The first example of a "selfie" or a self portrait is from 1839 which is the same year photography was "invented", so this proves that self portraits have always played a big part in photography. A selfie is a picture of yourself, but it does not have to be of your face, for example there are different types of selfies such as the mirror selfie and the shadow selfie. The mirror selfie is a selfie taken by yourself of your reflection in a mirror. The shadow selfie is simply a photograph of your shadow. Selfies are extremely popular all around the world, however self portraits have been taken since the birth of photography in 1839. Before this, people would draw or paint self portraits of themselves, so the idea of selfies and self portraiture has always been around. The selfie will not always be "in fashion", sometime something else will pop out and the selfie will become less well known to people in the future. The first selfie was taken in 1839.
The video above is about Vivian Maier. Maier was a woman who, for all of her life, took thousands and thousands of photographs without actually seeing them. She kept her photographs in boxes and did not ever scan them, or do anything with them. Her pictures were found after she passed away, and a man called John Maloof bought her picture at an auction. Maloof continued finding boxes and boxes of her photographs, buying them all because of his curiosity about who took these pictures, and why did they not do anything with them. Maloof found all of the pictures, and there were so many that he had to get help with scanning them, as he could not scan all these thousands and thousands of Vivian Maier's photos.
The picture above is just one of Vivian Maier's pictures which were all discovered after her death.
There are many different types of selfie. One example is a shadow selfie, which is, of course, a picture of your own shadow taken by yourself.
The two photographs above are examples of shadow selfies. The shadow selfie on the right is one of Vivian Maier's many pictures. Shadow selfies allow you to be creative as wherever the sun is, your shadow will be different, for example you could have your shadow very long on the ground directly in front of you just like the selfie below.
Below are some of Vivian Maier's self portraits, or better known as selfies.
The picture below is the first selfie ever taken, in 1840, the same year that photography. Taken by Hippolyte Bayard, in this self portrait he was acting as a "drowned man".
Assessment
The photos above are a part of an assessment my GCSE photography class were asked to do. The task was to take 30 photographs inspired by one of three pictures we were shown whilst doing an essay. (The essay was the first part of the assessment). I took inspiration from Kenneth Josephson's photograph because i liked the simple way he used of creating an illusion to confuse the viewers of his creative photographs. Out of the thirty photographs above, we were asked to chose the two that we believe work the best. Below are the two out of my thirty photos which i believe work the best compared to the rest of them.
The reason I think these two pictures work the best out of all of the others is because they both look the most like a printed photograph on the paper, which was my aim the whole time. For both of the photographs, I put something through the whole in the paper to create the illusion of a 3D object printed onto the paper.
The essay below is the first part of the assessment we were asked to do.
In Friedlander's photograph I can see reflections. Friedlander's photograph is a kind of mirror selfie because he has used a mirror inside a shop, and he has creatively managed to fit two reflections inside one picture. One of the two reflections is the reflection of Friedlander himself and the cars, road and person behind him in the mirror at the back of the shop, and the second reflection is in the shop window, you can see the door of the shop. Also, another reflection you can see is Friedlander reflecting off of the mirror into the object that Friedlander is holding. This photographs definitely a selfie/ a self portrait because it is a picture of Friedlander himself which was taken by himself. In Woodman's photograph, I can see someone's hand on a particularly small object with the rest of their body hidden behind the object. The photo looks like a mirror, but it was taken on the other side of a door frame. Woodman's photograph is a kind of disguised selfie because only a hand is showing, the body is hidden. In Josephson's photograph I can see a sheet of paper or card with a square hole cut out in the centre of it, and through the hole is someone's hand sticking out of a car window, making an illusion of a picture printed onto the card. This photograph is both a shadow and disguised selfie because within the selfie is the shadow of the person who took the photo, and also the hand holding the card up is the hand of the person who took this photo. These photographs are similar because they all use different kinds of frames.
In Friedlander's photograph, he has used both the shop window and the mirror as frames. He also used the object in his hand as another frame. This photo has a frame within a frame. In Woodman's photograph the gap for the door has been used as a frame around the object that the person who's is exposed is hidden behind. This frame also shows a chair through it, in quite an empty room. In Josephson's photograph, the card being held as an illusion, has been used as a frame, and within this frame you can see someone's hand coming out of a car's window. All of the "frames" within these photograph are similar. The frames point out small things in these pictures, especially in Friedlander's photo, within the object he is holding.
Friedlander has been very creative and surprising in his photograph by using so many reflections and frames in one image to confuse the person looking at his image. Woodman has been creative with her image by making the "frame" she used to confuse the person looking at her image, as it looks like a mirror. Josephson has been very creative and surprising with his photograph by using card as an illusion to trick the person looking at his photograph into thinking that the card has a photograph printed on it, when it is just a hole.
Out of these three photographs, the one i enjoy looking at the most is Josephson's image. The reason for my decision is that the illusion is very clear and very simple. This could influence my work because I could start to look at including some illusions to trick people viewing my photographs. Another reason Josephson's photograph could influence some of my work is because I could try to include two different types of selfie into one self portrait.
In Friedlander's photograph I can see reflections. Friedlander's photograph is a kind of mirror selfie because he has used a mirror inside a shop, and he has creatively managed to fit two reflections inside one picture. One of the two reflections is the reflection of Friedlander himself and the cars, road and person behind him in the mirror at the back of the shop, and the second reflection is in the shop window, you can see the door of the shop. Also, another reflection you can see is Friedlander reflecting off of the mirror into the object that Friedlander is holding. This photographs definitely a selfie/ a self portrait because it is a picture of Friedlander himself which was taken by himself. In Woodman's photograph, I can see someone's hand on a particularly small object with the rest of their body hidden behind the object. The photo looks like a mirror, but it was taken on the other side of a door frame. Woodman's photograph is a kind of disguised selfie because only a hand is showing, the body is hidden. In Josephson's photograph I can see a sheet of paper or card with a square hole cut out in the centre of it, and through the hole is someone's hand sticking out of a car window, making an illusion of a picture printed onto the card. This photograph is both a shadow and disguised selfie because within the selfie is the shadow of the person who took the photo, and also the hand holding the card up is the hand of the person who took this photo. These photographs are similar because they all use different kinds of frames.
In Friedlander's photograph, he has used both the shop window and the mirror as frames. He also used the object in his hand as another frame. This photo has a frame within a frame. In Woodman's photograph the gap for the door has been used as a frame around the object that the person who's is exposed is hidden behind. This frame also shows a chair through it, in quite an empty room. In Josephson's photograph, the card being held as an illusion, has been used as a frame, and within this frame you can see someone's hand coming out of a car's window. All of the "frames" within these photograph are similar. The frames point out small things in these pictures, especially in Friedlander's photo, within the object he is holding.
Friedlander has been very creative and surprising in his photograph by using so many reflections and frames in one image to confuse the person looking at his image. Woodman has been creative with her image by making the "frame" she used to confuse the person looking at her image, as it looks like a mirror. Josephson has been very creative and surprising with his photograph by using card as an illusion to trick the person looking at his photograph into thinking that the card has a photograph printed on it, when it is just a hole.
Out of these three photographs, the one i enjoy looking at the most is Josephson's image. The reason for my decision is that the illusion is very clear and very simple. This could influence my work because I could start to look at including some illusions to trick people viewing my photographs. Another reason Josephson's photograph could influence some of my work is because I could try to include two different types of selfie into one self portrait.
I count this photo as a selfie because it has me and my classmate in it, so it is a photo of myself and himself, although it was taken by another person who is in my GCSE photography class.
WWW: The mirror covered my face completely
EBI: It would be better if the head in the mirror looked like it was on my body
WWW: The mirror covered my face completely
EBI: It would be better if the head in the mirror looked like it was on my body