SELFIE culture

An exploration of how photography or taking pictures of performance and art overlapped, revealing new dimensions in the images created by Rachel Lewis

selfie2

Your Selfie in our next edition

Got a good selfie taken in Lambeth, Southwark or Wapping? Then send it to us and be in our next edition… we’ll then post copies of the magazine to you and 5 of your friends.

Selfie Photo Title

Your name (required)

Your email address (required)

Your mobile or landline number

Provide up to 6 UK addresses for receiving magazine copies and any descriptions of the photo you would like to add

I accept Terms & Conditions as printed in The River Magazine

Excellences & Perfections (2015) by Amalia Ulman, Performing for the Camera at the Tate Modern

Excellences & Perfections (2015) by Amalia Ulman, Performing for the Camera at the Tate Modern

simon Baker, Curator of Photography at Tate Modern has put together a highly engaging exhibition that shows the work of over 50 photographers and explores the relationship between photography and performance. It is packed with humour, irony and vulnerability.

In the light of this exhibition the fascination we have today with the ‘Selfie’ is not perhaps as shallow as it might first seem; they can reveal more about us, our world and our actions than we think. A photo of the London Eye is enhanced for us when we are captured in it, perhaps even more so when we take it ourselves. At this point we no longer just have a picture of a something memorable, or evidence we were there too, but that we ‘performed’ there and enjoyed it – extended our arm (or selfie-stick), smiled and snapped!

Masahisa Fukase, From Window, 1974

Masahisa Fukase, From Window, 1974

In the 1960s artists Yves Klein and Yayoi Kusama initially began taking photographs of their art performances, documenting their work before realising that in fact the photography was becoming an integral facet of it. Through the work of Lee Friedlander we can see how the photographer appears to gradually notice himself, as a shadow on the pavement or a reflection in a window, in his images. Over the years that follow, this self-inclusion becomes as important, if not more important than the world he initially set out to capture.

Performing for the Camera
Runs until 12 June 2016
TATE MODERN
Bankside
SE1 9TG
t: 020 7887 8888
w: www.tate.org.uk

Marriage in Leukerbad (2012) by Romain Mader, Performing for the Camera at the Tate Modern

Marriage in Leukerbad (2012) by Romain Mader, Performing for the Camera at the Tate Modern

Also from this Edition:
  • TURKISH delights #3: coffee The process is what makes a coffee 'Turkish', not the source of the bean or equipment used
  • exclusive VINTAGES Award winning Champagne and interesting fine wines
  • A CRAFTY beer The gift of home brewing: 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'...
  • A CUT above Rotisserie chickens, classic lunches and breakfasts have arrived at Ma's Kitchen on The Cut
  • PORTRAIT: Tower Bridge Taking a closer look at one of London's familiar and most-loved landmarks
  • GALLERY damien hirst Engine rooms of art and 'Power Stations'
  • SUMMER festivals The long tradition, almost ritual, of heading to festivals needs some forward planning so here is a quick heads up of some of the music pilgrimages to consider this year
  • SELFIE culture An exploration of how photography or taking pictures of performance and art overlapped, revealing new dimensions in the images created
  • Entertainments SPRING 2016 What's On this season? Jane Horrocks in 'If You Kiss Me, Kiss Me' and more
  • WEEKS and weeks of fun Passports to educational success for the children at Southwark Free School
  • SPACE to learn Getting the environment right for optimal learning at the Walworth Academy in south London
  • #girlswithgoals Getting the best out of young people by encouraging them to 'dream big'
  • soup–er SUCCESS Year 9 at St. Saviour's and St. Olave's raise £138 for Fareshare!
  • canada WATER The continued gentrification of London districts heads south-eastwards
  • BRICK lane A walk along an historic and diverse thoroughfare in East London
  • selecting an AGENT Selling a home is probably one of the most significant transactions you’ll ever undertake.

	
Other Stories