On a personal level, photography is a method to capture a moment so that it can be reviewed at a later point. It can also be used to create artworks but I recognize it as a method of communicating a certain moment in life with others. I see selfies as a way to engage yourself in the environment that you are trying to capture. The selfie can show certain emotions of a person or share a significant moment that expresses different thoughts. However, nowadays, selfies are taken to a more dramatic level by society and it might have lost its original purpose; which was to present “truth” to the audience. In modern society, there are many tools that can be used to manipulate the image, such as photoshop. Many people strive to change certain features in the image to present the “perfect” them to the audience so that they may be praised for their ideal features.
Cindy Sherman uses selfies in a completely different way than the modern society, as she distorts the features of her face to make herself appear unique meanwhile the major population is trying to idealize their facial features to please the expectations of society. She uses selfies to exaggerate an emotion that she is trying to reflect. Although I do not completely agree with her use of photography, I think it is a unique way to use selfies because it emphasizes on the emotions she is trying to present since she is distorting her face as opposed to putting emphasize it through idealizing facial features.
