$\"Woman$ “Oh, wait. Let me just get a picture of myself snarfing down some pizza!”
\u00a9 Scott Bradley<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
Selfies include the pornographic and the macabre with people posing in\u00a0front of cadavers or faking their own deaths (and setting off Internet rumors about it).<\/p>\n
Some people risk their lives just to get what’s known as an extreme selfie <\/strong><\/a>like the one\u00a0taken by Christian as he ran for his life from angry bulls in last week’s Houston Bull Run.<\/p>\n
But downsides aside, the creative side of selfies keeps me on their side.<\/p>\n
The Creative Value of Selfies<\/h4>\n
Always a champion of creative expression, I like how selfies keep creativity flowing, so I offer these three upsides in their defense:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
1. Selfies Contribute Works of Art to the World<\/strong><\/p>\n
I admire the selfies that—with little background—capture the essence of \u00a0an individual and add to the world’s body of portrait art.<\/p>\n
$\"Selfie$ This portrait photographer and the subject
are one and the same.
\u00a9 Yongzhe Wu<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
Captivating portraits rely on that intangible talent, the privy of famous portrait photographers, to snap the picture when the subject’s personality peers through. Perhaps that’s easier in a selfie because subject and photographer are the same.<\/p>\n
With some staging and the ever-present mirror, some selfies become fascinating still life art—the kind that makes me linger and look deeper into the photo.<\/p>\n
$\"Selfie$
Selfie photographers thrive on mirrors, bathroom and otherwise,
to set the image into a creative scene.
\u00a9 Javier Maubecin<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
An interesting angle and color-coordinated styling turns an ordinary evening at home into a creative stage.<\/p>\n
$\"Selfie$
Many selfies unleash creativity with the angle
of the shot and careful styling.
\u00a9 Hoang Minh Trang<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
2. Selfies Create a New Concept of Beauty<\/strong><\/p>\n
Smart phones give people, especially girls and women, more than the power to take a picture.<\/p>\n
Selfies balance out images of the perfect faces and bodies dished up by advertisers and the media with pictures of real people, thereby creating not just a new but a real concept of beauty. As Dr. Sarah J. Gervais says in\u00a0Psychology Today<\/a>, <\/em>we can\u00a0<\/em>now “. . . look through our\u00a0Instagram feed\u00a0and see images of real people—with beautiful diversity.”<\/p>\n
$\"Selfie$ The right angle? The right flip to the curl?
A selfie photographer gets to choose.
\u00a9 Gina Spitale<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n
The selfie has handed over the controls. Now people can experiment with creative expression, deciding how they want to look and which presentation they want to share.<\/p>\n
3. Selfies Are Creative Artifacts for Visual Diaries<\/strong><\/p>\n
Not all selfies are just about self. Rather, they have documentary value in recording personal history. \u00a0A simple selfie in the perfect location can be AMAZING, and it says, “I was here.”<\/p>\n
$\"An$
An artifact of the sea and me
\u00a9 Niccolo Simoncini\/iStock<\/p><\/div>\n
$\"A$
A U.S. Air Force pilot takes a selfie in an F-15e Strike Eagle over North Carolina.
\u00a9 Stocktrek Images<\/p><\/div>\n
Collectively, selfies leave behind a creative record of the life and times on our planet for anthropologists and researchers like Dr. Mariann Hardey<\/a>\u00a0to surely study in the future.<\/p>\n
But in our lifetimes, they are also visual diaries of our courageous and inspirational moments; they chronicle our progress when trying to make a life change, like going to the gym.\u00a0These ideas and more speak to the positive side of selfies<\/a> in creating a happy life, offered by Dr. Pamela Rutledge in\u00a0Psychology Today.<\/em><\/p>\n
Make More Selfies<\/h4>\n
With selfies hopefully vindicated and in recognition of their contribution to creative expression, OIC Moments invites you to enter our “OIC Me!” contest<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Just snap a creative selfie—portrait art, maybe a still life, or you in a memorable moment—and tell what it says about you. And, if you want to play with some\u00a0selfie<\/em> trends, try a<\/p>\n
$\"Cat$
Even a cat can take a selfie!
\u00a9 borzywoj\/IStock<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Helfie,<\/em>\u00a0the hairdo selfie, a term inspired by a photo Beyonc\u00e9\u00a0took of her new hairstyle<\/li>\n
Seatbelt selfie,<\/em>\u00a0snapped when you are safely buckled in the car<\/li>\n
Welfie,<\/em>\u00a0taken in workout gear<\/li>\n
Felfie<\/a><\/em>, farmers taking selfies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Toddlers in the house can submit a\u00a0toddler selfie. <\/em>And your pets can submit a pet selfie—<\/em>there’s even an app<\/a>\u00a0for that.<\/p>\n
Oh, I<\/strong>\u00a0can’t wait to\u00a0see\u00a0<\/strong>what you come up with!<\/p>\n
Just click the phone to go to the OIC Moments contest page on Facebook:<\/p>\n
$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n
With appreciation to Janine Boylan<\/a> for research and contributions to this article.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
Comment<\/a>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0 here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photography-creative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40690,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16989\/revisions\/40690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Creative Expression Is Just a Tap Away

The Downsides to Selfies

The Creative Value of Selfies

Make More Selfies