Instagramatology: #DesperateSelfie
2011
Large Format Photography | Digital Photography | Digital Painting | HD Videography
40” x 33”
4x5 Large Format Film Photography
Addressing the obsession of visually capturing the self in today’s smartphone culture, there is a hyperreality in the way in which online social media networks have completely displaced natural social realities.
In this now ubiquitous and artificial landscape, the individual ego is perpetuated through digitally stylized and curated versions of oneself rather than allowing the complexity of one's real identity to be organically engaged in real life. A new sense of individual self-worth, or self-loathing, is defined by the number of followers one collects, rather than being based on the merit of one's character or actions.
After The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait) from 1845, by Courbet, this phenomenological study serves as a medium for further cultural awareness on the impact of social media on the human condition, as our contemporary sense of being is embodied in an extended technological world.
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127” x 65” Large Format C-Print
Instagrammatology: #DesperateSelfie
40” x 20” Digital Painting C-Print
After The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait) from 1845, by Courbet
“Extension and identity theories may be the keys to understanding why it has become increasingly pertinent to ‘exist’ as a disembodied, extended self online rather than merely a corporal self in the ‘real’ world. These extensions deserve to be explored in depth to better understand the mind-altering effects of our irrepressible yet misunderstood relationship with technology.”
–Marshall Mcluhan
The medium acts as an extension of consciousness.
The medium is still the message.
Work in collaboration with Clayton Smith Westmeier
