There’s nothing wrong with the random “selfie.”
Everyone has pictures of themselves on their smart phone. If someone tells you otherwise, they either don’t know how to use the rear-facing camera on their phone or they are lying through their teeth.
Since people started creating art, they’ve been painting, sculpting and photographing themselves into the image. Self-portraits document the artist’s own personal version of their history. Rembrandt, van Gogh, da Vinci, Frida, Picasso, even Michelangelo painted himself onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, right there among God and all the saints.
Pretentious people, those that want to limit the definition of art, have tried to lower the status of a modern self-portrait by calling it a “selfie,” assuming that if it can be easily done with a cell phone camera, it’s inferior.
A selfie from a cell phone doesn’t have to be “art,” but it’s no less of a self-portrait than when done in any other medium. The photographer holding their phone still considers the background, the lighting, the angle, the framing. The photo still tells us something of the subject.
But selfies, or self-portraits, have more to them than just that.
When we take a selfie, we are exposing ourselves. When we share them, we open ourselves to judgement and ridicule. Some perceive a self-portrait as self-regard, that if you photograph yourself, you must be conceited and vain.
Certainly some people need public recognition to feel better about themselves. To feel special, they post so many photographs of themselves to their favorite social media feed throughout the day, carefully curating what they post, trying to give the impression they’re skinnier, sexier, richer and happier than they really are.
But not everyone who takes a selfie has an agenda.
All self-portraits serve a need. When we take selfies, we are documenting our own history. Cell phone cameras make it easier to capture a moment, a fleeting feeling. We show how we see ourselves or how we want to be seen. We post them online because we want people to share in our joy or sorrow. We want to be acknowledged.
I’m a photographer, so I’m usually the one taking the photographs of other people. Taking a selfie lets me insert myself into the moments I’m documenting of everyone else. It allows me to say, “I was there, too.”
So, yes, I take photographs of myself. Maybe it’s because it’s a happy moment with my family that I want to be included in. Maybe it’s because I’m in a “mood” or think my hair looks good. Most of my selfies don’t go any further than my phone. I don’t need to post them to social media to get “likes.” I snap a few photos and leave them quietly on my phone camera roll, free of pressure or judgement from others. I take selfies because I want to remember.
I take them for myself.
And, really, that’s why any artist creates a self-portrait. For themselves.