Selfie Experiment

Unsure how to begin my action research, I bought makeup from the pound shop and followed online tutorials about contouring in order to create a ‘selfie’ character:

I wanted to see if I could turn myself into another character and use myself as part of the work otherwise I’d find it hard to start my action research as people and portraiture are currently central to my research.

 

 

A few limitations existed in that i’d never done this kind of make up before but I thought that my intention wasn’t to look perfect, it was to explore a character and perhaps the added garishness of badly applied makeup could enhance the character I was attempting to make. I even used black eyeliner as part of contouring around my cheek bones and nose. After reaching a point where my face felt weighted down with makeup these were some of the results:

 

I started off using Photo Booth as I associate it with selfies. I tried to create poses that I’ve seen many times before and ensuring that nothing about the framing of the photo was important except for myself. I was amazed that even with the amount of makeup that I was wearing, the camera seems to soften it. I then moved on to the obligatory bathroom selfie:

 

I enjoyed how these shots came out, particularly because of the listerine, unusual amount of tooth brushes, dirty mirror and sink. It really shows that people can upload selfies of themselves without taking a moment to investigate the surroundings that they are displaying themselves in and ultimately revealing more than they intended. This idea I think I could play with – taking selfies in subtly off surroundings.

While my eye makeup is quite noticeably full on to me, the rest didn’t seem as garish as i’d have hoped, but I also felt like it made me into a different person. Perhaps not quite a ‘character’ yet but on the way. My next step is to buy some clothes to enhance the believability and continue to create a fully developed character.