Traditional portraiture was a pastime only afforded by the rich elite, deliberately posed and choreographed. A painting was commissioned to demonstrate wealth, status and power- a means to attract attention or admiration- basically ‘showing off’ to others, similarities can be drawn with out obsession with selfies on social media today.

Fashion photographer Richard Avedon is today considered one of the greatest American photographers. It is impossible to write the history of photography without him. Avedon would at times evoke reactions from his portrait subjects by guiding them into uncomfortable areas of discussion or asking them psychologically probing questions, Through these means he would produce images revealing aspects of his subject’s character and personality that were not typically captured by others.

Today, selfies have become huge. People are obsessed with their image. Programmes like Instagram encourage people to take selfies and share their lives with the rest of the world. This can be quite damaging as social media sets certain stereo types as to what people should look like.

My Selfie

For my selfie. I decided to do something which showed my love of graphic design. I started off by adding three selfies onto Photoshop and changed the opacities of the layers so that each image could be seen underneath.  I then added some effects like mezzo-tint and colour halftone.