Mobile Photography & Art Flickr and Instagram Showcase – 23 January 2021
In Ways of Seeing, John Berger discusses Rembrandt’s self portrait painting when he was aged 58 and contrasts this with an earlier self portrait painting when he was 28 – thirty years apart, explaining that the latter portrait only reveals ‘an advertisement for the sitter’s good fortune, prestige and wealth’. It was painted in 1634, in the year of Rembrandt’s first marriage. He is flamboyantly showing off his bride, not knowing that withing six years she will be dead. The painting is cited to sum up the happy period of his life. It was also during this period of history that oil painting was betoken to be ‘a celebration of material property and the status that accompanied it’. Berger believed Rembrandt’s brilliance was his struggle ‘with the very language of his own art’ (Berger 1977: 103-6). Painters have always been free to construct portraits, layer upon layer upon layer, whereas photographers, just have a single moment. Whilst studying Ways of Seeing, I felt that perhaps it could be interpreted that self portraits have always been designed to portray ‘good fortune, prestige and wealth’. And I ponder this is what we are also seeing in mainstream social media photo channels today. We/others put on an act that we/they feel is appropriate in any one setting and viewers are left wondering perhaps, are these sincere images or are they fictional images? Of course, this is perpetuated with income from brands and the associated perks that the ‘successful’ Instagrammer may recieve. I would like to turn this topic into a challenge on TheAppWhisperer.com by asking readers to submit selfies to Instagram with this tag #tawselfie – just send one, but please inform me within the post, how many selfies you took before deciding to submit the one you did. I’ll announce this again later in the week and for now, sit back and enjoy this weeks breathtaking showcase of mobile photography and art through the world.
Thank you to all the talented artists for submitting your works to our showcase this week. If you would like your work to be considered for entry in to our weekly Mobile Photography and Art Flickr Group, please submit it to our dedicated group, here. You can also submit images to our Instagram tag for this section #theappwhisperer.
p.a.hamel, Jane Schultz, Allyson Marie, Jill Lian, Sherrianne100, Suite116, Susan Detroy, Mariel Milan, Jun Yamaguchi, Fille.de.lumière, Peter Wilkin, Clint Cline, Deborah McMillion, Gabriele Rodriquez, Juta Jazz, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, borisbschulz2009, Gianluca Ricoveri, Catherine Caddigan, kein_grund, Carol Wiebe, Robin Cohen, vincelurie, Ile Mont, mitrydate, Anca Balaj, kristie_michele_art, Laurie Amerson, linasview, princekenjis, @lusion_street, M. Cecilia São Thiago, sengulbekmez, Jennifer Bracewell, Elaine Taylor, Eliza Badoiu, shannon_kathleenphotography, Setauna, Paul Yan, Susan Latty, wmson2000_art, Michael Brunsfeld, Damian De Souza, Clarrise Debout, clau_clara, Edibe Taylan, ja_graham, joe_legrand61, Marco Prado.
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