Rankin against selfies – the art of self-portraiture

The British photographer and director Rankin is lobbying against selfies and has made a call to the creative industries to go against them. The counterattack consists in giving the opportunity to anyone to collaborate with Rankin on creating a self-portrait. In the not too distant past portraiture had the potential to give insight. Not long ago portaiture photography had the potential to give insight. Not only photographers, but also artists would explore different ideas of “self”: through the creation of an image of oneself the artist created an imagery that exposed intimacies or ideas of themselves, using self-portrait as a personal and introspective artistic expression.

In my mind selfies are the worst form of self expression, they are just 2 dimensional branding exercises. They are the opposite of what it means to truly look at yourself”. In the not too distant past, portraiture had the potential to give insight. Artists would explore the idea of self, through the creation of imagery that exposed intimacies or ideas off self, through the creation of imagery that exposed intimacies or ideas of themselves. But as self culture has pervaded our screens and lives, it has also suffocated a unique form of artistic expression, the self portrait.

But as the selfie culture has pervaded our lives through social media, it has also given a distorted image of a unique form of artistic expression, the self-portrait. With the aim of giving dignity back to this artistic expression, Rankin is opening up his lens and giving creatives out there the chance to create portraits with him. He is giving a shoutout to all the creative thinkers so they can send him self-portrait ideas. The best ideas will be selected and brought to life.

He wants the industry to take back control with concepts that are fresh, original and show a part of oneself that is never shown in selfies on social media.