Ever take photos of yourself? You know, the kind where you hold the camera at arms length, go all pouty (or angry or sultry) and then click? If so, you're not alone. Young people appear to be spending extraordinary amounts of time and creative effort on photographic self-portraits. Welcome to the digital age's claim to folk art!
According to this article in the Sunday Times, "Art historians say that the popularity of the self-portrait is unprecedented in the century-long history of the snapshot." Guy Stricherz, who sifted through 100,000 pictures over a period of 17 years while compiling a photography book (Americans in Kodachrome, 1945-65), found only about 100 self-portraits. He predicts: "I think it is probably a new genre of photography."
Wow! So, who knew all those pictures carefully chosen for display on Friendster might actually be considered art!
Some people see this growing phenomenon as a result of the advances in technology. It costs nothing to take pictures and upload them with digital cameras. There's no film wastage...photos can be deleted. They can be manipulated. There's almost no end to the creative possibilities of digital photography.
But to be considered folk art, there should be a reflection of society or traditions implicit in the works being created. Pyschologists seem to think there is, saying that these portraits are the way today's youth tries on different identities (where once this was done via clothes and hairstyles). Other scholars believe it has to do with how at ease young people today are with exposure. Jim Taylor, a trend consultant, puts it down to self-marketing, how much more comfortable young people are with pushing their own brand.
Or it could just be whimsy? Either way, there's a marked level of professionalism that's creeping into self-portraiture. It comes from experimentation and from the fact that most people do take these pictures of themselves pretty seriously, putting thought and effort into it. Folk art or not, this is definitely a concrete, emerging trend within the arts. Categorizing it can come later.
