The Selfie: A Reinvention of Identity in Visual Self-Depiction

Regardless of which movement an artist is associated with, this conveyance of identity as described by de Piles can be identified in the self-portraits of some of the major artists in the genre. Take, for example, Rembrandt, a significant figure in seventeenth century self-portraiture. According to George Keyes, former curator of European paintings for the Detroit Institute of Arts, Rembrandt’s choices demonstrate a “critical self-observation . . . a marvel of self estimation with no attempt to idealize,” thus providing the viewer with an impression of Rembrandt’s fascination with and acceptance of both his outward and inner self (5). Even more abstract-leaning painters, such as Vincent Van Gough and Frida Kahlo, created self-portraits that represented an examination of their inner selves. Van Gogh’s self-portraits were created in his distinct technique of short, flowing lines, which gave the viewer a sense of movement and turbulence that may have represented Van Gogh’s interiority. Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits often contain vibrant colors and symbolism which references the most pivotal moments in her life and thus directly tell the viewer who she was beyond the canvas. They serve as a visual biography of Kahlo’s emotions, often depicting allusions to her “health problems and stormy marriage” (Friis 1). These choices in color, symbolism, and technique serve a purpose beyond composition to generate a silent yet dynamic conversation between artist and viewer.

This conversation manifests very differently when it comes to selfies. Reality TV star and socialite Kim Kardashian West, the proclaimed “queen of selfies,” is perhaps the closest thing to a ‘selfie artist.’ While some may argue that Kardashian West is, as MIT researcher Ethan Zuckerman describes, “a unit of unmerited fame,” her photogenic features and carefully-composed selfies have made her a household name (qtd. in Garber). So influential is her image that in 2015, Kardashian West released a book called Selfish, which compiled in 448 pages nine years’ worth of her selfies. In her Atlantic article “You Win, Kim Kardashian,” Megan Garber argues that the book goes beyond just a vanity project. Garber explains that while Kardashian West’s selfies “may be “harbingers of arrogance, or of insecurity, or a combination of the two,” they are also “evidence of an insistent materialism, of the conviction that one’s ‘look’ is not a fleeting thing, but rather a thing that can be made into media.” Many of her critics might argue her “virtues” exist only in aesthetics and her “vices” are the materialistic and shallow characteristics she is assumed to possess. However, this identity as seen by the viewer of the selfie is not one that Kardashian West chooses to express, but rather one that the public has invented for her. Her selfies provide silent, passive visuals that the viewer takes responsibility for interpreting without consideration for the subject’s intentions. Whether or not Kardashian West truly views herself as an ultra-gorgeous, unattainable human being remains unrevealed in the images alone. Her book flipped the script on what a self-portrait was initially—a mode of self-depiction—instead suggesting that the picture and the identity of the person in it belong as much to the viewer as to the author.

Former Associate Director of Digital Marketing at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Jia Jia Fei describes the selfie  as an “art object” turned “social object” (00:02:55). In her Tedx Talk “Art in the Age of Instagram,” Fei explains that with the transition of a piece from an art object to a social object, “the physical object” becomes “an object completely defined by the conversation happening around it rather than the experience itself” (00:03:01-00:03:15). As digital avenues of image production and distribution become more accessible, the ability to share art expands to potentially millions of viewers on the Internet. The scope of exposure to the work in such a short amount of time results in a shift in who dominates the conversation surrounding the art. No longer is the artist in control of the meaning of the piece, but rather the multitude of viewers in the comments section who collectively determine it, often disregarding the intention of the subject altogether. 

While altering the artist-viewer dynamic that self-portraits had previously established, the status of selfies as “social objects” have also helped alter the purpose behind self-depiction in the technological age. A 2018 study conducted by Sarah Diefenbach and Lara Christoforakos at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich investigated the psychological effects of selfie-taking as a means of self-presentation. The study participants’ reported feelings toward selfies—the emotional and social impacts that taking and posting selfies may have—varied from person to person, correlated to their levels of self-promotion and self-disclosure. Diefenbach and Christoforakos offer the possibility that the appeal of selfies lies not in a singular effect which could be deemed positive or negative, but rather in the fact that selfies provide “a lightweight possibility for self-presentation.” The selfie provides an outlet for self-expression that the self-portrait had previously laid claim to. However, it does so in a way that “feels good for people, [and] does not reveal too much about deeper motivations,” essentially allowing the viewer to determine whatever the image’s underlying purpose is. With such a rapid process for image production, image posting, and social feedback that allows the subject to “strategically adjust and experiment with the impression they make on others,” the subject of a selfie retains an adaptable and inconsequential identity in the context of the single image, something that was difficult to accomplish with self-portraits given the medium’s own set of constraints. Thus, the selfie as a mode of self-depiction may have altered the previously established motivation of wanting to express a complex identity to a viewer to wanting to ‘please’” the viewer instead (Diefenbach and Christoforakos).

The selfie’s key innovation is not simply technological. While the technological advances of cameras, smartphones, and social media led to the birth of the selfie in the early twenty-first century, the selfie’s most significant effect as an innovation is its alteration of how we view the practice of self-depiction in the twenty-first century. Where traditional self-portraits have served as a vehicle for artists to communicate their identities to viewers for centuries, the selfie shifted the artist-viewer dynamic by relying on the viewer to help shape the photo’s—and the artist’s— identity. Whether the selfie is of oneself on vacation, with friends, or simply alone in a bathroom with their smartphone pointed at the mirror, there is always an audience willing to praise or ridicule the image. In a highly connected, social media-centric world, the selfie serves as a reminder that everything, including our own identities, are a matter of public opinion. 

 

Works Cited

Brumfield, Ben. “Selfie named word of the year for 2013.” CNN, 20 Nov. 2013, www.cnn.com/2013/11/19/living/selfie-word-of-the-year/index.html.

Carbon, Claus-Christian. “Universal Principles of Depicting Oneself across the Centuries: From Renaissance Self-Portraits to Selfie-Photographs.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 8, no. 24, 2017, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00245

de Piles, Roger. The Principles of Painting. London, J. Osborn, 1743. 

Diefenbach, Sarah, and Lara Christoforakos. “The Selfie Paradox: Nobody Seems to Like Them Yet Everyone Has Reasons to Take Them. An Exploration of Psychological Functions of Selfies in Self-Presentation.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 8, no. 7, 2017, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00007.

Fei, Jia Jia. “Art in the Age of Instagram.” YouTube, uploaded by TEDx Talks, 2 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DLNFDQt8Pc.

Friis, Ronald J. “‘The Fury and Mire of Human Veins’: Frida Kahlo and Rosario Castellanos.” Hispania, vol. 87, no. 1, 2004, pp. 53-61. JSTOR, doi: 10.2307/20062973.

Garber, Megan. “You Win, Kim Kardashian.” The Atlantic, 13 May 2015, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/kim-kardashian-selfish/393113.

Keyes, George. “Portraiture—Mirror or Mask?” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 83, no. 1/4, 2009, pp. 4-11. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23183268.

“selfie, n.” Oxford English Dictionary Online, www.oed.com/view/Entry/390063?redirectedFrom=selfie&

Zucker, Steven, and Beth Harris. “Jan Van Eyck, Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (Self Portrait?), 1433.” YouTube, uploaded by Smarthistory, 5 Aug. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9vXathZikM.

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