Mobile photography has capsulated self portraiture, or selfies as they are known. Offering the ultimate notion of control, you’re not trusting someone else to capture you, you’re deciding how to frame yourself, you’re not relying on someone else to make you look good. The paradox at the heart of selfies is that they masquerade as a candid shot but in reality they are posed and often heavily edited. But at least for the younger audience, looking good, is not good enough, you need to look good in extreme scenarios. There’s a blurring between the lines of reality and fantasy, until they collapse into one another. Such was the case this week, as I wandered around town with my family. I noticed a movement at the very top of a skyscraper, then another movement, until I realised there were in fact two people on the roof. I alerted security and my husband captured a shot of them with his telephoto lens, later seized as evidence. Security hurried to the scene and before long, they returned with two young boys, no older than 13-14 years old. They’d been trying to capture the consummate selfie and almost paid the ultimate price. Its become so commonplace in this particular area to capture virtuosic selfies, that there’s a £10k instant fine for anyone spotted on the top of a building, if they’re 18 or over. These two boys, received no such fine but they were escorted from the area and driven home to their relieved (if they’d known) parents. Social media drives this of course, the more likes they receive, the more lucrative deals they can make and the more their fans cheer them on. Ultimately the notion of control with a selfie is disingenuous, once it’s posted online, it’s out there for public delectation, whether you live to see it or not. Fortunately, the images in this weeks showcase allowed all of our photographers to live, and each one blazes with passion for being. Enjoy!
Thank you to all artists for submitting your works. 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.
Many congratulations to the following artists for being featured this week:
Karen Axelrad, Scott Simpson, Trish G, sculptorli, Tomaso Belloni, Oola Cristina, Y F, Liliana Schwitter, Enio Godoy, Eduardo Llerandi, Valeria Cammareri, partha.ts, Catherine Caddigan, Dina Alfasi, Rob Pearson-Wright, aka Tman, Srikanth Kamath, p.a. hamel, Luison, Jean Hutter, Amy Ecenbarger, Jun Yamaguchi, Lindy Ginn, G. Billon, Clint Clline, Gianluca Ricoveri, Candice Railton, R K, Kate Zari Roberts, Susan Rennie, TheiPhoneArtGirl – Meri Walker, before.1st.light – Jane Schultz, Tuba, Laura Peischl, KalterFisch, Fleur Schim, Susan Maxwell Schmidt, Francesco Sambati and Deborah McMillion
Don’t forget to check out our online gallery and print sales here.
Music this week is ‘Every Moment’ ©Dead Times
