LOS ANGELES — It’s the end of selfies as we know it. Dearest selfie fanatics, this will be my last story for the Hyperallergic selfie column; after one year of chronicling the selfie’s rise to fame, we collectively decided to let this investigation go off into the netherlands of internet data trails. I want to tell you that this is definitely not the end of my writing about selfies; please do stay in touch! To wrap up the Hyperallergic selfie column, I’m making this a selfie celebration with more selfies than ever before, paired with a concise collection of this week’s most notable selfie news.
NASA had a similar idea with its selfie to end all selfies. Earth becomes a mirror reflecting back a selection of selfie shooters who occupy space on it. A total of 50,000 people submitted their selfies; NASA selected 36,422 to become a part of this global selfie mosaic. As I zoomed through this collection, however, I noticed that the locations on Earth didn’t align with the selfie shooters’ locations. Perhaps because we are constantly traveling, and henceforth becoming increasingly connected as a global culture, the actual location is becoming less important. In this way, selfie location is always optional, and more about a way to connect with others — and to stay connected. The selfie is a way to visually communicate; its specific intentions and intended recipients are up to the one who snaps the picture — unless that same picture ends up on the very public internet, as I suspect this “add a kid selfie” of a woman in the dressing room with her young son likely did.
Read the full story here: http://hyperallergic.com/128473/the-last-selfie/