The definitions of what constitutes valid art are not exact or limited to specific criteria. Essentially, any art form can exist as long as impulses of artistic expression are part of its process or final product. Fine art may have narrower barriers but also fails to be distinctly defined. While the selfie may appear as just another fragment of the structure of social media, it is also capable of being an element of art forms that prioritize self-expression. Due to its visual nature, it is inherently artistic, and both casual and highly stylized selfies can be categorized as pieces of self-expression. Some may argue against this definition, but such an argument would be largely based on a subjective definition of both art and self-expression. While not all selfies intend to be present as art pieces reflecting on self-expression, this movement and practice have become much more common in art found on social media.
In an article on Sarah Purewal and Molly Soda, elements of the selfie are compared and exposed that even within a concise art form, variety is essential. Purewal is a self enthusiast that commonly posts unedited and non-staged pictures of herself. While Soda does not edit her images either, her application of unique hairstyling, makeup, dress, and background creates a different form of the selfie (NPR, 2015). Soda cites that her selfies are often a look into her private life and things that are usually invisible to the world. Purewal advocates for posting images as they are without covering imperfections. Both of these users are thereby offering messages of self-expression through selfies as an art form.
The images posted by my classmates, whether edited, raw or staged, inherently have artistic value and can be categorized as an art form. The quality or appreciation of their images depends on the viewer’s subjective opinion of whether they enjoyed the colors, posing, and other choices of the images. However, even if the image has technical issues, it does not take away from its statement on self-expression. The pictures posted by my classmates adhere to the loose definitions of the selfie art form as they include imagery of themselves that was taken by themselves.
The principles of design can also be found in selfies. While the use of balance, emphasis, contrast, repetition, movement, proportion, alignment, and white space can vary among pictures, their inclusion or exclusion can also constitute artistic choices. This is primarily because the selfie is a non-conventional art form and does not adhere to any tradition, standards, or practice guidelines. The visual elements also vary, as filters can deeply affect things like color and value. The images that my classmates took that do not have any editing are already statements of self-expression in one way, as the disregard of filtering is usually a preference for naturalness and genuineness.
Currently, the selfie art form may lack complexity as it remains deeply ingrained in social media culture, which often works more as advertising than art. However, specific cases of the use of the selfie as an art form do not have to adhere to this assumption. As such, a selfie can be utilized to express themes and topics of a more complex nature. This has been done even concerning the adverse effects of social media. The selfie is still a relatively new creation and an even more recent art form, which adds to its being misjudged by many.
Reference
NPR. (2015). Narcissistic, Maybe. But Is There More To The Art Of The Selfie?NPR. Web.