A big W+K-shaped welcome to Philippa and Artur.

Congratulations to them on graduating as our most recent placement team (this is them on their first day here…)

…to becoming our latest new hires (this is them today after a few celebratory Finest* bubbles!)

In the short time they've been with us they've already made some great stuff. Here's to them making more of the best work of their lives.

If you want to throw your creative hat into the ring for a placement, contact [email protected] and [email protected] for a book crit. You, too, could soon be photographed awkwardly somewhere at W+K Towers.

First
compact digital cameras and now smartphones have changed the way we photograph
things and more intriguingly how we photograph ourselves. ‘Point and Shoot’ is
one thing, but often the camera is facing the other way.

We
all know the picture with the outstretched arm (or bingo wing) obscuring the
right hand corner of a night-out snap. It’s both awkward and irresistible. But
is this really such a new thing? The desire to capture one’s own image runs
throughout art and history. Maybe we’re all massive narcissists, but I wonder
if it’s something more than that? 

[Even Royals are not adverse to the trend…with a little help from photoshop]

The
experts get their knickers in a twist over this but the very first self-portrait
is arguably by Jean Fouquet, a 15^th century French artist. In 1450
he produced this haunting self–image (below left).

The
first photographic self-portrait was by Robert Cornelius in 1839 (above right).
Cornelius wasn’t your dolled up teen pouting before a night out. He was a scientist.
A nerd. Yet he too was fascinated by the ability to duplicate himself on paper.

Perhaps
such artists’ self-portraiture was a bit like their own form of advertising. Look
at me and what I can do with a paintbrush. Look at me and what I can do with a
camera. Perhaps even, it was more an indulgent dig around their own psyche. Is
Courbet’s self-portrait below an exploration of his own tortured soul or a
celebration of some pretty impressive cheekbones?

[Gustave Courbet Self-Portrait 'The Desperate Man' 1844-45]

I
suppose in the end the selfie is nothing more or less than a distillation of
how we wish to be seen. Cara Delevingne has founded her own empire on the
selfie. Her disciples devour these vignettes of her everyday life. Hello it’s
me. I am here. Admire me. Abhor me. 

[Cara's Street Side Selfie]

The
result? Maybe an era where vanity is no longer frowned upon but accepted. I
really don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing! Surely bad. Yet ultimately
vanity, as something subjective rather than objective, perceived rather than a
fact, could cancel itself out in becoming mainstream. I saw a woman waiting for
a date the other day. She sat on the edge of her seat. Anxious. Awkward. Then
completely unselfconsciously she whipped out her phone and took a quick selfie.
My friends and I…well…we judged her. And yet I’m sure all three of us could have
done the same if behind a closed door.

One
thing’s for sure and that’s that the selfie isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Visual
artist Patrick Specchio has created an exhibition out of
them. Yet he sees the self –ie as
something far less self-ish: ‘I’m
drawing the audience in to participate’. The nature of a face is that it’s
unique and intensely personal. In Spechhio’s gallery selfies are a way to share
and be involved. Individual shots united in one space.

I’m
not sure if this isn’t going a bit far. Then again people are allowing cats to
take selfies. Our own Bertrum Thumbcat at W+K considers himself above it. But
check out these feline face-pappers:

http://tumblr.tastefullyoffensive.com/post/50589230060/cats-taking-selfies#.UdvShRblfwx

Like
it or loathe it the selfie is growing. It has invaded our lexicon. A serial selfie taker in the agency, 'account man x', told me: ‘I took a half-selfie on Sunday.’ How can you have a half-selfie, surely it
is or it isn’t? The answer: two eyes peeping over the edge of a swimming
pool.

Here’s
to the selfie: an inevitable evolution of self-portraiture and online over-sharing.  

[My own attempt at a smartphone selfie]

Thoughts from Planning newbie Alexa