Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media
Derek Conrad Murray
This article discusses the selfie and the impact that social media has had on the way that images are shared. The discussion of the selfie is an important one, now that the consumer camera is very accessible. Specifically, Murray debates the impact that the selfie has had on younger women. The media has built up the idea that taking an image of one’s self is narcissistic. In 2013, there was controversy about a selfie that featured Barack Obama, David Cameron and the Danish Prime Minister, it was taken at Nelson Mandela’s memorial; the media portrayed the image as an expression of narcissism. The media did scrutinise the President’s actions “It looks like Barack Obama has taken a few pointers from Sasha and Malia”, Christine Erickson, journalist. This quote portrays selfies as a child like action, most of the selfie-related articles that are posted on major news websites don’t focus on political or influential figures that take these self portraits, but teenagers and celebrities, by doing this they are focusing on the superficial.
Many young women run their own blogs, a lot of these blogs can be debated with regards to feminism. Some of the images that are being uploaded are selfies of those women naked or in various states of undress or engaging in sexual activity. Lots of the women in the images will have tattoos which is ironic as it is completely the opposite of the hyper-feminism images that were circulating in the 1940’s-1950’s, especially considering that the women in the images are often posing in the same way that women did back then in the ‘pin up’ style. Schuster doesn’t believe that these images are a tilting of the male gaze but are supposed to promote a body positive attitude as sexual activism is a political concern of the socially engaged post-feminist blogger.
Artists are also experimenting with these gritty self portraits, by documenting their everyday lives, they photograph things such as menstrual blood and armpit hair. An example of a young photographer who is doing just that is Petra Collins, she has worked with brands such as American Apparel to promote body positivity. Photographers that have had a massive impact on self-portrait photography include Cindy Sherman. Sherman posed in her own images that had an underlying feminist message, Other female artists that used self-representation in their works include: Germaine Krull, Marianne Breslauer, Ilse Bing, Vivian Maier, and Sally Mann.
Vivian Fu is a photographer who is known for her self portraits that often show her relationship with her boyfriend. Fu’s work has a clear resemblance to Nan Goldin’s, she shoots only 35mm as she likes the aesthetic. “I have always been aware of racialized stereotypes. Self-portraiture became a way for me to own my identity as an Asian-American woman. I wasn’t really any of the
representations of Asian women that were being shown to me, which were either highly submissive and infantilized or very aggressive femme fatale types, and really, those ideas of Asian women probably only really exist because they are archetypes made up by white dudes.”, Fu 2013. Fu’s project Asian Girls was inspired by the artist’s discomfort around other Asian women, as she had grown up in a white neighbourhood, so she perceived them as a threat. Asian Girls is very different to Fu’s photograph ‘bruise’ which is an image of the photographer lying on her front with her skirt up to reveal a heart shaped bruise.
Like Fu, Noorann Matties also shot on 35mm film, and documented her everyday life. Matties’ work speaks to individuals of colour whose experiences have not been acknowledged by anti-racist movements or mainstream feminism, such as herself, being half Pakistani. In her work she documents eating disorders and beauty regimes. She examines her own body in a way that is usually avoided. Matties has used a ‘photo booth’ style in her work before, one is a series of her pinching the fat on her body, with the words “I love you”.
The photographers that were discussed in Murray’s essay were all taking images to attempt to define themselves. They did so by documenting their everyday lives and by posting the images online for all to view. Fourth wave feminism is reliant on social media and artists such as Fu, Mattie’s and Collins questioning ideas such as objectivity.
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