From The Vault Of Art Shay: The Year Of The Selfie
By Art Shay in News on Dec 26, 2013 3:45PM
At 17 in the Bronx Zoo, celebrating 1936, I took my first Selfie--illustrating my dream of becoming an aerial photographer. I'm holding my used ten buck Graflex and set up my uncle's camera with a ten second Selfie timer to take the picture.
![At 17 in the Bronx Zoo, celebrating 1936, I took my first Selfie--illustrating my dream of becoming an aerial photographer. I'm holding my used ten buck Graflex and set up my uncle's camera with a ten second Selfie timer to take the picture.]()
In the 70s I used to jog around the block every morning. This time I took along my 180-degree Nikon Fisheye, which is uniquely capable of the best Selfies.
![In the 70s I used to jog around the block every morning. This time I took along my 180-degree Nikon Fisheye, which is uniquely capable of the best Selfies.]()
In 1947 I set my wartime Rolleiflex on the ground and had 10 seconds to position myself between my beautiful wife Florence and my brilliant first child, Jane. That summer, before I went to work as a reporter for Life, we rented the cottage shown. I rigged up a darkroom in the bathroom and spent my days shooting kiddy pictures: 3 for $10. Florence used to color some. A gallery friend says any of those original photos, handcolored by Florence, would fetch at least $5,000 in the booming art market.
![In 1947 I set my wartime Rolleiflex on the ground and had 10 seconds to position myself between my beautiful wife Florence and my brilliant first child, Jane. That summer, before I went to work as a reporter for Life, we rented the cottage shown. I rigged up a darkroom in the bathroom and spent my days shooting kiddy pictures: 3 for $10. Florence used to color some. A gallery friend says any of those original photos, handcolored by Florence, would fetch at least $5,000 in the booming art market.]()
During WWII I would sometimes visit my rich English cousins in London. There I met and Selfied my second cousin Edna, 19, who would end up settling in Australia.
![During WWII I would sometimes visit my rich English cousins in London. There I met and Selfied my second cousin Edna, 19, who would end up settling in Australia.]()
Early in my reporting career I was covering the "Big O"—Oscar Robertson—and added to my egotistical collection of me seeming to teach various experts their skills.
![Early in my reporting career I was covering the "Big O"—Oscar Robertson—and added to my egotistical collection of me seeming to teach various experts their skills.]()
My dear friend Marcel Marceau was an even bigger Kosher ham than I was.
![My dear friend Marcel Marceau was an even bigger Kosher ham than I was.]()
A charming Mahalia Jackson invited me to sing with her for The Saturday Evening Post. That week the Post refused this picture as a cover and chose a Norman Rockwell which showed the Four Freedoms instead. Editors!
![A charming Mahalia Jackson invited me to sing with her for The Saturday Evening Post. That week the Post refused this picture as a cover and chose a Norman Rockwell which showed the Four Freedoms instead. Editors!]()
In Africa, helping make 8 movies with Marlon Perkins for "Zoo Parade," I was "chased" through Krueger Park by two friendly Swahili who were on a real tribal "Bar Mitzvah" task-living off the land for three months.
![In Africa, helping make 8 movies with Marlon Perkins for "Zoo Parade," I was "chased" through Krueger Park by two friendly Swahili who were on a real tribal "Bar Mitzvah" task-living off the land for three months.]()
Here I'm with East Africa's greatest animal catcher, Willi de Beer, an heir to the diamond fortune and the guy who tried (unsuccessfully) to keep Marlon Perkins from capturing two immature hawk-eagles in Tanganyika. As de Beer contemptuously predicted (off camera) they died overnight. He is shown in my Selfie pointing out giraffes "a mile away." "No," he corrected. "Only 4500 feets."
![Here I'm with East Africa's greatest animal catcher, Willi de Beer, an heir to the diamond fortune and the guy who tried (unsuccessfully) to keep Marlon Perkins from capturing two immature hawk-eagles in Tanganyika. As de Beer contemptuously predicted (off camera) they died overnight. He is shown in my Selfie pointing out giraffes "a mile away." "No," he corrected. "Only 4500 feets."]()
Shooting the Time cover of sexperts Masters & Johnson gave me the opportunity to discus their specialty which became the current hit series "Masters of Sex." I was hoping the producers would cast Danny DeVito as me but somehow they missed the opportunity. I was probably too tall for Danny to play me with the eclat necessary.
![Shooting the Time cover of sexperts Masters & Johnson gave me the opportunity to discus their specialty which became the current hit series "Masters of Sex." I was hoping the producers would cast Danny DeVito as me but somehow they missed the opportunity. I was probably too tall for Danny to play me with the eclat necessary.]()
In Vegas I helped immortalize this gorgeous showgirl in a sexy Selfie. To repay her gratitude I sent her a copy of this mirror snapshot.
![In Vegas I helped immortalize this gorgeous showgirl in a sexy Selfie. To repay her gratitude I sent her a copy of this mirror snapshot.]()
When I stumbled in the Grand Canyon, my first thought was to record my fall.
![When I stumbled in the Grand Canyon, my first thought was to record my fall.]()
On my first day of going to work for Life in 1947, I used a chewing gum machine mirror on the Brooklyn BMT subway to create a Selfie marking the start of my career. Looking back I now realize how much enmity I caused amongst Life photographers including Eisenstaedt and Leonard McCombe for bringing my own Nikon to work as a reporter. Life photographers were very territorial. We still are. As George Bernard Shaw we say, "Protect me from the gifted amateur."
![On my first day of going to work for Life in 1947, I used a chewing gum machine mirror on the Brooklyn BMT subway to create a Selfie marking the start of my career. Looking back I now realize how much enmity I caused amongst Life photographers including Eisenstaedt and Leonard McCombe for bringing my own Nikon to work as a reporter. Life photographers were very territorial. We still are. As George Bernard Shaw we say, "Protect me from the gifted amateur."]()
In postwar Germany I found photographic proof that I didn't really take myself seriously in my Selfies. Honest. But as my perceptive late wife Florence often said, cooling me off: "Yeah sure, dollink."
![In postwar Germany I found photographic proof that I didn't really take myself seriously in my Selfies. Honest. But as my perceptive late wife Florence often said, cooling me off: "Yeah sure, dollink."]()
(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week Art looks at our current fetish with ourselves.)
This has been The Year of the Selfie. In no time at all a new cliche was born that was hiding in plain sight since 1839—you hold your camera as far from your body as you can, aim it back at yourself and include one or two friends or relatives in the picture.
Never minding the tangle of arms and fingers screwing up the sides of your picture or minding them as little as that other photographic cliche involving new bride and groom-the entanglement of arms, one with a knife- to record (in a probably pornographic Freudian foreshadowing) the ungainly cutting of the virginal first piece of wedding cake. This marriage cliche has the degree of difficulty coefficient of an Olympic event and the applause attending it.
But the Selfie has just passed it. At a Christmas party the other afternoon I watched a handsome NBC correspondent, half of a gracious North Shore power couple, merrily fall into the Selfie mode with a friend of his. I made a hasty snapshot of the two guys- but missed the moment of truth. I'm sure their Selfie turned out better than my Snappie. But the event drove me to ask my archivist Erica to dig out some of my own Selfies. Not as old as those first Selfies made in the afterbirth days of the camera in the early 1800s but nearly.
Published with permission.
If you can't get enough of Art Shay's words and photos, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.
