Reading Blog #1

When reflecting on reading the article about universal principles of self-deception throughout history, I thought it was very interesting how the underlying motives of personal representations have remained rather consistent. Nowadays with the existence of social media and apps like Instagram and Snapchat, seeing selfies is so normalized that we often forget to consider the roots of such a recent digital phenomenon. The article discusses how modern day selfies share similarity with the early Renaissance painted self-portraits in that they give us insight into the “condition humana”. Art always tells a story and this can be through someone’s facial expressions, what they are wearing, how they are perceived in general, etc. In reading the article I also learned that one of the main things that distinguishes contemporary selfies from historic self-portraits is the production process. I was not surprised when learning about this because taking a picture on a camera or self-phone requires significantly less effort and time than something done by hand. Painting requires a lot of attention to detail and commitment to a project. Digital selfies, on the other hand, can easily be deleted off of a camera roll if they do not come out as expected. Moreover, self-portraits are a lot more costly because the artist has to spend money on the medium to produce the work, from the canvas, to the brushes and paint. Reading this article reminded me of the time I went to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and got to see many artistic renditions of important figures.