Get Over It! #NoFilter Is Dead and Selfie Editing Empowers You
What we’ve learned from 2017 is that everything’s fake, right?! And fakery hurls truth into a vortex of multiple mirages, propelling it further out of our reach.
In the ever more popular realm of selfies, selfie editing is heralded as yet another way that truth is distorted, acclimatizing us to unrealistic heights of absolute beauty and perfection. Many of us also ‘trust’ photos and videos more than text or word of mouth. But I think critics need to rethink the much-maligned practice of selfie editing on apps like Facetune 2 and get real to the fact that the digital world we connect to daily from everywhere is a hyper-visual realm where everything is a construct. Just taking photos at close range distorts facial features, making objects close to the lens appear abnormally large relative to more distant objects. If you think about it, all photos, even ones taken on yesteryear cameras, are compositions, and darkroom manipulation is not a 21st century discovery!
Don’t fall into the trap of confusing the creative delight of image manipulation with ‘photoshop fails’ that insult others. Non-Eurocentric features were under attack when Grazia Magazine photographer, An Lee, chose to disappear the wavy hair on the photo of Kenyan Oscar winner and acclaimed beauty, Lupita Nyong’o — something he later apologized for. Neither should we compare the thrill of posting a ‘new and improved me’ online with unpalatable ‘outing’ behavior like the decision of ex-glamour model, Dani Mathers, to fat-shame a fellow gym goer and post her photo online with a caption of “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.”
Selfie culture itself remains the subject of healthy debate — for instance the current trend for a ‘planned candid’ selfie which embraces our respect for authenticity. In China, the ubiquity of the “wang hong lian” (internet celebrity face), the outcome of editing with assorted Meitu apps, has recently driven the brand’s BeautyPlus app to introduce a “personality” filter to counteract this ‘sameness’.
Selfie generation
Millennials and even young Gen Z people are already extra image-conscious by nature. This is not something digital life invented to undermine self-esteem, just something it gave expression to. Ride any bus or shop in a mall to see people spending serious time snapping, reviewing and sharing images and videos of themselves and their friends just for the fun of it. Upping your look with tools in your pocket that add a sweeter smile, light effects or a sunny glow in midwinter is a simple way of exiting routine. Let’s not overlook the confidence-boosting power of zit-control, whitening teeth, and overcoming a bad hair day or double chin in a second.
Editing your selfie mirrors fashion choices, beauty treatments, CV tweaks, new haircuts and other ‘self-repackaging’ tools. Just as with real-world makeovers, we enjoy projecting a fantasy. And this route to adding some gloss is instant, reversible and more convenient than aesthetic surgery. Arguably, these snap-happy folk are taking control of their narratives by playing with the look of their online avatars (something those who feel ‘othered’ by popular culture also praise). This is what millennial Alicia Eler says in her recent book “The Selfie Generation” when explaining that selfies are just one facet of how we use digital media to build a personal brand today. This is about being seen the way you want others to see you. It’s an integral part of online socializing with likeminded people that is social media. In his book “The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History”, James Hall welcomes selfies as an antidote to our impersonal world.
Portrait editing remains a satisfying route to some enjoyable age play. Mom bloggers and silver swans welcome the opportunity to turn the clock back a little online. This time travel can change direction when youth want to glam things up. Makeup tutorials with 10-year-old Jack, the world’s newest, youngest male makeup influencer, have notched up a reported 60 million Facebook views.
#MenToo
While real-world cosmetics brands fumble to market moisturizers and bronzers to male audiences, male beauty bloggers like the above-mentioned Jack are in their element. 21% of Facetune users are male and this figure is rising because all genders find themselves under pressure to look their best. Beauty vlogger, James Charles, is an outspoken fan of the potential of Facetune to alter the way the world views him for the better, reveling in the adventure of exploring his evolving identity.
Appearance revolution
Trust artists to use their creative license to take selfie editing to new heights — beyond beautification fix to extreme sport. In doing so, they are leading this zeitgeist icon into a cooler space; It’s a form of performance art. Take American conceptual artist Cindy Sherman, famous for her self-portrait transformations long before the word selfie was invented. In August 2017, she opened her Instagram account to the public gaze. Her approach to using her face as a canvas results in thought-provoking, often funny ultra-retouched self-portraits that she tampered with using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam Makeup. She experiments with the size and number of her eyes, her features nearing the edge of recognition, and cakes on an excess of digital eyeshadow and lipstick to show how culture shapes appearances. For her, we are almost never ourselves in our selfies.
Other artists emphasize the wonder of regaining control. For 20-something US artist, Brannon Rockwell-Charland, the portraits she creates, whether in the darkroom or on an iPhone, are empowering in the face of what she senses as the always-impending fetishization of black women’s bodies.
Daphne Kasriel-Alexander
