“When it is not just PR, though, it is a powerful,
instantaneous ironic interaction that has intensity, intimacy, and strangeness.
In some way, selfies reach back to the Greek theatrical idea of methexis—a
group sharing wherein the speaker addresses the audience directly, much like
when comic actors look at the TV camera and make a face. Finally,
fascinatingly, the genre wasn’t created by artists. Selfies come from all of
us; they are a folk art that is already expanding the language and lexicon of
photography. Selfies are a photography of modern life—not that academics or
curators are paying much attention to them. They will, though: In a hundred
years, the mass of selfies will be an incredible record of the fine details of
everyday life. Imagine what we could see if we had millions of these from the
streets of imperial Rome.”— Jerry Saltz, “Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie,” New York Magazine, February 3, 2014
The image accompanying this post, of course, was the
selfie taken Sunday night at the Oscars, by host Ellen DeGeneres--or, as I like to think of it, "The Selfie Seen 'Round the World."
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