I have been battling with the Selfie
since the dawn of Myspace. I’ve always felt awkward and uncomfortable in front
of a camera. It wasn’t that I felt unphotogenic, but that my vision of myself
did not fit what the shutter captured. There was always something missing. I
had to mold myself into a human that was comfortable in their own skin,
someone that did not second guess if they were authentic enough to be in front
of the camera. Being authentic or true is essential in a selfie. It shows
parts of who you are, your point of view and situation in life.
“The
previous selfie <
http://tinyurl.com/moxpsf2> I took before this occurred a
few days after I had been robbed earlier this year. They took a number of
projects, my school portfolio, Kickstarter rewards, a library of unreleased
JOINTHESTUDIO work as well as a documentary. That selfie was to dog-ear where
I was at that point, how low I felt I had fallen.
“The picture now was
taken 10 months after. Same style with a reflection, but from a much higher
point in terms of location and position in life. It’s me letting people know
that I am OK. On a more personal level, it’s showing myself progress from what
felt like the bottom. This selfie captured a moment where I realized my point
of view and situation were OK. It’s was taken to remind myself that it is
possible to pick yourself up and continue.”
Victoria Casal-Data
<
http://tinyurl.com/ktlnefq>
Occupation: Freelance
writer for Hi-Fructose magazine blog and Beautiful/Decay, bilingual
copywriter
Location: Tampa, FL
“I had to share this one on here
because I think its makes a compelling point about today’s selfie phenomenon;
not just this, but it also makes profound observations about what one, as a
consequence of social networks and mainstream media’s fixation on perfection,
might feel as they look in the mirror (or take a picture of themselves). ‘My
insecurities become me’ is a powerful statement that might in fact be
reinforced as we take pictures of ourselves to validate who we are to others
through the virtual world.
“It was clever on the part of the artist to
place these sayings on a mirror knowing that many, if not all, the viewers
would in fact be ‘forced’ to take a ‘selfie’ with the work in order to
showcase its ‘wisdom.’
“I think it’s very true of anyone that takes
selfies. I, for the most part, feel better about myself when I take a good
picture of myself. I feel better when I take control of the camera and render
myself in ways I like to be portrayed. The juxtaposition between the text and
the selfie make a very truthful point. I took this shot at Pulse Miami
2013.”
Jonathan Yegge <
http://tinyurl.com/jwhlsvw>
Jonathan Yegge poses in a
photograph by his friend Chris Cobb, who acts as a mirror in this
self-portraiture performance act.
Former occupation: Performance artist,
PhD student
Location: New York City
Chris Cobb submitted both the
photograph above and text below about this friend Jonathan Yegge, who died
just a few weeks ago.
“I am submitting this for a friend of mine who
died a few weeks ago. He said he wanted a picture of himself at this moment
and posed. It was at 3:30 am in McCaren Park when he was extremely drunk and
had just offered to perform oral sex on me, which I refused. He started to
cry, and that’s when he said ‘at least take my picture.’ So I did.
“Jon
was a performance artist in San Francisco who got kicked out of school for a
piece he did. He had tied someone up and pooped on them and had sex with them.
After he was thrown out he moved to Greenpoint and enrolled in a PhD program,
but ended up drinking himself to death before he finished. He was 37. He
struggled with his sexuality and with making art. In the end the world got the
better of him.”
Rachel McPadden <
http://tinyurl.com/myrxetn>
Occupation:
Writer
Location: Chicago
“I was doing a lot of writing for a women’s
site and although the feedback I personally received was overwhelmingly
positive, I found myself very sensitive to negative comments directed towards
my fellow contributors and hyperaware of the toll they take on the psyche of
writers who are open about their lives online. Just as we tend to remember the
bad things in real life a little larger and longer than the good things (some
of us), 100 validating compliments don’t seem to cancel out that one slight
that matches the evil voice in your head. Don’t read the
comments.”
Ben Valentine <
http://tinyurl.com/kyrbbew>
Ben Valentine’s selfie
with Gerhard Richter
Occupation: Writer
Location: San
Francisco
“Selfies are one means of many of placing yourself into the
world. In a culture perhaps most defined by our advertisements, controlling
how you want to be seen, or if you’re seen at all, can feel very empowering.
Selfies can be fun, creative, but also bold; I love them most when they are
bold. :) Social media is awash in imagery often looking nearly identical,
latte art, skyscrapers, concerts, and more are all over my feed. Adding your
face into the scenery is an easy way to say, ‘I was here, this is
me.’
“I most often do this by adding my sense of humor into the
landscape. Sure, I may write a serious article about Gerhard Richter — I love
his work — but I also don’t take ‘Art’ exceptionally seriously. The art market
is ridiculously weird and surreal; why not express that feeling too? Why not
enjoy yourself in that weirdness? Why not add to it?
“What excites me
most are the selfies that I — as a white male — am not involved with. I am
seeing selfies of people largely ignored, or maybe worse, misrepresented in
mass media. People culturally understood as ugly, queers, people of color,
indigenous peoples, and so on are all participating in selfies as a form of
self-love and empowerment. Discovering that marginalized groups are carving
out ever larger spaces for themselves online to be who they choose, flaunt it,
love it, be proud of it, and share it, I still think it’s exceptionally
beautiful. Although that empowerment may be just an accidental by-product of
citizen media, I think it’s real, and I only hope to see those spaces grow
bigger. I am sure selfies will be a part of that process.”
*
* *
I, Selfie is a series of ongoing conversations around people
working in the medium of the selfie. The selfie imagemakers are accepting
themselves as objects and reflecting their images back through the smartphone
camera lens. They control the images of themselves that float around these
murky virtual waters, but they cannot anticipate how these images will be
received or perceived by others who exist in the internet void, a space that
we pleasurably and both selfishly and selflessly indulge in.
Email Hyperallergic your
selfie at selfies [at]
hyperallergic.com, along with a brief
explanation of why you shot it and what it means to
you.
Hyperallergic
