Using the information on this page (the wrtiing and videos) Answer the questions in the link . You may answer the questions in a new google doc or on a sheet of paper.
Let ME Take a Selfie: A look at a Modern trend through Art History
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What is a Selfie
In 2013, the Oxford Dictionaries announced their word of the year to be “selfie”, which they define as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself". Typically, when we think of a selfie we think of smartphones and social media, because nowadays this is how and where we see this pop culture trend. However, if we consider the basic definition "a photograph taken of one's self" then photographers have been doing this for over a century. Instead of calling it a "Selfie" they were known as self-portraits. Sorry millennials you didn't invent the selfie. Robert Cornelius and Other Early Photographers The pop culture “selfie” is not strictly a modern phenomenon, the concept of photographing one's self in a self-portrait is surprisingly common throughout photography's history especially in the very early days and invention. In fact, the picture considered by many to be the first photographic portrait ever a “selfie” was taken almost 200 years ago. The image in question was taken in 1839 by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius. The famous, groundbreaking photograph was taken in the back of the Cornelius family store in Philadelphia. Robert achieved the first ever selfie by setting up the camera at a distance and then removing it's lens cap and then running into the frame where he sat for a minute before running back and covering up the lens. Sounds simple right. On the back of the image he wrote “The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.” After Cornelius many others began adopting the practice and perfecting it. For instance The Russian Duchess. In 1914, 13-year-old Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov took a self-portrait using a Kodak Brownie box camera (invented in 1900) and sent the photograph to a friend with the following note, "I took this picture of myself looking in a mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling." She appears to have been the first teenager to take a selfie. Moving forward more than a half a century another famous selfie milestone was taken. In 1969 Buzz Aldrin snapped a shot in OUTERSPACE. Aldrin is well-known for walking on the moon with Neil Armstrong as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, but in 1966 he made history by snapping the first selfie in outer space. This image is very important not only because it was the first selfie in space, but it also helped preserve a piece of culture and history. Capturing people and culture in time is what makes selfie important. People change and cultures change, Remembering the past, culture, events etc is important. If we don't learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it. |
Selfie Project 1: Arranging and Zooming in on a SELFIE
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Assignment
Using a "Selfie" (yes, you can use your phones for this) Arrange and present it artfully in a frame like template. Samples are below. The purpose is to really analyze different areas of your photo and puzzle them together to still make a cohesive artwork. Requirements
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Assignment: What makes a Selfie art? Why are they important
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Self-absorption or self-expression? Are Selfies art? Can a selfie become art?This notion has been on the minds of critics and artist alike for a while, well since the invention of the camera phone in 2003. Recently, some artist have created currated galleries to explore this theme and likewise articles have been writen aswell. A favorite of mine is from the publication Vulture, Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie
Bellow is an excerpt that i think highlights aspects of this debate. "Everyone has their own idea of what makes a good selfie. I like the ones that metamorphose into what might be called selfies-plus—pictures that begin to speak in unintended tongues, that carry surpluses of meaning that the maker may not have known were there. Barthes wrote that such images produce what he called “a third meaning,” which passes “from language to significance.” I’m not talking about cute contradictions, unintended parody, nip slips." I’m far from the first to say the selfie is something significant. Way back in 2010, the artist-critic David Colman wrote in the New York Times that the selfie “is so common that it is changing photography itself.” Colman in turn quoted the art historian Geoffrey Batchen saying that selfies represent “the shift of the photograph [from] memorial function to a communication device.” What I love about selfies is that we then do a second thing after making them: We make them public. Which is, again, something like art.
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What do you Think?Writing Assignment
Write a one-page response, answering the question "Are Selfies art? What makes them art or not? What are the qualifications per se . please add reasoning to your opinion. Use your own opinions as well as the video about and the writing the left to help formulate your response. |
Selfie Project 3: Giving a Selfie Meaning
create a double exposure collaged self portrait
the objective
create meaning though imagery.Try to tell about the person ie your self through both the pose, lighting and the layers of image on top.
the objective
create meaning though imagery.Try to tell about the person ie your self through both the pose, lighting and the layers of image on top.
