Sunday, March 16, 2014

A brief history of the selfie

In November, Oxford Dictionaries named selfie the international Word of the Year.

[For those of you unfamiliar with the word selfie, it is, per Oxford Dictionaries, "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."]

According to Oxford Dictionaries (the people responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary), the first use of the term dates back to 2002, though the word didn't really take off until 10 years later.

I, however, would argue that selfies have been around for much longer. Much much longer.

For example, take a look at this selfie Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn did when he was 24, back in 1630.






















[Hmm.... I wonder what filter he used?]

And here's a selfie Vincent van Gogh took back in 1889.






















[I bet van Gogh used the Mad Artist filter.]

And here's a selfie Pablo Picasso did back in 1901, during his blue period, when he was 19 or 20...






















And this crazy one he did six years later, in 1907.






















Those twentysomethings, I tell ya.

And Andy Warhol was, like, the King of the Selfie.






















You try getting someone to pay millions of dollars for your selfies -- and hang them in a museum.

Though getting millions of people to watch your music video titled #SELFIE? Not a problem.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought Duck lips were required, if so, those others need more pouting!