The purpose of a selfie with a celebrity is the brief(?) illusion that you and the celebrity are connected. You can bask in the reflected glory of the celebrity and the selfie is a trophy you can show others.
How often do you look at your trophies? How often do you replay your selfie memories?
I bet most folks spend only an hour or so *per year* looking at their selfies. I also suspect that people spend far more time looking at photos of other people because that’s what our brains are programmed to do – look at other people.
Many selfies aren’t rich in experience or emotion no matter how much you smile. The photo is just proof that you were there.
Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted.
– Susan Sontag, 1977
It seems that some folks don’t fully understand photography. You get a better experience and, in turn, better memories if you point the camera away from yourself. Is it really necessary to see yourself? It’s probably more important to see what made you feel the way you felt when you were there.
Selfish Selfie
We look into a mirror for self-affirmation. A selfie is simply a mirror with a reflection we can edit. Perhaps “selfie” doesn’t mean self-portrait, maybe it means selfish.
We may think the person in the mirror or in a selfie is the real us. But we are the mirror. We reflect a lifetime of everything and everyone that have been around us.
Everything that has shaped us and, in fact, created who we are today, is in front of the camera. Or to be more accurate, was in front of the camera. We are shaped by memories of past experiences, experiences that might have been missed if you pointed the camera the wrong way and did a selfie.
A selfie is a mirror looking backward at yourself. Backward can’t bring happiness. At best, it can bring satisfaction. At worst, it can bring regret. No matter how you pose or how you dress, you won’t elevate people’s opinion of you.
Looking through a camera’s viewfinder is a window to see other people. By photographing forward, by shining a light on others, the reflected glory of the story you create can enhance people’s impression of you.
All the world’s a stage
Photography allows us to pick and choose what we want to remember. It lets us, to some degree, shape our past. This is why some folks on Instagram curate their selfies as if they’re trying to curate their life. If their photos look good then they must be having a good life, right? But who are they trying to convince?
Popularity is the currency of the Internet. For many people, their self-affirmation depends on their number of likes, followers and subscribers. They need to feel like an important person.
Certainly everyone wants to know they matter. But as every working photographer knows, the best way to matter is to point the camera away from yourself.
It’s been said that a camera sees both ways: a photograph reveals something of the subject and also something of the photographer.
When you photograph others, you’re showing what matters to you. And that makes the best selfie.
By putting attention on others, it empowered me. This little black box [camera] . . . actually gave me the ability to listen and truly hear others’ stories.
(. . . )
There’s a strong connection between visual imagery and empathy; seeing something helps us connect our brains and hearts to feel love and compassion for other living beings.
(. . . )
What you do need to do, however, is tell a story using your own unique perspective.– Ami Vitale, photographer
If you really want to matter, look through a window rather than at a mirror.
