Reading Blog #1

Reading Blog #1: Modern versus Renaissance; The Selfie

When you think of the term ‘selfie’ your mind does not automatically run to self-portraits of King Louis XVI or King Charles II. You think of the vast array of selfies you are exposed to over social media. Despite the disconnect between the modern-day selfie and these historic self-portraits, there are similarities between the two as well. When accessing the two forms of ‘selfie-taking’ the first, and the very obvious, difference you may notice is the difference between the mediums. One is a painting while the other is a picture. Two very different ways of portraying the self. The two different methods also differ in the amount of time they take to develop. A self-portrait from the renaissance may have taken an artist years to paint while a selfie is taken in an instant. The two forms are two different ways of achieving the same goal. They hail from different time periods where different methods of self-portrayal are valued. Today we value quantity and can find value in a high volume of self-portraits (selfies) whereas before, self-portraits were few and far between. It's a question of limits where selfies are limitless and self-portraits are limited.

While the two forms of self-portrait seem to be very different, they are similar in their deeper meaning. When we look past all the superficial differences, we see that the essence of both a selfie and a self-portrait are the same. The artist and the photographer had the same idea in mind when they executed their given functions. The point has always been, and always will be, to capture the self.