1. Love Your Selfie History, Purpose, and Project

2. 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

3. “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.

4. “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 http://www.artistdaily.com/blogs/artistdaily/archive/2013/05/10/what-artists-reveal-with-self-portraits.aspx

5. Portrait of a Man, Jan Van Eyck, 1433 15 th Century

6. 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 http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/the-first-mirrors-were-simply-water-placed-in-a-darkly-colored-vessel/

7. 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. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/the-first-mirrors-were-simply-water-placed-in-a-darkly-colored-vessel/

8. 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 1835. 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. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/05/the-first-mirrors-were-simply-water-placed-in-a-darkly-colored-vessel/

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

10. 16 th Century Leonardo da Vinci Self Portrait, 1512

11. 17 th Century El Greco, 1604

12. SELF PORTRAIT WITH GORGET AND BERET c. 1629 17 th Century SELF PORTRAIT WITH A WIDE-BRIMMED HAT 1632 SELF PORTRAIT WITH TWO CIRCLE c. 1665-1669 Rembrandt van Rijn

13. 18 th Century Vigée Le Brun 1789 1790 1794

14. 19 th Century Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

15. 20 th Century Frida Kahlo

17. 20 th Century Cindy Sherman Untitled #96, 1981 Untitled #14, 1978

18. Cindy Sherman “History Portraits”

19. Untitled #137. 1984 Untitled #95. 1981

20. Untitled #458. 2007–08Untitled #359. 2000

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

22. Samuel Fosso Late 20 th Century “The Golf Player,” 1997. “Self-Portraits from the 1970s,” 1977.

23. Samuel Fosso “Emperor of Africa,” 2013. “Le rêve de mon grand-père,” 2003.

24. “Samuel Fosso, Self-Portrait,” 1999. “African Spirits,” 2008.

25. Jen Davis 2002 2003 21 st Century

26. Jen Davis 2005

27. Jen Davis 2003 2005

28. Jen Davis 2013 2005 2010

29. 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.

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

31. No, just no.

32. http://digital-photography-school.com/18-stunning-self-portraits/ 18 Self Portraits to Inspire

33. 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.

34. 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

35. Contact Sheet 

36. 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!