Human beings have rendered images of themselves in one form or another since the beginning of our species. The desire to try and capture the human essence in something that will outlast the physical body is universal; the need to encapsulate our understandings of “self” and “others” is found in every culture throughout the world. But have digital cameras, selfie sticks, iPhones, and Snapchat made such a pursuit so mind numbingly easy, that it has now completely lost it’s value?
I love technology. I love how it brings people together, how it enables to connect, to create. I’m a gear-head, and I don’t think that will ever change, but in the last couple of years I have started to grow more cynical about the role of technology in art and in our everyday lives. Now, before a commenter accuses me of being some sort of grumpy curmudgeon, I’ll remind you that I am barely in my late 20’s (like, I’m turning 27 on Saturday). I’m not an old man sitting on my porch grumbling about “kids these days”. I just see some things in the world that bother me, maybe they bother you too.
It all really started when my wife and I took a trip to Paris in the summer of 2014. Neither of us had ever been out of the country, let alone traveled overseas, and Paris had been a dream for years. I of course took my camera, even picking up a Fuji X-T1 kit so I didn’t have to lug my full size DSLR around, and took many photos on the trip. I’ll be honest though that I took far less than I had expected, I was too busy experiencing everything around me to stop and really nail some killer shots for my Instagram feed.
I lied, I got some nice shots for Instagram
I probably shouldn’t have been, but I found myself shocked at the immense number of people whose only goal seemed to be to grab a selfie of themselves with something famous. I understand that need in the general sense I suppose, families have always taken photos of themselves in front of monuments and historical sites, or other “big” things, but there was something about the way it happened in Paris that just got to me. These feelings really crystallized for me when we visited the Louvre. I remember stopping in front of the Venus de Milo and wanting to stop for a moment just to take her in, but barely being able to look for even a few seconds because of the flurry of selfie sticks and cell phones of people trying to take a picture with her. I did eventually manage to grab a photo of my own, timing it right as someone walked behind the statue so they were hidden, but the amount of effort it took to get it was pretty intense.
The Venus de Milo, de Minus all the tourists.
A little while later we decided to try our luck at seeing the Mona Lisa, if you’ve ever tried to make it to the front of the crowd at a packed concert, then you know what that experience was like. Thousands of people pressing against each other, most of them wanting nothing more than to grab a selfie with a painting they probably knew nothing about and had spent no actual time looking at. Directly across from the Mona Lisa was a giant painting called “The Wedding at Cana”, it measures roughly 20 feet by 32 feet, and I would bet you the majority of the people who went in the room don’t even remember it, because they weren’t there for the art. Check out the photo below, you can see the reflection of all of us pressing around each other for the chance to take a photo with Mona.
I did it! I got her!
There’s a chance I’m coming across as hypocritical, criticizing people for taking selfies with art like I’m somehow better because I didn’t add myself to the image, but I think that’s a distinction worth noting. There was a time when a sketch or a painting were the only way to make a visual recording of something you saw. They required some level of effort to produce, they required actually looking at what was around you, taking it in, contemplating it on some level. Photography has removed that contemplation to varying degrees, first with mass consumer film cameras, followed later by digital, and now the camera that every person has on the phone in their pocket. The fact that it takes only a few seconds to take an image of something removes almost any need to think about what you are doing. It enables you to stand in front of one of the most famous sculptures in history and think something like “You know what would improve this? Me.”
After we made it out of the hall with the Mona Lisa, we went upstairs to the actual galleries where the majority of the Louvre’s art collection is housed. The difference was astounding. The galleries were almost empty. We spent several hours there and saw maybe only 30 other people. There were true masterpieces hanging in these halls, works by famous artists that you would recognize if you were paying attention in history class, but they went mostly unseen.
Despite how it might sound, this isn’t an article calling for a cessation of the selfie, or the end of Instagram, it’s an article about thinking. Do we think about what we do? Do we actually notice the things we see? Do we appreciate art as thing of beauty in and of itself, or do we view it only as a background for a self portrait?
When I was shooting professional sports, people would always ask me how much fun I had at games, or talk about how jealous they were that I got to work on the sidelines. What I could never really get them to understand is that, when you’re working, the camera is a filter that removes most of the emotional context. I took photos of emotional moments that told great stories that I had minimal emotional connection to, because I was the one taking the picture. The camera always removes us from the moment to one degree or another. As photographers, we find ways to overcome that by utilizing the camera in the same way an artist uses a brush, but when you remove intention from the equation, all you’re left with is a photo of yourself with some art that you never really saw in the first place.
Couldn't agree more. Having just spent a week traveling the southwest USA via as many national parks as we could cram in, the throngs of people taking selfies everywhere was insane. Getting a photo of the Grand Canyon that manages to convey the vastness of the place is hard enough without cramming your face in 2/3 of the shot...
Agreed, however when you're doing a 6 day, 3800km whirlwind tour of the area it's not so easy to spend lots of time in any one area!
Just a thought here, but do you think this "narcissism" is truly a recent phenomenon, or did the cell phone camera and facebook/instagram/etc just bring it out in everyone? I can remember a time (yea, I'm not that old, but old enough) when there was no digital, and having a camera, esp 35mm, was rather unique as I traveled the world. So has our culture and human nature shifted, or have we woken a sleeping beast? Not that it matters, it's annoying as HELL! ;)
Oh absolutely it's not a new thing. I tried to get at that in one of my opening paragraphs. I think it's more that current societal shifts and the availability of high-end technology to the masses has made that narcissism so easy to engage in that we now do it without thought. Taking pictures of yourself is so easy and so prevalent that it's ingrained in our culture pretty much from birth now, so we do it without thinking. It's that lack of thinking that is going to continue to hurt us as a society.
The internet practically killed the Narcissist Buffer most of us have. I wonder what would happen if suddenly all camera phones in world stopped working? "What a wonderful world that would be."
Another argument for taking the road less traveled.
I really liked what you had to say about taking in the art and appreciating it. People don't do that enough
I agree. Taking the time to look at the subject, be it art/architecture/landscape/whatever and appreciate what it is you're looking at before or after you snap a photo of it, and appreciate it, is not common anymore. Especially with the selfie crowd.
If its awesome enough that you want your photo with it, why not take a moment and enjoy the piece itself?
Well, on the bright side:
- is this just me selfies are replacing grafitti? A rather logical step. Why carve "Arrhhhrrghhhh" on a cave hoping someone else you don't know will read it someday when you can instantly share a picture of yourself saying "arghhhhghgg" and share the picture with all your virtual firends?
- Occasionally selfying people are interesting subjects themselves. Specially in Paris. There is a kind of ethnology of the selfie.
Might make for a great art series, traveling the world photographing people taking selfies in front of monuments
Smart people can tell the difference between a decent artist and all the rest of the narcissists that are calling themselves artists. Narcissism is a worldwide pandemic problem for sure.
Fun article, always interesting to consider the social aspect of photography. When it comes to art, I feel like if you're there to appreciate the art then you should just look at it. Don't take a photo of yourself with it, don't take a photo of it at all. Just look at it, or listen if it's a concert. Enjoy the experience. You're not going to create anything better or unique by taking a photo, so let it be. But if you want to gain some social standing, brag online, and spark some short conversations? You'll want that selfie. You'll NEED that selfie.
How many of us care about art more than we care about our social life?
Great clarification about instant feedback bs instant image creation being the actual differentiator. I thinks that's what I meant in my head but didn't write it out as well.
I think we actually completely agree, when I say "technology" I'm not referencing the physical machines we use, but more "technology" as an all encompassing term for the power of tech in our everyday lives and how it has pervaded our every inch of our lives in a way that drastically alters how we interact with the world around us.
I wasn't saying that art itself has lost its value, I was saying that the recording of ourselves loses some of its soul and meaning when it becomes distilled down to a push of a button and a digital file that is immediately replaced and supplanted over and over again. By removing the intentionality and engagement from the process, all we are left with is the process; devoid of life and meaning.
alot of this i belive has been present since the invention of the self timer, not the selfie stick.
As photographers we like to shoot a statue, or a landmark. Try and make the image "your own" and when you look back it gives you a fond memory or not so fond on the labourous journey it took.
But there are alot of people who then view that image and genuinely belive that the image is boring, unless someone in is in the shot.
With tech making it easier, the person being inserted into the shot is them selfs.
Going through my mothers old photo albums recently and i found all our old holiday images, from the early 90s,
Amazing landmarks and places seen. But she felt had to have someone inserted. and so next to the eiffel tower, or the gondolas in Venice in thier own right are beautilful images, is inserted a bored, grumpy not wanting to play, a very much younger me.
Even to this day, my mother believes that you can not shoot a landmark without having your loved one in the shot.
So all the selfie stick users, leave them to it.
They go home upload thier images happy of a good holiday,
and you post the killer shot of the same location.
Everyone is happy.
and obviously you only took the better shot as you have a better camera :)
oh I just love your mother's point of view "my mother believes that you can not shoot a landmark without having your loved one in the shot."
I think it's a charming sentiment as well - and also one that's very different to a selfie with the monument. For Lee's mother, it seems the important thing for her to remember is being at said monument with a loved one. The monument is great, but sharing it with her loved ones is what's really important.
"Is the Narcissism of Photography Ruining Art?" No
I think the saddest part of all is that people, in desire to document the moments, actually are missing these precious moments, not living them. I'm not sure they're even aware of that.
People always wanted to document their moments. That's why our parents have tons of photos stacked away in the attic. That's no different from being shared and lost in the internet to never be seen again. Its over stimulation, today we see EVERYONES! trip not just close friends and family.
Everything you said constantly repeats it self since the time disposable film cameras got to the masses. The medium changed but not the action. When I see articles like this, its more of trying to find something to complain about (no disrespect). The action you described hasn't changed whether it was getting a picture in front of something or ignoring what was around them. The crowded places were always crowded. Give them a disposable camera and they would do the same thing. . We just changed the interaction of asking people to do it for us. I believe its a result of over stimulation of content. Everything is getting shoved in our face all at once. Where before we had to go to somebody's house to see and talk about the pictures and stories of their travel.
I don't think the selfie is affecting the creation of art too much. Not to sound mean or anything but I'd be willing to hypothesize that the vast majority of selfie takers weren't going to create any kind of art anyways.
Selfies are certainly nothing that has resulted from new technology - Lee Friedlander has been shooting self portraits from the 60's until today. The only thing that differentiates his and what you saw in Paris is that his photos were shot to reveal their own making, for example leaving the shadow of his tripod in shot. He enjoys the capturing the self-interaction, rather than pretending someone else took the photo.
One thing I would say that technology has offered is an always watching audience. Social media offers a platform for us to present our own reality tv show whenever we like, knowing someone will always be observing. This is the key reason why this phenomena has grown to such an extent.
I think it's this that causes a lot of frustration with selfies. Whilst we don't deny the fact someone went to see the Mona Lisa, we resent that they thought taking a photo of themselves was of greater importance than enjoying the art in the flesh. Putting reality on hold just to shoot a photo that makes them appear cultured or whatever message they hoped to convey to their snapchat/insta/twitter/fb followers...
“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.”
That Isherwood quote resonates with me...although the 'not thinking' part is inconvenient for my argument here. Some things I want to experience with full concentration, through my eyes and not intermediated by a viewfinder. If I take the trouble to visit a gallery, it's to experience the images. I don't want anything to take the edge off the experience. So no photographs...and certainly not a selfie.
If the goal of the photographer is to capture an unique image, especially of a popular subject, say the Mona Lisa. I thought: bring up Google Images and search for >Mona Lisa and note how many images which only show the Mona Lisa, must be a ton right? Now, search for the ONE Image of the Mona Lisa and myself in it. I must say {as I pat myself on the back} that is one mighty fine image and it would be quite unique ... But yes, I confess that image would also be quite narcissistic!
It's funny, I"ve never been a "selfie" taker, and when I was living abroad and travelling a lot that was always the complaint I got from my family who was looking at my pictures, that I wasn't in any of them.
Andrew,
Great and timely article.
As indicated via the numerous and good comments, this is obviously a complicated issue with numerous caveats and exceptions and this / that. I grew up with film (shooting, processing etc...) and definitely love the technological advancements in photography and embrace it 100%. On the otherhand, I'm equally dismayed with the seemingly robotic / mindless approach via many towards life: ie the photography you mentioned in the article, the Instagram mentality, how about being in a social situation and observing how many (most) people are often sitting with their face glued to their phone. I'm guilty as the next person with doing such things and having the human tendency to live on autopilot.
With this phenomena being a human phenomena and thus a complicated issue, the only "solution" I've come up with (thus far) is to personally take the road less traveled (as already mentioned). To consciously go (plan) places (or times of the year) where it still hasn't been overrun by the masses, consciously say "no" to robotic living and habits (ie fiddling with my phone when there is nothing to do etc...) and just to live... simply and authentically (as much as possible).
Let's talk about narcissism. You're taking pictures of pieces of art that someone already created. Your photo of it is insignificant. Your photo of some one else's art isn't art, as much as a selfie in front of it isn't art. Grow up.
Interesting article. It brought a few things I've read in books to mind ... one was that when re-reading On Photography recently there was a page I read where I thought 'if you replace the word Photography with Facebook then this would be just as true' ... I can't remember the page number but it was about people visiting places to get the photograph, consuming things and places through photography. The same is now true of the social media snapshot, the selfie, the profile picture.
The second thing it reminded me of was the conclusion of a book I read recently; the author is in the Scottish Portrait Gallery looking at a painting by Whistler which causes him to ponder the following ...
"One of the accompanying notes to the painting was a quote from Whistler, to the effect that during his time in the city he had 'learned to know a Venice that others never seem to have perceived'. Whistler's allusion to a more refined sensibility had me questioning my own perceptiveness of the world around me. Do I see the Venice that everyone else sees, or do I see Whistler's? I decided that it was the former, that I too often wait to be directed to beauty - by poets, painters, directors, guide books - rather than discover it for myself. Was it the case that Whistler possessed a sharper, more intense perceptive faculty, genetically determined? Or did me merely pay the world more attention, which permitted him to see more?"
Selfies are what they are. A fun,throwaway statement. I dont see them as being a threat unless someone decides theyre an art form in their own right. It will happen, if it hasnt already. New mona lisa anyone?
I don't understand selfies either. I did hand my camera to two strangers at Kennedy Space Center for a photograph of me against the congratulatory signature wall for the final Space Shuttle mission of Atlantis. One of the guys didn't know how to use a manual focus film camera, so he handed it to his friend.
I think with digital, it's easy to fake the "I was there" photo, but with physical media like film, there is less likelihood of faking it.
I'm shooting more digital than film now; the C-41 "one-hour labs" have disappeared locally with the switch to the "dry processing" and destructing developing.
While I do believe we live in a narcissistic society and I do wish imagery was a bit more intentional throughout the masses, I find myself to be extremely grateful for modern technology and what it allows us to do and document. To bring it down to a simple, non professional level, I'm coming from a place where my father passed away suddenly when I was only 10 years old. He was the natural documenter and always had the camera or video camera in front of his face. He rarely made it into pictures and what was left behind was a small handful of photographs of him. These are all I have had to tell his story to my children. How I wish there had been an easy and simple way for him to take self-portraits back then ;) So while I hate the term "selfie" because it's what people are doing in their bathrooms and while driving in the car, I do think there is extreme value in self-portraits and the ease of including yourself in pictures these days with the technology we have. Because as generic as they may seem in the moment, it's documenting life. It's documenting that "I was here". That "we were here". And then you step back and photograph the view for what it is and all by itself to revel in the beauty of it ;)
I travelled to Europe a year ago and purposely took photos (mostly) without people where possible. I took my iPhone and a few selfies. My main focus was new places and experiences, which did not include people. Despite the crowds I usually framed the image above the crowds. Only rarely including people.
I did manage to unwind and relax occasionally with my fellow travellers, so it wasn't all picture taking.