Reading 1: Universal Principles of Depicting Oneself across the Centuries

Full Title:

Universal Principles of Depicting Oneself across the Centuries: From Renaissance Self-Portraits to Selfie-Photograph.

Response:

The article opens by talking about the similarities between the modern selfie and the older painted self-depictions having a lot in common. People participated for the same common psychological factors and shared properties. I personally think it makes sense that paintings needed more preparation to finish before selfies because they also have a lot more thought that needs to go into planning them. A painting is about getting the painstaking details correct, while a selfie is more about capturing a certain authentic moment easily at a certain time. Because paintings are created from a sophisticated plan that needs detailed processes mapped out beforehand, an artist can only create a few self portrait paintings during their life. On the other hand, the selfie-ist is able to take multiple photos in one sitting (but the photos may not be that original or unique). Personally, I think selfies give us

the opportunity to produce a quick piece of art of ourselves, but I agree that they are not a very unique way to represent ourselves since most people in the modern world approach selfie taking in the same way. This unfortunately comes from the fact that a lot more people in the modern world have access to a smartphone camera (or 2 or 3 on the same phone) and a lot more modern people would find it easier to take a photograph before they paint a painting. The easiness of a selfie allows them to be produced in mass without much thought as to why, how you would like to depict them, and how much detail you want to describe. However, it is important to remember that the spontaneousness and potential low quality-ness of the selfie does not necessarily mean that zero effort has gone into the planning. I think the idea of using various paraphernalia that has secret meaning in Dürer's painting is an excellent way to tell a lot about a person/character being depicted without outright having to tell the reader/reactionist. It shows through selfie-ists by them posing a certain way in order to depict that they are slimmer and more attractive.

Personally, I think the older self-portraits are a more quality way of producing self-portraiture of yourself because it allows you to tap into the detailed descriptive processes in order to use symbols and colors to tell a lot about another person. But, I do think the modern selfie has made the ability to document yourself way faster and easier. However, I don't always personally believe that faster is neccisarily better because the selfie sort of takes away from that entire process that is the self-portrait painting. It seems like selfie taking is a way to make yourself look better while self-portraiture paintings were just supposed to describe the person in general. There is still that want to depict yourself in an attractive way, but generally I think people would avoid going to crazy lengths (editing, Facetuning, Photoshopping of selfies) to depict themselves in attractive looking poses in portraiture. I think that selfies today generally allow people to quickly show the best and most attractive parts of themselves instantly almost (but I realize that isn't all they should be boiled down to). While paintings allow you to just see the person depicted with their symbolism surrounding them, you interpret the painting to understand more about them as a person (which, if you think about it, you're doing the same thing with the selfie as well). Overall, both are just different ways of approaching self-documentation and at the end of the day we cannot judge selfie taking just because it may be faster or lower quality.