The ubiquitous ‘selfie’ has been dominating social media sites for some time now, but how do we differentiate between a vanity snap and legitimate art?
The self portrait – long practised by artists such as Frida Khalo, Van Gogh and Matisse – is permeating our society through the popularisation of the smart phone and the rise of the “selfie”. Our need to document ourselves in every exciting situation by taking a photo and sharing it with our friends is so omnipresent that it will become one of the defining popular culture elements of a generation – one that we will remember though quirky Instagram filters.
While it may just be a passing trend the effect the selfie is changing the genre of self portraiture as a legitimate art form but whether it is positive or negative is difficult to gauge. What we can determine; however, is that the selfie is popularising the act of turning the lens onto yourself that has often been cut down as an act of egotism – something that we still have a lot of difficulty tolerating.
When Henry Hanks won the Archibald prize with a self portrait in 1934 he faced criticism, not only for diverging from the more formal portraits of the day by depicting himself in his casual work clothes, but also because he had the audacity to consider himself ‘distinguished’ – one of the guidelines of the Archibald’s rules. It has long been an Australian trademark to cut down someone for being ‘up himself’, or exhibiting any sort of self adulation, and the self portrait was seen to be the epitome of that.
‘I think that there’s a general public view that a self portrait is a very vain thing, so people, artists have been criticised for doing themselves as if ‘oh, this is just an act of self love’ and especially in the case of the Archibald prize that this is your claiming yourself to be distinguished,’ says Sheona White, Director of Public Programs at AGNSW.
Many artists try to avoid that sort of criticism in a self portrait by changing the way they look in the piece. Some will make themselves look uglier, or completely indistinguishable. Wendy Sharpe won the Archibald in 1996 with a portrait of herself called Self portrait – as Diana of Erskineville. She had made herself look very sensual, and the press, according to White, ‘Made a big fuss of that, that she depicted herself in what they thought was a flattering light.’ Many artists try to avoid such criticism by going the other way.
‘It’s interesting how sometimes portraits of artists, self portraits of artists don’t look a lot like the artist. Well, they look like them but less attractive. It’s almost as if the artist is trying to get away from that thing of self love and actually look at something that’s more objective,’ says White.
In a selfie, the subject will very obviously and intentionally show themselves through rose coloured glasses. A photoshopped version of its subject often intends for the viewer – which in this case is usually a collection of friends and family – to be jealous and offers a sanitised version of one’s ideal self.
In the selfie we see the subject done up in its best on its way to the party, not in a pile of his or her own vomit the next morning. The selfie documents the happiest points of our lives, the ones we want to brag about. As a result it often becomes a sales pitch for your own life. “Here I am on holiday with my amazing boyfriend” says the picture when the reality is that they both got lost, fought about their insecurities and got sunburnt.
This is where the difference between the selfie and the self portrait lies. A self portrait often reflects an underlying insecurity; a darker unsung side of an artist who may paint beautiful outward looking landscapes, but when the viewpoint is turned we are presented with a completely different perspective.
The same is true with photography. Photographer Annie Leibovitz, who is famed for her iconic photo of a pregnant and beautiful Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991, turned the camera on herself naked and heavily pregnant, looking far less glamorous but every bit as beautiful. The two images, that of Moore and that of Leibovitz, are both of pregnant women, but the self portrait was far more revealing because it was of the self, making the image much more impactful.
‘I don’t think self portraiture is cosmetic in that way,’ says White. ‘There’s so much technique and skill and the concept behind it is very much your image and the confrontation of that, I just think it’s quite different, it doesn’t have that same casual cosmetic element to it but perhaps people will be less judgemental of artists doing self portraits, maybe people will not see it as some sort of self love and an exercise in vanity… perhaps self portraiture will become a more accepted style of expression.’
Artist Pia Johnson, who uses self portraiture to explore concepts of aloneness and identity in her exhibition Finding Yourself at Home Alone, agrees that while the selfie is becoming popularised, it in no way drowns out the legitimacy of what artists have been doing with self portraiture for years.
‘You could probably make the same claim about photography in general,’ she explains. ‘The whole Instagram, hipstamatic, iPhone world where everyone is a photographer; you could say drowns out the art or maybe even the appreciation of the actual technical art form, but in the end I think that people know the difference and people appreciate the difference.’
Johnson’s work is deliberately staged, well researched and took a great deal of time. She tells ArtsHub that one of the driving factors behind using herself as the subject is that she was available. It’s a common reason that artists will decide to embark on a self portrait: convenience. Sometimes, shyness can also draw an artist into undertaking a self portrait.
Cindy Sherman, for example, is one of the most respected photographers of last century. Sherman failed art school and had been given the opportunity to make it up over summer; however, she was too shy to ask anyone to sit for her. She then took photos of herself dressed up in various guises, and that became the cornerstone of her artistic practice.
‘I think there’s a little bit of that with a lot of artists who do self portraits, it’s this thing of negotiating with someone else, they have to sit there for long periods of time,’ says White. ‘If you’re just doing it yourself you don’t have those constraints, then you can just work on yourself for as long as you like and I think that’s a much greater motivator than the self love accusation.’
As Johnson says, ‘The point of difference is that I’m hoping that these exhibition photos are asking questions and make the viewer think back to their own experience, whereas I just don’t think that the selfie necessarily does that, it’s much more upfront and interested in its own thing.’
Finding Yourself at Home Alone will show at the Stockroom Kyneton from 13 July – 4 August 2013.
