My Chicago Experience (July to August 2018)
Before I left, a friend of mine asked me to send her a selfie from Chicago. When I arrived in my hotel room, I took a selfie, in a way as required by my professional honor as a photographer: with the DSLR camera, with the tripod, with time release. I sent her the selfie, but it didn’t look like a selfie; it was a self-portrait from a tripod. So from then on I took selfie pictures, still using my camera and not my smartphone, but with my arm stretched out. This became so challenging that it crucially shaped my experience of the city.
Are the pictures now what we expect when we think of a selfie? Certainly not. The location is present, but I deliberately didn’t smile into the camera and it’s not the usual flattering, sugar-sweet pictures. It needs courage and self-confidence to show yourself »unfavorable«. That’s what we can learn from artists like my friend mentioned earlier who is relentlessly realistic in painting herself.