1. What is the difference between a ‘selfie’ and a self-portrait?
Generally, Self-portrait is considered as a type of art/painting for thousands year. Selfie, as a new term that popped up in five decades, is considered as a type of photo that people take of themselves. In the past, self-portraits were displayed in museums and the owners’ houses for others to appreciate.Self-protrait contains a more serious feeling of art creation. However, selfie, now as a quick and fast way of creating “self-portrait”, gives people more entertaining options. Selfie also conveys a job of documenting the moment instead of just drawing one’s appearance in a certain period of time.
2. Can selfies be art?
Yes,definitely. Even though people concerned selfies as narcissism and not as serious as self-portrait. But taking selfie is still a way for people/artist to present themselves. The formula of art is unlimited. Selfie is also a way of presenting oneself. And to be honest, we do see a lot of selfies containing nice composition,lighting etc.
3. What was your emotional response to each of these articles?
It is very interesting to see these two article which discussed similar topic in two different way — report and personal statement. Kate Murphy from New York Times logically examined selfie phenomenon by doing research and analyzing the facts. I agree with most of the points of Murphy. Selfie, as a new communicative way, reflects people’s mind and emotion well, also enhances the frequency of interaction between one to the other. And I believe there are more things about selfie that we should learn about.Responding to Richard Prince’s statement, I found out he is an very radical artist.His notion of art/photography has been advanced since thirty years ago. From his statement, he denoted his idea and his perspective of self-portrait which is very different from the others and respecting the appearance owners’ opinion. I like the way he keeps himself updated and renews the notion of art.
4. By re-photographing other people’s photos Richard Prince takes on ownership and authorship of these images. What do you think is his message?
Firstly, the notion of self-portrait/selfie is quite showing the best vision of one. At the really beginning, Prince asked others for five pictures they already took and he would pick the best one for them as the final presentation. In this way, Prince gives them a primary chance to choose their self-portrait and he then helps them presenting. It conveys the message of selfies/self portraits take responsibility of showing the appearance that owners will satisfy with.
5. What do you think, from your personal experience, is the significance of selfies in our culture? Why are they so popular? How does the prevalence of selfies affect communication online and in person, from what you’ve seen in your circle of family and friends?
Nowadays, when a lot of people live under a high pressure environment, sharing selfies grows into an accessible method of not only entertaining but also documenting a moment or just simply interacting with family and friends.In my family and friend circle, especially for young who posts selfies more than others, the idea of selfie is much more like sharing a visual expression than just showing one’s appearance on the internet since the image can impress people better than the pure text from the perception of psychology. People send a lot of stickers to others via the online chatting window to articulate their feelings, it is the same idea as sending selfies which also conveys a better outcome of expressing oneself than plain words. Figure can provide us better imagination then text because it’s explicit and real.
6. Are selfies inherently ‘fake’, or can they express authenticity?
Although selfies undertakes the accusation of narcissism, however, in my opinion selfie does express the authenticity in it’s own way. There are many ways for people to post selfies, Instagram, Facebook, tumblr, snapchat…,People sending snapchat to others with their selfies which will appear least then ten seconds shows that selfie is a way for people to communicate visually. And it feels real and cordial when seeing once’s facial expression instead of pure text. Moreover, people who do a lot of photoshop always get punished by audiences.However, ps their selfies to the level that they want to present in the public, truly reflects the idea from their brain and deep heart.
7. Is there a correlation that you see between selfies and gender?
From what I see through the social networking, more girls post selfies and photos then boys.Even though for a lot of people posting photos and selfies is for a better communication, but there are amount of people(girls and boys, maybe more girls than boys) takes this chance to present themselves and attract others.
Good reflection.
Check grammar, there are some issues.