What is a selfie ? A selfie is a self-portrait digital photograph, essentially a photograph taken by the photographer of them self and/or others
The History Of Selfies The first ever selfie taken (then referred to as a self-portrait ) was taken by Robert Cornelius an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast in 1839. Cornelius reportedly took a picture of himself in the back of his family's chandelier store. The word 'selfie' was first tweeted in 2007. We can credit many celebrities like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian , Jessica Simpson , Lindsay Lohan and many more with making making selfies a global phenomenon. By 2013, there were barely any people left that hadn't taken a selfie.
The Sad Side Of Selfies : Although you may think that taking a picture of yourself may be harmless there has been an illness created from selfies. Selfitis is a condition described as an obsession with taking selfies, although it is not listed as a mental disorder in the DSM-5. Having the obsession of taking selfies and posting them onto social media has linked to many symptoms of mental disorders like a lack in self worth which can lead to depression.
The Different Types Of Selfies : Mirror selfies are a great way to capture your outfit for when you don't have anybody to take the picture for you. In 1914, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna took a picture of herself in front of a mirror to send to a friend which made her become one of the first ever teenagers to take their own picture. The first mirror selfie taken was taken the exact same way we take them today with the photographer holding the camera at arms length in front of a mirror.
The impact they have created : As the years have gone by, taking selfies has been apart of many people's everyday life. This has also influenced many technology companies to create and develop their front cameras. Phones have gone from not having a front camera at all to being able to blur and focus the background in your selfie. This has also introduced brands like LuMee who have created products like "the selfie phone case' with lights on your case so you always have perfect lighting in your pictures. Other products like the 'selfie stick' were created where someone can take a picture of themselves from a greater distance instead of holding the phone is their hand . In recent years , selfies have gone from just a simple picture of yourself to advertising, celebs like Kylie Jenner are able to make millions of dollars from posing with a companies product in a selfie and posting them.
Difference between selfies and self portraits : A self portrait is a piece of art that the artist makes of themselves. On the other hand selfies are is a photograph that someone has taken of themselves typically on a smartphone or webcam usually to share on social media.
Vivian Maier Vivian Maier was an american street photographer who was not recognised until she passed away in 2009. All of her pictures are in black and white because she took them all in the 1950s - 1970s. She was a very private person so she hid all of her pictures and made sure no one was able to see them. Maier was also very poor and had a life long job of being a nanny so many of her pictures were taken of children as they went out often and she had her camera on her.
I picked these 9 pictures because there were the most interesting to me and it is so fascinating to see how life was before.
My Interpretation
Here are my Vivian Maier inspired pictures I made sure that sure that they were all black and white and i used pictures of my surroundings as many of Maier's pictures were taken of her surroundings.
Black Lives Matter Protests On the weekend ( six and seventh of June 2020) I attended both the Black Lives Matter protests in Central London. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to capture some Vivian Maier inspired pictures as many of her photos are taken of other people. Rarely any of her pictures were taken of herself so I made sure that I was not in any of my pictures.
The photobooth Selfie
The first ever photo booth was made by Anatol Josepho in 1925 and appeared in Broadway , New York from Russia. It was the first way ordinary people could take pictures of themselves for very little money. One extraordinary example of photo booth work is Lee Gody, a homeless women from Chicago who used photo booths to create self - portraits throughout her life. Not too long ago , Tomoko Sawada , a Japanese artist , used photo booths to investigate her identity , creating over 400 different visual persons over a couple of weeks. Many companies like Apple have created their own electronic photo booths so you can have one everywhere you go. Also mobile apps like Incredibooth create automated strips of self - portraits.