On the Selfie..

Thought Russell Squires blog on the OCA site re 'The Selfie' fascinating ( http://goo.gl/IUSMFb  ).. I hadn't picked up on the term until I came across the recent media interest following Oxford Dictionaries inclusion of the word in their recent quarterly update. Mind you I have seen more selfies appearing in my Facebook news feed this year..many looking your typical friend/ family effort, some better than others depending on where and when sometimes.

The follow up comments from fellow students was very interesting and gave me food for thought.

What I hadn't thought about was whether selfies are, as some would say, a 'snapshot' rather than 'true photography'. Does this depend on why they were taken, what was photographed or the skill of the person taking the image? Is it more of more concern how we / people / society are seeking more and more to capture everything we do for public consumption? Narcissism or a real desire or need to show that 'we' are not alone or sad folk and have a 'real' life?

Followed up on the arty website which has some interesting articles mentioned by Pam Wright,  http://hyperallergic.com/93229/peace-to-the-selfies  and http://hyperallergic.com/94461/theory-of-the-selfie which I hadn't come across and which added another dimension for me.

On the whole my own view is to not dismiss the 'selfie' as just the new  'snapshot' courtesy of social media ..I think there is scope for photographic interpretation in its use ..Think I'll add it to my increasingly long list of photographic experiments as I'll be upgrading my mobile shortly.