Category Archives: selfies

Selfies, Part 5

Perhaps southerners aren’t as narcissistic as other Americans, or perhaps the tourist sites  in the south don’t attract the foreign tourists who are prone to selfie-taking, but for whatever reason, we saw very few selfies in the past few months.  However, now that we are in the Southwest at major tourist sites, the rate is picking up again:

Middleton Place, South Carolina.  An off-axis selfie.  Subtle.DSCF8317

Oak Alley, River Road, Louisiana.DSCF3930

The Perot Museum, Dallas.DSCF4241

Meta- selfie at the Perot Museum.  A digital interface which converts a real-time image of you into tilting pixel-tiles.DSCF4329

Disturbing selfies at Dealey Plaza, Dallas.  Selfies with the Texas Book Depository in the background.  Even more disturbing:  there are two small Xs which supposedly mark the spots where JFK was shot.  We see tourists running out to stand on those spots to have their pictures taken, on what is a very busy street.   Right up there with funeral selfies for showing us something we didn’t want to know about human behavior.  DSCF4361

One more of the Safe Bison-Selfies™.  San Antonio.  Yesterday at the Grand Canyon we heard that not only do tourists get killed taking Bison Selfies, but last year at the GC, one was killed taking an Elk Selfie.  If only we’d known.DSCF5619

Alamo Selfies.  We begin to hit our stride again.  Notice the lack of Asian tourist selfies – they don’t get the Alamo. (I don’t really get the Alamo either.)DSCF5664  DSCF5668DSCF5669

Hoover Dam Selfies.  Motherlode.  DSCF6980

Attempted Double-Selfie, but one kid’s balking.DSCF6990  DSCF6999

They have Selfie alcoves on the Hoover Dam, built 70 years before the selfie.DSCF7002

Las Vegas, Bellagio selfie.  DSCF7135

Las Vegas, Strip selfie.  DSCF7236

Zion Canyon, selfie in the Narrows.DSCF7448

Bryce Canyon, TWO Double-Selfies!DSCF7571  DSCF7638

Arches National Park:  the French have not yet discovered the Selfie-stick, so they have to use a tripod.  DSCF7827

Monument Valley.  My favorite selfie photo so far.  DSCF8038

Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River.  Selfies on the edge of the abyss – no guardrails, crumbly sandstone.  We see how much people really want the ultimate selfie.

The Japanese Cowboy-biker selfie.  They then asked to have Greta in the picture with them – we think they liked her fedora.DSCF8161  DSCF8189

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This photographer demonstrates the use of the Safe-Selfie Stick™ – hanging your phone out over the abyss on your stick, instead of inching out yourself.  DSCF8176

It turns out there area few other ways to take Safe-Selfies™:  the sitting selfie.DSCF8179

The lying-down selfie.  DSCF8181

On the other end of the spectrum, the most terrifying selfie ever – the toddler at the abyss selfie.DSCF8192

The Grand Canyon.  DSCF8377  DSCF8421

We thought this would be the ultimate location – I expected at least a triple-selfie.  I got close at one point, best I could get was a double.  DSCF8429

But in recompense, we came across something we’ve never seen before, a true selfie artist.  Whereas most selfie-takers are content to register their presence, perhaps with a smile, this young man took a series of selfies, each with a different gesture, or expression.  DSCF8401

He seems to understand the potential of the selfie like no other. He doesn’t just document, he expresses a series of feelings in the selfies.  We caught up with him at a couple of overlooks.  At one point, he handed his phone to me and asked me to take his picture.  I was nonplussed, I didn’t see how I could do it better than him, but I tried. DSCF8409

Selfie-Boy, as we call him, transcends the category of selfie-taking in a place.  The photo of the selfie suddenly was no longer about the selfie-in-place, it was all about him.  The Grand Canyon is lost in the distance, it fades out of the picture.  There is only the virtuosity of Selfie-Boy. DSCF8412

Selfies, Part 4

Perhaps it’s moving out of peak tourist season, or perhaps it’s moving away from peak tourist attractions, but the selfies aren’t going by as fast as they used to.  But here are the Selfies of the Northeast (including more Safe Bison-Selfies™).

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Times Square. There must be at least five selfies in this photo.

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The Paul Revere selfie.

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The Harvard Yard selfie.

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The Bio Labs Rhinoceros selfie.

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Meta-selfie No. 1

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Meta-selfie with child

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BPL selfie

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MFA meta-selfie. I believe this level of appropriation constitutes a whole new work.

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National gallery meta-selfie

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Whitney selfie.

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Independence Hall selfie. But facing away from Independence Hall, as the lighting is better on you!

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Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia. I think they thought it was Independence Hall.

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The Treasury in Washington – I think they thought it was the White House.

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Safe Bison-Selfie™ at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

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Safe Bison-Selfie™ at the Bio Labs.

The final set of self photos is available here.

Selfies, Part 3 (including the ultimate Safe Bison-Selfie™)

Since Mt. Rushmore was a gold mine for selfies, we should have known that Niagara Falls would be another.  The tourists couldn’t resist the lure of the selfie, no matter how wet or freezing they were:DSCF1578

this guy is standing in a dead-end spot which seems to be reserved for selfie-takers

this guy is standing in a dead-end spot which seems to be reserved for selfie-takers

it doesn't matter if the Falls don't appear in your selfie, as long as the lighting makes you look good.

it doesn’t matter if the Falls don’t appear in your selfie, as long as the lighting makes you look good.

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the girl on the left was spinning in circles, taking a selfie movie!

the girl on the left was spinning in circles, taking a selfie movie!

We thought that the last opportunity for a Safe Bison-Selfie™ had been in Pittsburgh (what could be safer than an extinct bison) but then we realized, we’re in Buffalo!  There must be some good bison opportunities here. And there were:

the stuffed animal Safe Bison-Selfie™

the stuffed animal Safe Bison-Selfie™

And the Ultimate Safe Bison-Selfie™, with the soft cushions!  (cue Cardinal Biggles):

Somehow, the bison soft cushions were in the gift shop at Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin house. I have no clue.

Somehow, the bison soft cushions were in the gift shop at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin D. Martin house. I have no clue.

Perhaps now our work is truly done.

No, more selfies continue here.

Selfies

I’ve always been fascinated by the tourism environment.  When you’re traveling, you are sometimes within the orbit of the place you’re visiting, but you are sometimes in the tourist world, which has varying degrees of connection to the real place.  I first became conscious of this in Europe in the 80s, when I saw some English tourists looking at small transparencies of Michelangelo sculptures on a slide viewing machine, rather than the actual objects themselves (which were in the same room).  For a while I photographed tourists having pictures taken of themselves in front of famous sights, being interested in exactly which sights and views they found most important.

The advent of the selfie has added a whole new layer of complexity to this.  In Yellowstone there were selfie-takers everywhere, and I once again began to photograph the act of photography, but this time just of selfies.  DSCF8296

The classic tourist sights are prime grounds for finding excellent selfie-photos.  Old Faithful:

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Mt. Rushmore is the best, where people often try to line their heads up with the Presidents. DSCF8452

Notice the extreme stretch required to take a selfie which includes a crowd. This man needs a selfie stick.

Notice the extreme stretch required to take a selfie which includes a crowd. This man needs a selfie stick.

Big city selfies:

the selfie as recording the act of genuflection before the symbol of The Donald.

the selfie as recording the act of genuflection before the symbol of The Donald.

One begins to wonder whether the rules of safe bison-selfie taking should also apply to modern architecture.

One begins to wonder whether the rules of safe bison-selfie taking should also apply to modern architecture.

Selfie in the Park with George.

Selfie in the Park with George.

We have decided to participate in, rather than just observe this phenomenon.  hence, the architecture-geek selfie:

the Architecture selfie.

the Architecture selfie.

And a new format, the reflected-selfie.  This is a practical matter for us, as our primitive Windowsphones do not have lenses on the front, and so our normal handheld phone or camera selfies are rather hit-or-miss;  the reflection gives us some degree of control.

The reflected selfie.

The reflected blob selfie.

Perhaps the most interesting sub-genre is the bison-selfie.  Recent years have seen the advent of the bison-selfie attack, where unwitting tourists venture too close to large, unpredictable wild animals, and sometimes inadvertently capture images of their imminent attack or demise.  Here is an example:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/23/bison-selfies-are-a-bad-idea-tourist-gored-in-yellowstone-as-another-photo-goes-awry/

but you can just Google bison selfie for many more.  The bison-selfie has become a meme, and is being celebrated in the popular press:

http://jezebel.com/terry-gross-interviews-the-author-about-her-new-book-bi-1719997411

Greta and I were well aware of the dangers of bison-selfies before we went to Yellowstone, so we took precautions.  The following are a series of photos we took which illustrate Safe Bison-Selfie™ protocols:

Safe Bison-Selfie No.2. Dead bison are much safer than live bison.

Safe Bison-Selfie™ No.2. Dead bison are much safer than live bison.

Safe Bison-Selfie No. 3, in the Field Museum. Stuffed bison are even safer when they are in glass cases.

Safe Bison-Selfie™ No. 3, in the Field Museum. Stuffed bison are even safer when they are in glass cases.

Safe Bison-Selfie No. 4: bronze bison are even safer than stuffed bison.

Safe Bison-Selfie™ No. 4: bronze bison are even safer than stuffed bison.

And finally, we arrive at what can be understood as a meta-selfie.  That is, a photograph which is a selfie, but at the same time is photograph of a person taking a selfie, and in fact, is a photograph of a person taking a photograph of a person taking a picture of a selfie.

The meta-selfie

The meta-selfie

Our work here is done.

More selfie photos continue here.