Marleigh V. D.

Bonnie Robinson

ENGL 1117 35&53

10 March 2019

“Artists have anticipated almost every form of self-expression we see in
digital media“, says author Jill Walker Rettburg in the third chapter of her book Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs, and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. She continues, “Of course we… have centuries of diaries and self portraits…”

Though many accurse (which is a word, despite what spellcheck thinks) the time spent by young people staring at their image in order to capture themselves, doing so is nothing new. The first photographic ‘selfie’ is, arguably, the self portrait of Robert Cornelius taken in 1839. When it comes to early examples of painted self-portraits, Saint Dunstan drew himself prostrate in front of a Christ figure circa 950 AD. So long as there has been art, there have been self-depictions. In their own time, the pattern of history makes it likely that these portraits were seen as an unsavory thing, showing the self-obsession of the artist. Even the ancient Greeks had the cautionary tale of Narcissus, who was doomed to stare at his own reflection for all time. Every time an adult calls a teenager immoral for taking a selfie, that teenager joins the crowd of creatives who have been called the same for millennia.

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The relationship with the self is a dangerous, yet crucial relationship. Though self portraits and selfies have been scorned as being vain, the journey to see oneself, especially for young people, is a journey that always occurs. Often, we use technology to do this. For some, the technology has been parchment and ink. For other, cameras and smartphones. Even the water by which the narcissus flower grows is a technology with which one may see oneself.

With seeing oneself, a combination of self loathing and self love walks, just behind. Imagine a woman with heavy features and dark eyes. Fine black hairs form a thin mustache above her lip, and her eyebrows have grown together. I am describing, of course, beauty icon and self-portrait visionary Frida Kahlo. Alongside her admirable gallery of intimate self portraits, many pictures exist showing Frida in her many forms, all centered around the same beautiful woman with the eyebrows and the mustache. In the ‘age of the selfie’ and the topic of self reflections, Frida reminds me that who we are is art, and what we do is creating.

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Returning to the Seeing Ourselves Through Technology book, Rettburg says “both the artists and the developers create art and tools that respond to the culture at the time. The artists are usually first.” Art and tools can be more than paint on canvas and computers and microchips. Art and tools can be the self portrait and a unique angle of the camera. Art and tools can be makeup and a unique mixing of foundations. Arts and tools go hand and hand, each facilitating a need for the creation of the other.

Someday, when selfies are a thing of the past, there will be some new way of self representation. Maybe we will hearken back to the days of written self-representation, and instead of vlogs, people will constantly narrate their lives into speech-to-text programs. Perhaps filters will be taken to a new level, and few will know of a day when cameras did not automatically take out acne and red eyes. Whatever happens, so long as there are humans, there will be self-representation, and we. are. here. for. it.

Work(s) Cited:

Craig, Emerson Rose. “The History of Self-Portraits.” Artstein, Artstein, 21 May 2018, www.artstein.co.uk/features/identity/history-of-self-portraits.

“Frida Kahlo and Her Paintings.” Frida Kahlo: Paintings, Biography, Quotes, FridaKahlo.org, www.fridakahlo.org/.

Rettberg, Jill Walker. Seeing Ourselves Through Technology:
How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and
Shape Ourselves. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
doi: 10.1057/9781137476661.0004.

“Robert Cornelius’ Self-Portrait: The First Ever ‘Selfie’ (1839).” The Public Domain Review, 26 Apr. 2018, publicdomainreview.org/collections/robert-cornelius-self-portrait-the-first-ever-selfie-1839/.

“The Myth of Narcissus, Echo and Narcissus.” Greek Myths & Greek Mythology, Greek Myths & Greek Mythology, 31 July 2009, www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/narcissus-myth-echo/.