Cindy Sherman and Reinventing the Selfie

“Is this a good angle, I think need more light”, “Hey can we go somewhere with a nice background and good lighting, I want to take a selfie”, “No I don’t like this picture can you another picture for me please?”, “Make sure you get my whole outfit”, “I want this selfie to be perfect”. This is JUST an example of the million and one comments and questions we give ourselves when it comes to taking 10 pictures when in actuality we’re only going to like one enough to post. Why’s that because this idea of the selfie means taking a “good picture” something good enough to post. In fact if a was survey was taken on a large of group of people with an active Instagram account and they was asked, “How serious do you take your average selfie?” I bet all of them would say “Yes I do take my average selfie seriously”. Within the world of social media our accounts represent ourselves and how would anyone would like to present themselves in real life? In a well and presentable way same goes for social media. How do we present that? Through our selfies and pictures. Whether it’s to attract more followers, more likes and comments, more business, even potential relationships. We want our accounts to look good, we want our pictures to look good, it’s literally something we strive for. No one likes posting a bad picture, a picture that reveals their flaws. Social media is pretty much the only place where people can hide all of that if they choose to through the editing almost every social media app allows us to do.

However people like Cindy Sherman use her Instagram account to reimagine the average selfie flaws, weird, funny faces and all. Being a photographer she stands out in her own playing field, a one man show. Instead of using the editing option for our pictures to hide a couple blemishes, make the teeth a bit more whiter, make the skin clearer, Sherman ADDS on to it. She adds the blemishes, if the teeth aren’t that white so be it, if the skin isn’t so clear the better, original selfie doesn’t look too good well she’s just going to distort her face while editing anyways. Not considered a true art form she takes the selfie, reimagines it and makes it her own just like any art piece you’ve seen before. It’s a breath of fresh air, how there’s not a care in the world to her and how it comes out, she just has fun with it, if it looks weird, it’s a “good picture” to her and it does get posted. And she doesn’t expect it to be interpreted, although a photographer and anyone that is familiar with her work, her odd and weirdly edited selfies is just that, odd and weirdly edited selfies nothing more, nothing less. In fact it’s a coincidence because I myself have found an editing app that allows me to just get creative and fun with pictures I have throughout my camera roll and now I’m even more influenced to do more fun editing by Sherman because I see how eye catching a selfie could possibly be without looking like you’re trying to really edit a photo.