The selfie gene: Putting on our best face
There is an ongoing debate whether selfies represent a low point of modern-day culture or not. Jerry Saltz, the Pulitzer-winning art critic disagrees. He says, ‘selfies are our little diaries that say ‘I’m here, look at me’’. Whether one agrees or not seems irrelevant in the face of a statistic that’s worth obsessing about: Over one million selfies are posted on social media everyday. These images are proof that ease-of-use has quickened the narcissistic impulse in us. The recent - and ironic - response to this phenomenon is a pop-up museum in Los Angeles
Curated By: Madhu Kapparath
THE-SELF-AS-OTHERS SELFIE (2009 onwards)
Look closely. All these images are of the photographer Olivier Culmann dressed up as the quintessential Indian man. He uses his staged self-portraits as a tool to explore the representation of self and otherness. These photos depict coded constructs that contribute to building one’s self identity: Religion, caste, social class, occupation and regional origin. But it begs the quintessential Indian question: Was the identity of one’s own choosing or was it fate?
Source: LibraryOfCongress, RingedLibrary, NewYorker, NASA, BBC
