The selife is king

it's a hype wave, and as all hype waves, it is largely exaggerated.
Also, i have a theory on the duckface. Girls making the duckface for selfies also put their boobies out. They get the likes for the boobies but of course they assume it is (at least partially) for the duckface, so they keep doin the duckface. And noone tells them directly that it's about the boobies (because if you do you are the arsehole that stands out from all the 200 guys liking it). And noone tells them directly that duckface is weird because, well, again, it's not making you popular to be honest.
 
My wife likes to keep memories of places we visit during our holiday, and wants to show herself to her mama, so we HAVE to make selfies once in a while. But i forbid her the duckface. Not that she had any urge for it, luckily.
 
I think for some people, photography IS selfies. And little else.

I was reading a guy (or maybe its a girl?) in the "Photography" sub-forum on another site. He or she kept asking about which camera, which lens, for selfies. On vacations, at the beach, travelling, nightlife, etc. It was all for selfies. Turns out, that was all this person wanted to shoot! His point - How can you have any memories of the places you go and the fun you had, if you're not getting a selfie of yourself while you're there?
 
While there's an element of vanity to them, I think selfies are harmless fun. I'm tired of seeing them flogged as a generational wedge issue. I take them rarely, primarily because I never look as good as the young women that make up most of the "selfie" demographic. It's a generational fad and will certainly be replaced by something that angers and frustrates the next generation's forebears even more.

I see the selfie as a confluence of several phenomena that are prevalent today. One is social isolation and disconnection. People are anxious for connection, and this is a method they use to relate to one another. Social groups are more distributed than any time in history, and viewers of the selfie get a feeling of participation in the subject's life.

The selfie is part of a diarist trend that became popular with the easy accessibility of the web. It must have started earlier than personal homepages, but that's the first time I remember encountering the idea of telling the world about yourself through the Internet.

I wish my family (going back several generations) had taken more photographs of the family as a unit, or as members. I look through an old photo album and skip right over the out-of-focus photos of the grand canyon and fixate on the ones of the people I remember and care about. I have access to the finest photographs ever taken of virtually any notable location on earth, and I can view them by the screenful in a matter of a second. Good photos are not a rare commodity, and mediocre ones are worthless. Photographs of myself, standing in front of the grand canyon are unique. My possessing a photograph of the canyon itself tells you nothing about my experience, as anyone can have one.

It's possible to take perfectly acceptable selfies and struggle to eek out a decent landscape photo. In fact, the cameras on most phones are a little bit wide simply to accommodate the use for selfies. The selfie is part of the democratization and de-skilling photography has undergone since digital photography became ubiquitous. Make twenty attempts at a decent selfie, keep one, it costs you nothing and you get the photos right away.

Another factor causing people to hold a phone out to arms length is the lack of trust in our society. While the numbers tell us we've gotten safer most anywhere in the U.S. (where I'm writing from) our trust has declined. Do we really feel comfortable handing a stranger our $800 phone full of our personal information so that they can take our portrait in front of some natural wonder? I know I don't. So the phone stays in the hand.

Like any shift in social behavior due to technology, it has its pros and cons. Selfies are one of the things I'm least concerned about.
 
The latest selfie fad actually has its roots in film photography. It wasn't all that long ago that folks were paying primo dollars for a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (VUWS) plastic fantastic, which you could find at the Goodwill stores for a dollar or less, and make a really nice profit. Someone noticed that, and decided they could add a rear facing camera to the cell phone, and the rest is history. You don't see that many VUWS photos anymore.

PF
 
Hmm, well, um, I'm more worried by the duck than phones which can only lead - as an upgrade - to proper cameras...

Regards, David
 
PKR said:
I think there is a vast divide between the snaps that most family and friends make, posted or not, and the whole "social envy" photo thing that is promoted in a plethora of social media posts.

Business wise, having an assistant brag on social media about being hired to travel to xx exotic location for a fashion shoot for xyz designer, could kill the shoot, loose the client, and maybe bring a lawsuit. Clients don't want their competition knowing what they have planned. They go to extremes to keep this stuff quiet. This wasn't a problem a few years back. Now, it's a constant concern.
Click to expand...

I understand. I wasn't trying to make any connection to your concerns.
 
farlymac said:
The latest selfie fad actually has its roots in film photography. It wasn't all that long ago that folks were paying primo dollars for a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim (VUWS) plastic fantastic, which you could find at the Goodwill stores for a dollar or less, and make a really nice profit. Someone noticed that, and decided they could add a rear facing camera to the cell phone, and the rest is history. You don't see that many VUWS photos anymore.

PF
Click to expand...

It may have its roots in film photography, but it started way before that fad.
 
I've already posted this in the umbrellas thread,
but it fits in here too well:
This was in Taoyuan,
Taiwan, when the very same giant rubber duck was there.
27952867.b29ae0b2.jpg
 
GTA is weird place in terms of what people are willing to see. I'd rather go to see Vimy Flight than something inflatable.
Today we went to AGO, I need to see Cornelius Krieghoff paintings once in a while. Plenty of people DSLR, plenty. Even one young one with camera like on this picture:

36281723242_d1a9212b06_o.jpg


This picture was taken at local Walmart were they stopped developing films two years ago and where I just purchased last pack of film, with one remaining. I think, I'll be the one to buy this very last one next week.
Day after it I checked Costco and their camera shelf is not empty like at Walmart.

Oh, if picture is upside-down, it was taken with mobile phone and I was trying to make it normal, but I can't. Sorry, I'm just hobbyist, with normal cameras and normal, editable pictures.
 
My wife and I take a cell phone selfie of the two of us on every daytrip we take. Despite that I have "real" camera gear around my neck everywhere I go.
Won't even let kindly strangers take our picture, because then it wouldn't be a "selfie".
 
My oldest daughter and I were going through some pictures I took just after I got out of the Navy in 1988 and she was delighted to see one of me, and giggled, "It's a selfie!" That's when I went into full dad lecture mode... that every camera I owned until just recently had self-timers so they could take selfies, and this feature was even on my Leica M3 from 1955. She wasn't surprised, and that evening as we sat watching TV and surfing on our laptops, I showed her a few of the oldest photos in photographic history, which started very early on with selfies. Heck, that really old selfie might have been this one:

https://publicdomainreview.org/coll...ius-self-portrait-the-first-ever-selfie-1839/

Her answer was, "Yeah, Dad," with an eye roll. I noticed a few minutes later that she had googled other old selfies, so she was curious enough to want to see for herself.

Scott
 
by the looks of it people were having a ball, enjoying themselves in a harmless way, more so, everybody doing the same in his own way, "individual" action in a shared spirit with good respect for each other.
 
easyrider said:
A giant yellow duck was parked on the Toronto waterfront for several days to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday on July 1. Don't ask me why. It turned out to be very popular and crowds gathered to look at it. It also became a selfie orgy. Out of 77 pix posted at the link below only 7 or 8 are DSLRs and not a film camera in sight.
I didn't bring my Rollei or Leica III either. I use them mainly for portraits.
Here is a link.
https://torontophotog.smugmug.com/Waterfront-selfies-2017/i-RfDSgwZ

Is this the beginning of the end for cameras as we know them except for collectors and hobbyists?
Click to expand...

I noticed this when the duck was here. I did end up shooting a few compositions of people doing their selfie. Usually I avoid such shots but the amount of people doing it seemed as if they were possessed or something. Very strange behaviour.

I preferred to shoot my duck shot with a cleaner composition.

Leica M5, Voigtlander Nokton-M 50mm F1.5, Tmax 400, Ilford MC, Warmtone Developer

 
Agreed. . . .

mich rassena said:
While there's an element of vanity to them, I think selfies are harmless fun. I'm tired of seeing them flogged as a generational wedge issue. I take them rarely, primarily because I never look as good as the young women that make up most of the "selfie" demographic. It's a generational fad and will certainly be replaced by something that angers and frustrates the next generation's forebears even more.

I see the selfie as a confluence of several phenomena that are prevalent today. One is social isolation and disconnection. People are anxious for connection, and this is a method they use to relate to one another. Social groups are more distributed than any time in history, and viewers of the selfie get a feeling of participation in the subject's life.

The selfie is part of a diarist trend that became popular with the easy accessibility of the web. It must have started earlier than personal homepages, but that's the first time I remember encountering the idea of telling the world about yourself through the Internet.

I wish my family (going back several generations) had taken more photographs of the family as a unit, or as members. I look through an old photo album and skip right over the out-of-focus photos of the grand canyon and fixate on the ones of the people I remember and care about. I have access to the finest photographs ever taken of virtually any notable location on earth, and I can view them by the screenful in a matter of a second. Good photos are not a rare commodity, and mediocre ones are worthless. Photographs of myself, standing in front of the grand canyon are unique. My possessing a photograph of the canyon itself tells you nothing about my experience, as anyone can have one.

It's possible to take perfectly acceptable selfies and struggle to eek out a decent landscape photo. In fact, the cameras on most phones are a little bit wide simply to accommodate the use for selfies. The selfie is part of the democratization and de-skilling photography has undergone since digital photography became ubiquitous. Make twenty attempts at a decent selfie, keep one, it costs you nothing and you get the photos right away.

Another factor causing people to hold a phone out to arms length is the lack of trust in our society. While the numbers tell us we've gotten safer most anywhere in the U.S. (where I'm writing from) our trust has declined. Do we really feel comfortable handing a stranger our $800 phone full of our personal information so that they can take our portrait in front of some natural wonder? I know I don't. So the phone stays in the hand.

Like any shift in social behavior due to technology, it has its pros and cons. Selfies are one of the things I'm least concerned about.
Click to expand...
 
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