Selfie as a Type of a Modern Photography - Essay Example

Over the recent years, photography has developed to become broadly practiced as an amusement and this means that unlike other forms of art, it is not perceived as an art by most people and is now a social rite as well as a tool of power. The earliest use of photography was capturing and memorizing achievements of different individuals such as weddings and it continues to be an integral part of this ceremony. Presently, most of the households have a camera especially the households that have children and photography assists these households to achieve an imaginary possession of the past they experienced when the photos were being taken. A Selfie can be defined as a self-portrait photograph that is usually taken with a hand-held camera device of a digital nature and are often shared on social networking platforms like Facebook and Instagram. They are characteristically unpremeditated and are taken using cameras that are at arm’s distance or from the image reflection of a mirror. This kind of photography was initially popular with the young people but it has gained considerable popularity over the years. At the end of 2012, the Selfie was considered to be among the top ten buzzwords of the year by the Time magazine and even though they had been in existed for long, it was in this year that the term grew in popularity. From a survey that was conducted in 2013, more than sixty percent of the women in Australia who are aged between eighteen and thirty five take selfies that end up on Facebook. A poll that was conducted by the maker of the popular smartphone company, Samsung, found that almost a third of the photos by people aged between eighteen and twenty four were selfies. With the increase in technologies that are portable like mobile phones and cameras, the ways photographs can be taken are now accessible to many people. Social media has developed to be a portal for an online identity and the selfie gives the users a chance to present themselves in the ways they want. The use of social media by various celebrities levels the playing field as far as proliferation of identity is concerned and the only difference between a young girl posing for a picture the same way Rihanna would do is the amount of audience she will get. The perception of fame as well as audience have been changed by the means of communication and delivery and the capability to have followers from all over the world is a modern phenomenon that has seen the perception of fame develop across borders. Why are people becoming continually obsessed of themselves? Why do people developing the need to present themselves to the world in this manner? Photography has evolved to become one of the key devices that can be used for experiencing something and for giving an appearance for participation (Sontag). In history, photographs have been used in the documentation of places and time and the formal portraits that used to be taken fulfilled a particular purpose that was to render important moments as well as its protagonists into a tangible document. Previously, it was never thought that anyone who was in the photographs could be the maker of the same photographs. Selfies have also been taken in places away from earth such as space which has been referred to as a space Selfie. The space Selfie includes the selfies that are taken by astronauts, machines or other indirect methods that can be used to have self-portrait photos on earth retaken in space. The appeal of this kind of photos comes from the ease with which they can be created and shared as well as the control they give photographers over the way they present themselves. Majority of the selfies have the intention of portraying images of the person taking them in a gratifying way particularly to the friends of the photographer who are supposed to be reassuring. Uploading selfies that have been taken in an unappealing manner deliberately also became popular in the early 2010’s for their comic values while in a number of instances they also address matters of body image or a response against apparent self-admiration of the normal selfies. Developmentally, children and teens consider selfies to be more sensible to them than the people who are older. Individuals of this age perceive this kind of photography to be simple reflections of their self-exploration and nothing more to that. This kind of photography allows the teens and young adults to capture images that display their moods as well as critical experiences they go through. As the young adults and teens endeavor to form and identify their identities, selfies are utilized as a means of testing how to look and thus feel in particular clothes, make up, poses and also locations. Since the current world is digital, these portraits create an easy way of participating and being involved with the world. Regardless of the fact that selfies act as a critical part of the growing up digital, not all self-portraits are permissible. Similar to the behaviors and habit that teens experiment with, parents should make sure that they provide guidance to these teens and young adults that will assist them in appreciating the limits as well as restrictions for the kind of pictures that are acceptable and the ones that are not. There is very little chance that the children yet to reach their teenage years as well as the teens think further than seeing images as a form of developmental skin that they try on and get rid of while being oblivious of the consequences this actions may have in the end. It is difficult to make the children that take part in this kind of photography understand the adults point of view the same way it is hard to make the adults see this practice from the teens point of view. More and more experts are of the opinion that selfies can be a window in to deeper adolescent issues and with the progressive prominence of Facebook as a resource in therapy sessions for young people, they can provide a big platform for dealing with self-perceptions as far as teens and young adults are concerned. In the instances where the patients are not comfortable with opening up about the issues, selfies can be used by the therapists to strike conversations concerning the feelings the teen had when he or she was taking the photograph or the reasons for taking the photo in the first place. Studies of a scientific nature are collecting more information about the use of social media to assist experts identify this means that will isolate, support and assist the young people to may in other situations not receive this kind of attention. From a psychological point of view, there may be some advantages associated with participating I sharing selfies since this practice is part of our social culture and is a means of interaction with other people. There are a number of varying opinions concerning whether the selfie culture is lame or legit and this means it is the responsibility of the people who take part in this practice to mold the future of this kind of photography. To avoid being a selfie addict, a person should focus on people as well as things that exist around them in their day-to-day lives as well as spending time on activities that involve family members and friends like travelling and watching films. Taking selfies is not an activity that can be done throughout the day and when in a place that is inappropriate for such a practice, the person that has the urge to take the selfie should try their best to avoid taking this kind of photos. Generally, selfies are not empowering sources of pride and nor are they narcissistic exercises by silly teenagers but they are a logical response that has been allowed by technology to an upbringing that makes them think that what matters is the opinions of other people. The selfies stands for an age in photography where images have become more disposable in meaningless. What are the moments that are being captured by these photographs? What are the emotions in the pictures? All the photographs seem to be taken in the same angles, poses and pout making one photo no different from the other. When the photographic medium first came to being in the 1840s, it received praise for its democracy and versatility, but there were concerned that this medium also encouraged some level of self-obsession. Most of the criticism that is directed at the selfie is that it is supports this kind of narcissistic society and this fills people lives with numerous images of themselves even though photography has always done this. Photography has accorded value to self-image as well as the ability for people to develop images of themselves. This attribute of taking photos enabled everyone to take part and the capacity for everyone to create and see them made photography an influential and universal phenomenon. Selfies want to create an illusion world that blocks any hint of individualism and personality since most of the photographs look the same in the poses and expressions. The images are not related to the context they are taken in, the time as well as the space and reasons locations and timing of these photographs cannot be clearly distinguished. The main importance is placed on capturing the image, but the destination of the image, who views it and the meanings it carries are not considered to be important. The ease of access to technology as well as the ability to capture images at any time and place should have developed a world where real and spontaneous photographs were the way forward but instead, the selfie intents on coming up with a world that is artificial and staged. It is very unlikely to get a selfie that is honest and this makes them become boring. Bibliography Sontag, Susan. Understanding images. On photography. 1st ed. Picador, U.S.A: Picador, 2001. Read More