The selfie

[cliveh]

Would the word “selfie” ever have taken off without the digital image? And does the selfie have more selfie if recorded on film?

 

[Dave in Kansas]

To show how far behind times I am, I had to Google the word to find out what it meant. I have not heard it used before, but then again, it seems like I sort of live in a cave.

Dave

 

[thegman]

I'm not sure it would have taken off. The 'selfie' is made to put on Facebook or whatever, it often it's to say 'look how good I look'. I think narcissism is often a quick, instinctive thing, and does not suit waiting to finish the roll, sending it off to get developed etc.

I'm sure some people must have taken pictures of themselves on film looking great, waited to process the roll and then showed the prints to friends down the pub. Maybe not great enough numbers for it have been given a name though.

 

[lxdude]

There are caves in Kansas?

 

[BMbikerider]

That particular word is just an example of today's society - some are obsessed with what they look like and need to show every one else to boost their own undeveloped self esteem.

 

[StoneNYC]

This probably came about because the Oxford English Dictionary made "selfie" the word of the year. Lol

And, I was just flipping through Annie Leibovitz' book, "Photographers Life" and there is a page of topless selfies of herself, it says "self portrait" but they are certainly in the style of a selfie, holding the camera and in the mirror shot in a bedroom, not a studio shot professional self portrait, there lies the difference.

It made me laugh, of course Annie would have a selfie... Lol

 

[benjiboy]

I have never taken a picture of myself in my life.

 

[doughowk]

When I 1st learned photography, one of the guiding rules was to avoid including evidence of self in the image (eg, thumb on lens). But Lee Friedlander changed the rules by including some evidence of self. Cyndi Sherman expanded it to include only self in her work. Today's selfie includes the narcissism of Sherman and the evidence of being there (existence) of Friedlander. Now I suppose critics will have to invent new ArtSpeak in order to argue that the Selfie is art.

 

[semi-ambivalent]

When I 1st learned photography, one of the guiding rules was to avoid including evidence of self in the image (eg, thumb on lens). But Lee Friedlander changed the rules by including some evidence of self. Cyndi Sherman expanded it to include only self in her work. Today's selfie includes the narcissism of Sherman and the evidence of being there (existence) of Friedlander. Now I suppose critics will have to invent new ArtSpeak in order to argue that the Selfie is art.

They have. It's pronounced "Ka-ching"

 

[removed account4]

They have. It's pronounced "Ka-ching"

love that !

===


there are plenty of words that existed before digital photography or "now" that have become
famous because of "now" and "viral culture" ... i knew plenty of people who skateboarded,
were unshaven, listened to grunge music, and other "stuff" like referred to self portraits as "selfies"
well before 2013 ...

i thinkit is funny that someone may even think that it only has to do with digital self portraits and FB
when they have been around since photography existed ...

myfavorite selfie ( from one of the discoverers of photography ) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Hippolyte_Bayard_-_Drownedman_1840.jpg

 

[jimrohrer]

I was just looking at Vivian Maier's work... she was certainly taking "selfies" before anyone ever thought of the word!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Self portraiture has been around as long as people figured out a way to see their own reflections, I'm sure.

"Selfies" though, fall into the category of things that are off-topic for APUG. I'd see a "selfie" as strictly a digital photograph, ideally produced with a smartphone, for immediate posting on a social media site on the internet.

I have a cousin who made a thing of holding his 35mm Olympus Stylus Epic at arm's length and taking photos of himself with everyone in the family sometime back in the 1980s I think, and I wouldn't call those "selfies," because we didn't have social media then.

 

[analoguey]

I'd probably distinguish between a "selfie" and a self-portrait. Selfies generally have about as much thought in them as would be permitted for those photos to go up at Broadband speeds. Portraits generally, I would say have more thought into them.
Selfies are also - in my experience - really bad photographs, whether from showing the person in them or generally to view at. Amongst the most hated things on FB/insta/twitter streams : Selfies/Newly married photo and the comments on them. UGH. (Not as much for the photo but the fake comments and the 'me-too' scheme of things)

 

[George Papantoniou]

Self portraiture has been around as long as people figured out a way to see their own reflections, I'm sure.

"Selfies" though, fall into the category of things that are off-topic for APUG. I'd see a "selfie" as strictly a digital photograph, ideally produced with a smartphone, for immediate posting on a social media site on the internet.

I have a cousin who made a thing of holding his 35mm Olympus Stylus Epic at arm's length and taking photos of himself with everyone in the family sometime back in the 1980s I think, and I wouldn't call those "selfies," because we didn't have social media then.

+1.

It's more about posting the image on an internet site where your friends can see it, than the act of capturing your own image on some digital medium.

 

[hdeyong]

Vivian Maier did a self-portrait in which half of her face was in heavy shadow, and the city was in the background, just the right amount out of focus. I think it's the best self-portrait I've ever seen.
Certainly not to be compared to the fools holding their cell phones at arms length and making a variety of faces while they take images of themselves.
Some people need a life.

 

[Jesper]

I read this yesterday
http://pvponline.com/comic/2013/11/21/hipstergram

 

[Jim Jones]

I was just looking at Vivian Maier's work... she was certainly taking "selfies" before anyone ever thought of the word!

Anne Brigman was taking "selfies" a hundred years ago and making art (by the standards of the time) while doing it.

 

[ic-racer]

Would the word “selfie” ever have taken off without the digital image? And does the selfie have more selfie if recorded on film?

What language is that word?

 

[StoneNYC]

What language is that word?

English... As I said it was named word of the year by the Oxford English dictionary, it doesn't get any more official than that...

 

[blansky]

If I recall Rembrandt did a few.

 

[cliveh]

If I recall Rembrandt did a few.

True, but did he call them oil-selfies, as opposed to film-selfies, or digi-selfies?

 

[BrianShaw]

I think it is a selfie if the picture is of a face. A camera pointed down south produces something else.

 

[lxdude]

I think it is a selfie if the picture is of a face. A camera pointed down south produces something else.

Maybe that could be called a weinerie in recognition of a certain politician from New York.

 

[Jim Taylor]

Although I use social media, n'er a selfie of me to be seen. I'm no narcissist, there's a very good reason I'm always behind the camera...

Think "troll".

 

[LyleB]

There are even products being produced to facilitate better "selfies". I'm a backpacker, and these are quite popular now-a-days.

http://www.thegearcaster.com/the_gearcaster/2011/01/stickpic-trekking-pole-camera-mount-review.html