STATEMENT

‘Selfie: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website

occasional selfies are acceptable, but posting a new picture of yourself every day isn’t necessary

Origin: early 21^st Century: from SELF + -IE’

Oxford Dictionary

A large number of disposable cameras were purchased and handed out to a large number of people, asking only one thing: to take a ‘selfie’. This project is the result of this.

Taking someone else’s self-portrait and putting it amongst a large number of other self-portraits, at first can seem very strange, overwhelming in fact.  Through looking at these images in this way allows the viewer to look at the images very differently. A ‘selfie’ is something you may just scroll past on a social media site, possibly making a passing comment, but this project makes you take notice of them, and almost forces you to do so. You don’t necessarily notice the details within every image due to the sheer amount of them but the more time you do spend looking at them, the more you will notice. There are more and more things you will see every time you look back.

Seeing them all together makes you feel intrusive. As though you are looking into this moment of these people’s lives and it almost doesn’t feel okay. They have taken the picture themselves for everyone to see but through the way it has been shown here, it puts it in a different context. It’s not on that social media site any more, we don’t know anything about these people which essentially can allow you to come up with your own back stories behind these people. You decide who they are and what they’re all about through that single image. It’s up to you. 

OUTCOME: EVALUATION/EXHIBITING THE WORK

After getting all of my prints together I was very overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them all. I had planned before to put them all up on a wall to decide the order and how I wanted to show them but I couldn't find a wall big enough with enough space around it to allow me to move it around and so I decided that the floor was the next best option. I laid them out in an order sort of deciding where they looked best. I was hard because there are so many of them and I think this could actually be a super long task if I did actually come to exhibiting them. Order could be so important with this! I separated the landscape images from the portraits and decided only to lay down the landscapes as I do prefer this format and also there were much more of them.

With all of the images, I struggled to decide which ones to actually put in. There are so many ways I could display this. Not all of the images followed the brief to the exact, but I quite like this. You can tell the people from some of the images whether or not they really wanted to take the picture. Some you can tell took the picture, some you can tell didn't and others are questionable. It's this idea of the unknown that makes these so interesting. There would be no information with the images, no information with any of the pictures. It is left up to the viewer to decide. I think it's really interesting that I too am unsure with some of the people, I have no idea who a lot of them are. Some I do know, but some I don't so it's interesting to be in a similar position to the viewer. It isn't normal that the photographer can experience the same as the viewer.

I decided to put some of the images in that hadn't come out so well as I had actually noticed that there were details amongst them. You could see a slight outline of a person and this idea of the unknown of who is actually there is what made me decide to put them in. To see what's there you have to look more. You have to try to see them, you can't just glance at it and see what's there, you have to want to see it. It almost makes it more unsettling the fact that you don't know who is there. You don't know who that person is. Much like all of the other images, they could be looking towards the camera, evoking the feeling that they are looking at you. And this idea of not being about to see them, see who is looking at you is definitely unsettling.

When I first saw all of the images in this position and showcased in this way I felt so overwhelmed, I was surprised as I hadn't actually thought of the project in this way. I'd spend a lot of time thinking about getting the photographs and I had always assumed that I would show the images like this but I hadn't always thought about the feelings expressed when viewing the images or how much of an impact seeing them all together would make. It works so well and that's something I'm really happy with. It's really inspired me to perhaps carry on with this working style as I really have found this way to be effective.

The images together are all there, at a first glance you just look at it all as a piece as a whole. You don't think about the individual people, which is so strange as essentially a lot of them will have no links to each other. As you view the piece more, this is when you start to notice the people as individuals. You look at them, come up with stories about who they are and almost compare them to the people next to them (this is why I think the placement of the images are key, when it would actually come to exhibiting them). Some images are quite comical, some creepy. It just depends what you associate with each of the people, whether they remind you of something, whether they look like someone you know, it changes your thoughts and the thoughts of each viewer would be different. They may think that someone is ugly, someone is pretty and I think this contrast between each of the viewers is what too makes it so interesting.

After I laid out the images, I had a few of the people I live with come up to see the work to see what their reaction would be. In most cases their first reaction was wow. They all knew the project I had been doing had seen images here and there but to finally see them all together created a great impact. Next came the discussion between them, pointing out specific people and saying 'look at them'. I didn't realise how much of an interactive piece this could be. They were discussing each of the people, laughing in some cases, and talking in some cases too about how they were next to other images and how they could relate to each other.

For exhibiting the piece, I want to have it shown in a similar way to this. I would possibly put it on top of a piece of wood, painted white and show them like this. Although the order I have put them in for hand in works now, if exhibiting I would probably think a lot more about it. Give it time to decide the right order, because looking at the same group of images in one go to decide the order with this amount was totally overwhelming and honestly, the order could be forever changing. I'm not sure that it will ever be final. Moving the images around can create different stories, different ideas and actually I think that that works pretty well.

There are 156 images in the final selection from over 200 images. The piece is 12 x 13 which within my final hand in is labeled clearly how the piece should be seen.

If carrying on the project I would try and take the images further. I would try and make sure that the images were taken in landscape and that the flash was used to make sure that images would come out and this way I could imagine a whole gallery wall filled with images. This would create an even larger impact and I can imagine it would put across my ideas in a more exaggerated way.

If I was to take this project further by expanding out and taking the ideas and using it with different images there are so many ways I could take it and throughout the project I have thought of so many ideas. I like the use of disposable cameras as they create this snapshot aesthetic within the images which I think works really well with these ideas. I could do a day in the life type thing, and give specific people a camera to take the pictures over a day. Perhaps this too could work over a month or so. A picture a day? I also thought about documenting myself. A 'selfie' a day. This too could work with others. Getting them to take one 'selfie' every day. Again using the disposable, or possibly a phone to work with the origin of the 'selfie'. I also thought about documenting my life. A picture a day. Documenting my family. Documenting something every day, or every hour. Something like this. I like the idea of time, through using a time span. Seeing how it changes. I'm unsure exactly where I would take this now, but I definitely want to take it further as I feel so inspired.

OUTCOME: ALL PHOTOS

I have finally got back all of my images from all of my disposable cameras and I'm surprised with the sheer amount of images that there actually are. I don't have time to scan them all in and upload them all to here so I have done the next best thing by taking pictures of the pictures and have uploaded them to Flickr. which you can view here! All of the images can be viewed here and I will talk through the outcome in more depth and will discuss what I plan to do with them soon.

View the pictures here. 

OUTCOME: FIRST PHOTOS

I have literally just received two of my cameras back from being developed and wanted to write about my findings straight away. I have just taken a few quick snaps of the images and contact sheets from my phone to show you in the first instance. 

From a first look I have found that a lot of people didn't take not of the 'always use the flash' guideline - I wanted to make sure something was always visible in each picture as with disposable cameras you can never be sure. I also noticed the difference in composition, some have been taken in portrait and others in landscape. I asked for landscape but again this hasn't quite been listened to. 

I'm actually surprised with how comical it all is. You don't really know anything about any of these people and it almost makes it funny. I love the little quirks in each picture, how they haven't actually followed what I asked... I really wasn't sure what to expect. There are some good images that have come out well and others that haven't ( as you can see in the contact sheets above) but it almost works. Within some of the faint images you can see a slight figure. I think because you can't see it, and you can see so much detail in the rest of them it makes you want to know more. It makes you look more closely to see the details there. You want to see it in the same way as the others but you cant. Looking at them all together makes you look at them differently. If you saw the faint ones on their own, singularly, you probably wouldn't give them a second look. You probably would just think that it hadn't come out so wouldn't bother but with all of the others, it just makes you look. You want to see who is behind that faint mist. The dog that's sat there, the person that's smiling into the camera. It just makes you want to know. 

Some of these images are just so funny. The boy with the nappy on, that almost looks too old to be wearing it. He clearly didn't want to take a selfie so the person that had the camera made him have a picture by taking the photograph of him themselves.

Seeing these images has made me start thinking about how it would work best to display the images. How they will all work best together as a whole, how they can be shown in the most successful way to put across my ideas in the best possible way. I will post more about this soon. 

I have included some of the images below: 

RESEARCH: BROOMBERG AND CHANARIN 'GHETTO'

As I won't actually be taking the pictures myself, I thought it would be interesting to look into other photographers who give control to their subjects. I was suggested to look into Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

 

 

 

 

These images were taking for their project 'Ghetto' which set out to document 12 obscure societies on the margins of society. These images above were taken in the Rene Vallejo Psychiatric hospital and they were documenting the heavily medicated patients. For moral reasons they decided to hand over the control of the image to the patients themselves using a cable release. They could decide when the photograph was taken and what they would be doing in it. All images were taken against the aquamarine wall. Most were clearly happy to have the camera there and the picture being taken but as you can see this is not the case for the man in the first photograph. Mario, 60, is standing there in the regulation pyjamas and hunches his shoulders as if he is nervous of the camera being there, although, he did still take the picture. These images look happy and almost quite comical at a first glance, but once you know more about them it almost gives you a warm feeling. It's nice. They maintained the dignity of their subjects while still giving them a voice. Allowing them to do what they want. Given them all the control. It's nice, it's more interesting, and I find them so inspiring!

Source of Images and you can read more on the project here.

RESEARCH: NAN GOLDIN

"My work has been about making a record of my life that no one can revise. I photograph myself in times of trouble or change in order to find the ground to stand on in the change. I was coming out of a melancholic phase. This was taken when I was traveling extensively, on the road from hotel to hotel. You get displaced, and then taking self-portraits becomes a way of hanging on to yourself." Nan Goldin









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Goldin has shot quite an extensive range of self portrait including those above. I have been reseaching into some of her images and came across this analysis of this one below on Tate. I have included the analysis below for reference purposes. 



Nan one month after being battered, 1984

'This is a large colour photograph of the artist staring directly at the camera. Intense red blood in the white of her swollen left eye mirrors the shade of her lipstick. Dark bruises colour the skin around it and below her right eye. In contrast to the physical damage she defiantly offers to the camera, she appears well groomed. Her hair is glossy and well brushed and, in addition to the bright red lipstick, she is wearing dangly earrings and a necklace. She has photographed herself against a piece of dark wooden furniture and a white embroidered curtain that appears bluish in the artificial night-time light. The dark shadows behind her head indicate the use of a flash bulb. As a photographic print, this image exists in an edition of twenty-five. It marks the end of a long-term relationship and a particular period in the artist's life and provides the emotional climax of Goldin's slide show and book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It also appears in Goldin's more recent slide show series of self-portraits titled All By Myself 1995-6. She has explained the situation leading up to this image:

For a number of years I was deeply involved with a man. We were well suited
emotionally and the relationship became very interdependent. Jealousy was used to

inspire passion. His concept of relationships was rooted in … romantic idealism … I craved the dependency, the adoration, the satisfaction, the security, but sometimes I felt claustrophobic. We were addicted to the amount of love the relationship supplied ... Things between us started to break down, but neither of us could make the break. The desire was constantly reinspired at the same time that the dissatisfaction became undeniable. Our sexual obsession remained one of the hooks. One night, he battered me severely, almost blinding me.

(Quoted in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, p.8.)

Goldin's photographs, of herself, her lovers and her friends, have a diaristic function. They combine a spontaneous, snap-shot aesthetic with social portraiture in the genre of Hungarian born, French photographer George Brassai (1899-1984) and American photographer Diane Arbus (1923-71). While many of the subjects of the photographs are glamorous, their circumstances are emotionally raw and gritty. She has said 'I want to show exactly what my world looks like, without glamorisation, without glorification. This is not a bleak world but one in which there is an awareness of pain, a quality of introspection' (quoted in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, p.6). She began showing her photographic portraits as slides when she did not have access to a darkroom and could not afford to have prints made. The first public presentation of her images occurred in the New York clubs and bars where she worked and played in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Through repeated showing the series of slides was edited and developed a narrative. In 1981 Goldin titled it The Ballad of Sexual Dependency after 'The Ballad of Sexual Obsession' in The Threepenny Opera (1928) by Bertholt Brecht (1898-1956) and Kurt Weill (1900-50). The work has continued to be added to over time. In 1986 an abridged version of it was published as a book by Aperture Press, New York. The slide show has been digitised and linked with a sound-track collated using blues, reggae, rock and opera music. Lyrics, rhythms and tunes underscore and influence the narrative sequence of the photographic images. Vivienne in the red dress, NYC 1980 (Tate P78043) and Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC 1982 (P78044) also appear in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. Goldin has explained:

I often fear that men and women are irrevocably strangers to each other,
irreconcilably unsuited, almost as if they were from different planets. But there is
an intense need for coupling in spite of it all. Even if relationships are destructive,
people cling together … The tension this creates seems to be a universal problem:
the struggle between autonomy and dependency. The Ballad of SexualDependency begins and ends with this premise … I'm trying to figure out what
makes coupling so difficult.
(Quoted in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, p.7.)

Further reading:Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, New York 1986, p.8, reproduced (colour) p.83
Nan Goldin: I'll be your Mirror, exhibition catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1996, pp.36 and 319, reproduced (colour) p.198

Elizabeth Manchester
November 2001'

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RESEARCH: ANDY WARHOL SELF PORTRAIT

Self Portrait in Drag, 1981

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This self-portrait of Warhol dressed in drag is super interesting to this project and the work that I'm looking into. Its the idea of the persona that the subject will put on when taking the 'selfie'. I again won't know if that is really what they are like or whether it is a persona just for the photograph. Warhol is such a famous figure and this picture just works so well because of it. He depended on photography within his work and this is his portrayal within the medium. One of his most famous self portraits and he is exaggerating himself.

RESEARCH: CLAUDE CAHUN

The french photographer Claude Cahun portrayed both personal and political sides within her work while expressing  and playing with the concepts of gender and sexuality.

Each image of Cahun's is portraying a different person, a different gender, often sported with a shaven head. She adapts to each character with almost a theatrical part about it.

“Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.” 



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There can be much more to a self portrait, just like with Cindy Sherman's. I can't imagine any of my subjects will go to this much depth to get their 'selfie' but it's really interesting to look into the different ways that a self portrait can be taken as essentially that is what a 'selfie' is.

RESEARCH: REMBRANDT

Rembrandt painted over 100 self portraits during his time as a painter. They are so important to his work collectively and they show and document the artist visually over 40 years. 

Detail from Rembrandt, Self Portrait at the Age of 63, 1669

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Its so interesting how different they all are. He almost looks like a different person. It got me thinking about an idea for a future project. All about self-portraits of myself. One a day, I'm tempted to start tomorrow just so I've got them as time span is important - as long as possible, which is obviously shown so well with Rembrandt's work - 40 years! The work is so interesting, and each portrait is so different but they all have some notes that run through each making them all work so well together. 

With my current project, obviously I won't have a large number of pictures of one person (that I know of?! I have told people to only take one photo each but I can't guarantee that that will have actually happened.) so the result won't be the same but it's the idea of how change can appear so drastically in photographs which is what I find so interesting.

RESEARCH: CINDY SHERMAN

'American photographer. She studied art at Buffalo State College (1972–6), concentrating on photography, which she maintained is the appropriate medium of expression in our media-dominated civilisation. Her photographs are portraits of herself in various scenarios that parody stereotypes of woman. A panoply of characters and settings is drawn from sources of popular culture: old movies, television soaps and pulp magazines. Sherman rapidly rose to celebrity status in the international art world during the early 1980s with the presentation of a series of untitled ‘film stills' in various group and solo exhibitions across America and Europe. Among 130 ‘film stills' taken between 1978 and 1980 are portraits of Sherman in the role of such screen idols as Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe. While the mood of Sherman's early works ranges from quiet introspection to provocative sensuality, there are elements of horror and decay in the series from 1988–9. Studies from the early 1990s make pointed caricatures of characters depicted through art history, with Sherman appearing as a grotesque creature in period costume. Her approach forms an ironic message that creation is impossible without the use of prototypes; identity lies in appearance, not in reality. In this, the artist has assimilated, even while retaining a critical stance, the visual tyranny of television, advertising and magazines. Works are held in the Tate Gallery, London, and the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, as well as in the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan and Brooklyn museums, New York.' Source - Tate


I will be looking into self portraits and thought a great place to start would be with the work of Cindy Sherman. Although her work is portraits of herself, they are not always defined as self portraits as they don't necessarily show things relating to her personally. She chooses to portray things within her images that relate to different issues within modern world. Even though some people wouldn't see this as self portraiture specifically, it could also be seen as this as she is making the decisions as to how she will be seen in the images - much like the subjects within my images. I don't know what they will be, they could all be normal images of people smiling but there could be a few more elaborate ones in there, dressed up like Sherman's. They might try and portray someone else within the image, but honestly - I won't know. It will be down to interpretation as there is very little information that will be able to go with my images.

Sherman tries to depersonalize her images by naming them Untitled, or as a number to take away from the emotional attachment to the imagery, leaving it solely to the image to portray what she wants.





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'SELFIE' IS OXFORD DICTIONARIES' WORD OF THE YEAR

'Selfie – "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" – has been named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries editors, after the frequency of its usage increased by 17,000% over the past 12 months.'

The Guardian (See more of the article here)

RESEARCH: WEDDINGS

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When thinking about and researching into the use of disposable cameras there was one thing that kept popping up; weddings! This was also the case when I was hunting for the cameras I wanted to purchase for the project, a lot of them were designed to be used at weddings. 

Couples buy a bunch of these cameras and leave them around for people to take pictures with and this is sometimes instead of having a professional photographer there. 

This again is taking the pictures of this day out of their hands and into all of their friends and family. It's the same idea and I definitely thought it was worth touching on because I can imagine there would be a lot of self portraits included!

RESEARCH: ROLLS TOHOKU

'When the earthquake hit on March 11, I was running my art exhibition entitled, "ROLLS of one week."
At that time, I felt so powerless, being in the same country yet unable to do anything to reach out and help directly. However, I realized it was not the time to feel weak. I grabbed many disposable cameras and headed toward the location of damage.
"ROLLS TOHOKU" is a document of the area that was hit by the earthquake, through the perspective of the victims, taken in a certain period.
For reconstruction, it should take much longer than we think.
If seeing these photos make you want to do something to help the victims of the earthquake, please take action.
Using an approach/system that you can trust, please continue to support the victims as much as you can, for a long period of time.'

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This is a total new way to look at the idea behind each of the projects that I have been talking about and looking into. It's a much more moving and emotive way. It almost feels more real. The project is looked at in a positive way, it is showing these people after such terrible things have happened but they still smile, they still are happy. They're pulling together. It's beautiful to see. 

Although this isn't the same subject matter as mine it is really interesting to see the other ways a project like this can go. It's interesting to see all of the different ways a project can go, when you put someone else in charge of the images and this is what I am really interested to see. 

RESEARCH: TEPSIC MAGAZINE

'Tepsic Magazine (pronounced: TEP-SICK) is a poster-sized music magazine that documents what it’s like to live a day in the life of your favorite rappers, singers, MC’s and groups. All artists’ pictures are taken on their own personalized camera given to them by the magazine. No interviews, no reviews. Just pure photo verité to create your own visual commentary between yourself and the artist.'

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Again this is a very similar idea but through selecting a specific group of people and in this case it is musicians.  I like the fact that there is no text alongside it as it allows you to create your own story around the images which will be the case with mine also.

RESEARCH: DISPOSE

Dispose are doing a similar thing to that of 'The Disposable Memory Project' as they are giving cameras out to people around the world. This is more of a chosen photographer type situation as they are choosing who gets the camera where 'The Disposable Memory Project' are letting the people choose the camera. They have chosen photographers like Alec Soth and musicians like James Murphy but also others that aren't already photographers like a weed dealer and a human rights worker.

'We at Dispose distribute throwaway cameras to a wide range of people living across the world. We ask contributors to document one day in 27 exposures. From the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep, these individuals shoot a minimum of one photo per hour including one self portrait. '

I really love this idea. It is again about the person behind the camera. You are getting an insight to that persons life within those 27 exposures for that day. You don't know anything but that. You can write your own stories behind the images, think about who that person could be. In the case of this website they are giving you an insight into that person for a day, for the 27 exposures that they take but in the case of my project it will only be the one. The self portrait.

Photos by Alec Soth

(Photos by James Murphy)

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RESEARCH: LINDSEY BOCCIA

Lindsey Boccia is a photographer and on a trip she forgot her camera bag. She bought some disposable cameras and turned them into lo-fi toy cameras. 

Boccia wanted to add custom 'filters' to alter the look of the resulting images. She modified the lenses by scratching them with her car key and applying chapstick to the surface to give a dreamy look to the image. She peeled off the labels over the camera and cracked the cases open to add some light leaks.

Below are some of the images she produced by doing this: 

 

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I really like the idea of changing the cameras to change the effect of the image that will be produced. Obviously in this case I am not taking the pictures myself and I don't want to alter the images because I think the beauty of my idea is that this is down to them. I don't expect them to do anything like this but its a similar idea of alteration. They change the image to how they want to portray themselves and how they want to be seen within that image.