Photography? Haven’t heard that word in years. (Just joking!)
One person can take a picture of something meaningful and another person can take a picture of the same exact thing, and they can have totally different meanings and intentions. Photography is a way to show other people your perspective, to express yourself, or just simply to create and share memories. However, as mentioned in Aileen Kwun’s “Exploring the effects of social media on art and culture, one selfie at a time,” everything is about being relevant or irrelevant these days. That is why people post pictures on social media. It is to let the other people know that they are relevant and they are keeping up with the trends. But not everyone has the same intentions when they post photos.
Selfies, on one hand, can be seen as a work of art. Although I do not use Instagram, I think that most pictures that are on someone’s Instagram, were not the first picture they took. And it doesn’t have to be just Instagram; there are many other social media platforms. The images they post need to have the right lighting and angle and background and all that. It’s kind of hard to get that all right in the first shot, right? Perhaps they took multiple shots and made many edits. This means that the person taking the picture took their time to make their image a masterpiece. How can that not be seen as art?!?!
On a side note, Tumblr is my main source of news and social media and everything else. I used to take selfies. But I guess I stopped since I don’t socialize as much as I used to. Even the most recent pictures I took of myself were for professional reasons. (How boring.) But I definitely share other people’s selfies and photos of art. I feel like it is a way for me to show my support to the original poster, to express myself through their art, and to simply share it so other people can enjoy and experience it as well. Additionally, I get to see ideas for crafts, fashion and hair styles, anime to watch, manga to read, and more. It is a great way to feel and stay connected (especially for someone like me, who stays in most of the time).
