Selfies (& Me)

“There is a primal human urge to stand outside of ourselves and look at ourselves,” said Clive Thompson, a technology writer and the author of the new book “Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better.”

Long before the advent of posting images of yourself on social media (as recently discussed in the NY Times),  I had a long and complicated relationship with my own image as captured in a photo booth machine. At this particular time in my life, it was virtually impossible to take your own image on demand unless you could master a Polaroid camera or loved the feeling of numerous quarters in your pocket, enjoyed making friends with Woolworth store managers hither and yon, and had the ability to survive the lengthy wait as the photo booth machine went through its paces, finally delivering your highly anticipated strip of photos into the slot on the outside- still damp with chemicals.

I created numerous self portraits in the booth, and one of my more obsessive efforts was my project Weather Report in which I documented myself for a year, trying to re-create the same pose each time. At some point, I tired of looking at my own image and started making portraits of others. I guess my "selfies" period had come to an end.