Love Your Selfie History, Purpose, and Project

Is a “selfie” new?  The selfie is a smartphone-produced version of the self-portrait, which has been a staple of art and photography history since artists first began seeing examining their own images in the mirror.selfie

“Selfies” are actually Self Portraits but, why are they a thing and why have they always been a thing?  Skill building- drawing, painting, photography, sculpture  Self Studies  Self exploration  Exploration of ideas with the most available model  Documentation  Etc.

“Obviously, self-portraiture is an expressive outlet that can lead an artist down many different roads. But a successful self-portrait, like any other piece of art, starts with a meaningful, sincere idea from the artist. Self-expression isn’t any one thing. It can be geared toward a realistic depiction of your face and physicality, or less so. Most of all, artists need to push to design and imagine without limits, strengthening their own creative points of view.” - Courtney Jordan

Portrait of a Man, Jan Van Eyck, th Century

Mirrors in ancient times were typically just small pools of collected water with the vessel containing the water having a dark color to it. As early as 6000 BC in Turkey people started manufacturing non-water mirrors. These early mirrors were usually made of obsidian, which is a naturally occurring volcanic glass. These pieces of obsidian would be cut appropriately and highly polished to give off a reflection. Mirror History

Around 4000 BC, the first polished copper mirrors started showing up in Mesopotamia. Around 2000 BC, the Chinese began manufacturing similar bronze mirrors. Fast forward to around the 16th century in Venice, and we see the first examples of glass mirrors with tin- mercury backings, which produced reflections very similar in quality to the mirrors we have today. These mirrors were ridiculously expensive due to their high quality, expensive materials, and how fragile they were for the types of transport available at the time.

Eventually, the French succeeded in learning how the Venetian glass makers made the mirrors and once they started producing them, it drastically lowered the price of mirrors in Western Europe. The silvered-glass mirrors we use today were invented by German Chemist Justus von Liebig in He was able to create an extremely thin layer of silver on glass through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. This process led to greater availability of affordable mirrors, making high quality mirrors available to the masses for the first time in history.

Albrecht Dürer Late 15 th Early 16 th Century Age 22Age 26 Age 28 Year: 1498 Year: 1500

16 th Century Leonardo da Vinci Self Portrait, 1512

17 th Century El Greco, 1604

SELF PORTRAIT WITH GORGET AND BERET c th Century SELF PORTRAIT WITH A WIDE-BRIMMED HAT 1632 SELF PORTRAIT WITH TWO CIRCLE c Rembrandt van Rijn

18 th Century Vigée Le Brun

19 th Century Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

20 th Century Frida Kahlo

20 th Century Cindy Sherman Untitled #96, 1981 Untitled #14, 1978

Cindy Sherman “History Portraits”

Untitled # Untitled #

Untitled # –08Untitled #

Cindy Sherman Martin Schoeller Digital C-print, 2000 Portrait of Cindy Sherman

Samuel Fosso Late 20 th Century “The Golf Player,” “Self-Portraits from the 1970s,” 1977.

Samuel Fosso “Emperor of Africa,” “Le rêve de mon grand-père,” 2003.

“Samuel Fosso, Self-Portrait,” “African Spirits,” 2008.

Jen Davis st Century

Jen Davis 2005

Jen Davis

Jen Davis

How to take a “selfie”  Hold the camera/phone yourself and play around with angles.  USE A TIMER ON THE CAMERA  If you don’t know how to do this, ask  No, you may not let anyone take the photo for you- because then it is not your photo- it is theirs.

To get more ideas  Google: Photography Self Portrait  Do not use the word “selfie” unless you are looking for duck face and bathroom shots.

No, just no.

18 Self Portraits to Inspire

Love Your Selfie Project  Research ideas: look online and get inspired!  Draw 10 thumbnail sketches to get ideas: Due Friday, December 5th  Make a series of MEANINGFUL AND SINCERE self portraits in the same setting at multiple angles- at least 5 different angles.  Ulitize: Rule of Thirds, Rule of Simplicity, Strong Tonal Range- Good Lighting, Line, Texture, etc.

More on Love Your Selfie Project You will be making a contact sheet of your entire photo-shoot. Take multiple photos of the same view. I must see your out-takes! You will submit: 1 photo in black & white and 1 in color Unedited photos due Monday, December 8th Edited Photos due Thursday, December 11th

Contact Sheet 

Scholarship Opportunity- Let’s do this!  Register on artandwriting.org now!  Your work could be shown at CSUSB!  Choose a photo you would like to submit.  You’ll receive extra credit for submitting a photograph!