Photography covers many areas, one of which is self-portrait. Its usage has become very popular in the past 20 years and therefore often found on social media. Here we are mostly relating to a modern self-portrait also known as selfie, which is usually captured with a smartphone or a digital camera.
The purpose of this diploma thesis is to describe and explore selfies trough theory and empirical usage. At the beginning of the thesis, we will describe how self-portrait developed through history until it became the today’s selfie. Then we will describe the psychological background or psychological side of selfies, that we share on social media and how can responses to them affect an individual. We will continue with examples of the most recognizable selfies and types of such photographs found online.
In the experimental part, selfies are presented, along with the parameters, which were set on the camera and brief art analysis. Ten selfies were taken with a digital camera Nikon D7000 with Nikkor lens (AF-S DX 35mm), while two selfies were taken with an analogous technique using Minolta XG 9. Through all the photos there are some similarities in the light, color tones and layout because we wanted the images to be related but somehow different from one another. In the photographs, we tried to emphasize and confirm the previously described compositional rules.
While photographing we could see how important was the knowledge, gained through the years of studying, during the practical training and while writing the theoretical part of this thesis. Nevertheless while taking photos the self-initiative, experience and ingenuity of an individual are important and how he or she experiences art.
|
