The evolution of the photographic camera selfies and why we take them

Abstract

The new millennium brought the well-known phenomenon of the selfie with it. Though on the surface a banal topic, closer consideration reveals that it is, in fact, the culmination of centuries of gradual development in technology and society which ultimately bore the selfie sensation and allowed it to grow, reaching the heights it has today. One of the essential and oft-overlooked elements required to make the selfie a possibility is the camera. If before the advent of the camera, producing a self-portrait required artistic skill and technical competence, this tool of communication has allowed almost anyone to generate a lifelike image of oneself within a fraction of a second. Initially, photographic equipment was bulky and required expert handling. Moreover, the process of extracting an image was complex and the preserve of professional photographers. Through the years, photography became a more accessible medium with ever sleeker and more user-friendly camera designs being made available to the public. A crucial obstacle persisted, however: the image still was not available for immediate consumption once captured. The changeover to digital technology in photography saw an end to this shortcoming and this technology progressed swiftly. In a little more than a decade, designs were produced which were so compact and versatile that cameras could easily be fitted within mobile phones allowing the picture-taking device to totally permeate the developed world. The fullydeveloped, compact, portable, digital camera made the conditions ripe for the selfie to propagate. The selfie idea was once associated with youth culture. Time has shown, however, that the selfie has transcended the boundary of age: practically anyone can indulge in it. We must investigate, therefore, not only what constitutes a selfie, but also what is the key to its universal appeal. We might accept the selfie as an established occurrence; a mere outcome of our society which we might as well disregard. However, the selfie’s popularity warrants further investigation into the phenomenon.