# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Did you know?
For every order ProofreadingServices.com processes, we donate one book to a homeless shelter. If you'd like to support our social mission, you can order proofreading, translation, or resume writing.

The experienced editors at ProofreadingServices.com have come up with this comprehensive list of words you can use instead of "very" to polish your writing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The experienced editors at ProofreadingServices.com have come up with this comprehensive list of words you can use instead of "very" to polish your writ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Advanced Game 2 Jeopardy Style Review Game

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
'You are fake news," an angry U.S. president-elect Donald Trump told a CNN reporter at a news conference Wednesday, bringing the very real issue of false reporting into the spotlight again.

CNN disputed Trump's claim, saying it stood by its recent reporting on allegations about Russia's influence in Trump's presidential campaign.

Indeed, there is a distinction to be made between actual news organizations and satirical or entertainment sites that publish stories devoid of fact. But many readers find it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

We've collected a group of actual and fake headlines. Can tell the difference?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Quiz: Can you spot the fake news headline? | CBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
'You are fake news," an angry U.S. president-elect Donald Trump told a CNN reporter at a news conference Wednesday, bringing the very real issue of false reporting into the spotlight again. CNN disputed Trump's claim, saying it stood by its recent reporting on allegations about Russia's influence in Trump's presidential campaign.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
advanced review Jeopardy Style Review Game

# data[].attributes.body
I like this photo very much, because I was happy and having fun with my family in Bahia. I was born there and I feel in peace when I visit them. I can see a happy and confident girl.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this photo, because it reminds me the trip I did with my friends to Cabo Frio. I really loved this place and this is the first picture I took off.

# data[].attributes.headline
Amanda and her cousin Amy - Letter writing 

# data[].attributes.subject
Amanda and her cousin Amy - Letter writing 

# data[].attributes.body
20/02/2017

# data[].attributes.body
20/02/2017

# data[].attributes.body
This picture I took the last time I've been to Salvador with my family. It brings back a lot of strong feelings, because it was the last trip I've been on with my grandfather. He died last year. Looking at the blue sky and the beach I remember all the funny moments that happened the week me and my family were there. For exemple when my grandpa tried to eat a napkin. Overall it's a very special place and picture for me.

# data[].attributes.body
I'm not really into taking pictures, but this one is special because of the occasion it was taken. It was my cousin's birthday, a week after Eduardo Cunha was arrested (by my cousin and his coworkers). Other than that, I love that my eyebrows are snatched (if you know me without makeup, you know that I have no eyebrows at all) and the bold lip I had on that makes me feel fierce.

# data[].attributes.body
I took this picture in NYC, while walking on the Brooklin Bridge on December of 2016. The sun was setting and the view was marvelous.

I love this photo! The skyline is very beautiful on sunset. This part of New York is lower Manhattan, where is located the financial district (Wall Street!) and the One World Trade Center plus The 9/11 Memorial.

# data[].attributes.body
This picture was taken right before Atlético MG X América Teófilo Otoni. I'm passionate about sports, so this picture represent a lot to me. It shows the team that I support and shows the best kind of stage in the world: a football pitch! What a atmosphere, what a crowd! That is one of the many reasons that I love football.

# data[].attributes.body
Well, it's not a actual selfie, but since Kenia let me use it, there it is. I like this picture a lot because it shows me in a genuine state of happiness, it is not a picture that I tried to look handsome, or smart, or anything. It's just me, astonished and extremely happy, because, after 4 years playing for the school's futsal team, we finally won the championship. What it tells about me? Probably that I'm a persistent guy, who is always trying to achieve his goals.

# data[].attributes.body
20022017

# data[].attributes.body
20022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
British academics have used a combinations of maths, criminology and geographic profiling to back up a theory over the identity of mysterious street artist Banksy.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London said the pattern of how Banksy's artworks were distributed suggested he was artist Robin Gunningham.

Gunningham was first named as Banksy by the Daily Mail newspaper in 2008.

Banksy's politically-themed street art has made him a celebrity in Britain, despite his true identity never having been confirmed.

His most high-profile recent project was Dismaland, a "bemusement park", located in southwest England.

Geographic profiling is a technique used in fields from criminology to the study of patterns of infectious disease.

The research, published in the Journal of Spatial Science, analysed a series of locations of Banksy's artworks in London and Bristol and mapped them against "anchor points" such as the homes of people suspected of being Banksy to draw conclusions about possible identity.

"Our analysis highlights areas associated with one prominent candidate (eg his home), supporting his identification as Banksy," the paper said.

"More broadly, these results support previous suggestions that analysis of minor terrorism-related acts (eg graffiti) could be used to help locate terrorist bases before more serious incidents occur, and provides a fascinating example of the application of the model to a complex, real-world problem."

One of the research team, Steve Le Comber, told the BBC: "I'd be surprised if it's not (Gunningham), even without our analysis, but it's interesting that the analysis offers additional support for it."

The BBC also reported that Banksy's legal team had contacted staff at the university with concerns about how the research was to be promoted.
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Banksy unmasked? Scientists use maths and criminology to map artist's identity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
British academics have used a combinations of maths, criminology and geographic profiling to back up a theory over the identity of mysterious street artist Banksy. Scientists at Queen Mary University of London said the pattern of how Banksy's artworks were distributed suggested he was artist Robin Gunningham.

# data[].attributes.body
20022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The writing on the wall

Banksy is the most well known graffiti artist in the world, even though he has never revealed his true identity. Quirky and political, his work has satirised oppression in Palestine, hypocrisy in politics and capitalist greed in London.

His spray-painted images are illegal but still create newspaper headlines and sell for six figure sums in galleries around the world. How has the world's most famous vandal become the darling of the art scene?

Stencil work in Bristol

This new stencil based style began appearing in his home city of Bristol. His political views also came to the fore.

Witty and subversive, these new Banksy works targeted political hypocrisy and social injustice. In a 2001 Herald Scotland interview he summed it up: "There is a side of my work that wants to crush the whole system, leaving a trail of the blue and lifeless corpses of judges and coppers in my wake, dragging the city to its knees as it screams my name. Then there is the other darker side."
Guardian: Early Bristol Banksy work rediscovered

Who actually owns a Banksy?

Banksy's work was now so popular that councils began to see them not as annoying vandalism but as a money spinning opportunity.

A Banksy called Mobile Lovers appeared on the door of a cash-strapped Bristol boys' club. A row broke out when the council claimed ownership. Banksy intervened when he wrote to the club to support their claim and the club later sold the door for £400,000 which saved it from closure. Bansky's art can now cause tension when it appears in communities as locals see them as gifts to their area - if anyone should profit from selling a Banksy it should be them.
The One Show: Should you sell a piece of graffiti?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How did Banksy become the world's most famous vandal?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Banksy is the most well known graffiti artist in the world, even though he has never revealed his true identity. Quirky and political, his work has satirised oppression in Palestine, hypocrisy in politics and capitalist greed in London. His spray-painted images are illegal but still create newspaper headlines and sell for six figure sums in galleries around the world.

# data[].attributes.headline
São Paulo Mayor to Hire Graffiti Artists and Pay for Paint

# data[].attributes.subject
São Paulo Mayor to Hire Graffiti Artists and Pay for Paint

# data[].attributes.body
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/saopaulo/2017/01/1853620-following-backlash-sao-paulo-mayor-to-hire-graffiti-artists-and-pay-for-paint.shtml

# data[].attributes.headline
Campaign by City Hall Against Graffiti Reignites "Spray Paint War" in São Paulo

# data[].attributes.subject
Campaign by City Hall Against Graffiti Reignites "Spray Paint War" in São Paulo

# data[].attributes.body
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/saopaulo/2017/01/1850514-campaign-by-city-hall-against-graffiti-reignites-spray-paint-war-in-sao-paulo.shtml

# data[].attributes.body
20022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A colorful exhibition is sharing some eye candy-and actual candy-with visitors. The sweet art pop-up, called Candytopia, is heading to New York City this summer following successful stints in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Gothamist reports.

Candytopia feels a little like Willy Wonka's chocolate room. More than a dozen rooms with psychedelic backdrops will be on view, as well as candy-inspired interpretations of famous artworks such as Mona Lisa and The Thinker. The installation is the brainchild of Jackie Sorkin, the star of TLC's Candy Queen.

Many of the art installations are made from actual candy, but unlike Wonka's lickable wallpaper, visitors will have to keep their hands and tongues to themselves. Instead, guests will be given samples of various sweet treats like gummies, chocolates, and "nostalgic favorites."

named Candytopia one of the best pop-up museums to visit in 2018. New York City seems the perfect place for the exhibit, having formerly hosted other food-inspired pop-ups like the Museum of Pizza and the Museum of Ice Cream.

Candytopia will debut in New York City on August 15 at Penn Plaza at 145 West 32nd Street. Tickets must be purchased in advance, and they can be ordered on Candytopia's website. Private events and birthday parties can also be arranged.

Keep scrolling to see some more installations from Candytopia.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Meet the Secret Grammarians in Ecuador Who Correct Graffiti Mistakes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A colorful exhibition is sharing some eye candy-and actual candy-with visitors. The sweet art pop-up, called Candytopia, is heading to New York City this summer following successful stints in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Gothamist reports. Candytopia feels a little like Willy Wonka's chocolate room.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
01/27/2017 - 16h40

ARTUR RODRIGUES
FROM SÃO PAULO

After being criticized by street artists for painting over the city's graffiti, São Paulo mayor João Doria (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) announced on Thursday (the 26th) he will hire graffiti artists and pay for their paint as a part of an open-air museum project which will be spread across town.

The project, which is called The Street Art Museum (MAR - Museu de Arte de Rua), will be launched in the Baixo Augusta region - the city's downtown area - and will be reenacted in different parts of town every three months.

"I believe we will be able to contemplate several different street artists, since various parts of town will be used", said Doria.

The previous mayor, Fernando Haddad (Workers' Party), had already payed R$ 2000 (US$ 630) to 450 graffiti artists who painted the walls along 23 de Maio Avenue.

Doria, who officially became mayor at the beginning of the month, painted over the murals this past week, claiming the they had been defaced.

The mayor decided to anticipate the project encouraging street art in order to respond to criticism for painting the city walls gray.

The project - which is set to debut in March - will feature around 150 artists and will cost around R$ 800 thousand (US$ 250 thousand).

André Sturm, the city's Secretary of Culture, stated that a committee will be formed in order to select the artists that will participate.

They will have to send résumés along with an artistic statement, but will not have to disclose what they intend to paint. The art will be displayed on walls of public spaces as well as private ones - although proprietors have to give their consent in the latter case.

The mayor is considering the possibility of displaying the art for two years before replacing it with new art.

Diego Padgurschi/Folhapress

Graffiti in the Cambuci neighborhood, in Sao Paulo

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

Read the article in the original language

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Following Backlash, São Paulo Mayor to Hire Graffiti Artists and Pay for Paint

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
01/27/2017 - 16h40 ARTUR RODRIGUES FROM SÃO PAULO After being criticized by street artists for painting over the city's graffiti, São Paulo mayor João Doria (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) announced on Thursday (the 26th) he will hire graffiti artists and pay for their paint as a part of an open-air museum project which will be spread across town.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
01/17/2017 - 11h44

JULIANA GRAGNANI
LEANDRO MACHADO
FROM SÃO PAULO

Holding up a can of spray paint, Mayor João Doria (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) painted over a wall on Avenida 23 de Maio (May 23 Avenue) in gray and declared: "São Paulo is undertaking a major campaign against graffiti sprayers".

Graffiti sprayers declared their own war in return. On weekend, four of them were apprehended while spraying in different regions of the city - one of them was spraying on a building belonging to city hall in the center.

Responding to the proposal by the Mayor's Office to transform graffiti vandals into graffiti artists - he wants to create a "Graffiti Drome" inspired after a neighborhood in Miami - one graffiti sprayer wrote "Doria, spraying is art" on a building in the center located along the mayor's route to the municipal administration offices.

In the western zone, a center median wall displayed the phrase: "Don't be ashamed, São Paulo isn't Miami". The author and graffiti painter, 30-year-old Mundano, said that "a beautiful city isn't gray".

Diego Padgurschi/Folhapress

Graffiti Wall in Cambuci, Sao Paulo

The illegality and the challenge motivate those who paint the walls - graffiti can be charged as either property damage or as an environmental crime, both minor infractions that aren't punishable by jail or prison time.

On a Thursday, meeting together on a central avenue, graffiti painters showed each other the phrases they planned to paint and commented on the declarations from the mayor's office. "When Doria says these things he just motivates us even more to climb up the walls" said one of them. "If it were legalized, it would no longer be graffiti", declared another.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

Read the article in the original language

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Campaign by City Hall Against Graffiti Reignites "Spray Paint War" in São Paulo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
01/17/2017 - 11h44 JULIANA GRAGNANI LEANDRO MACHADO FROM SÃO PAULO Holding up a can of spray paint, Mayor João Doria (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) painted over a wall on Avenida 23 de Maio (May 23 Avenue) in gray and declared: "São Paulo is undertaking a major campaign against graffiti sprayers".

# data[].attributes.body
This landscape is definitely one of the best places in BH. Why that? So many different people, culture and social groups. I love this mix. It's a very good environment and it's also beautiful. I stood up there imagining how it also when the city is built in 1890s. The trees were much smaller and to the mid 60s it also a real street in the middle with cars and everything. Such a thing between new culture, liberal ideas as the social groups ones and an old fancy site it's the perfect mix

# data[].attributes.body
I really like this selfie because it wasn't something I prepared for. I enjoy taking photos when I'm in different places. This one in particular is one that I like a lot because it was took in Ouro Preto, a historical site. As I love History, is was the right place to take it.

# data[].attributes.body
The thing I enjoy the most about this selfie is my smile: i love smiling! I was very happy on the occasion because I was on Castelhanos Beach, one of my favorite places ever. On the photo I am wearing sunglasses (I love them: they are from Snapchat and can record videos!) and listening to music while walking on the sand. What the photograph can say about my personality? Well, maybe that I am a person who loves smiles? ♥️

# data[].attributes.body
What I like the most about this selfie is its attitude. This girl is really sweet, but on top of that she is pretty badass and will take no bullshit. Also she couldn't care less about anyone's opinion of her. She belongs to herself and no one can steal it. If this is not who I am, it at least represents who I should be. It's the current profile photo I'm using everywhere and it's another reminder of my motto: nolite te bastardes carborundorum (don't let the bastards grind you down).

# data[].attributes.body
13022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CHICAGO - The selfie is a mirror, an illusion of a mirror, an egotistical moment wrapped in time, and an embarrassing moment post-shave. But there is something curious about seeing your doppelgänger reflected back at you rather than running into him or her on the street.

CHICAGO - The selfie is a mirror, an illusion of a mirror, an egotistical moment wrapped in time, and an embarrassing moment post-shave. But there is something curious about seeing your doppelgänger reflected back at you rather than running into him or her on the street.

Just the other day I was sitting at a local cafe and one of the baristas ran up to me, excitedly telling me that she knew someone who looked just like me. Pleased to hear that I had a doppelgänger somewhere in this vast city, I asked her if she knew the person's name, who she was, or where I could find her. The barista couldn't remember but promised me that, when she did know, she would report back. "I love having twins everywhere," I told her. But was the person she spotted actually a doppelgänger, or was this a false memory? And what if, when I meet this person who supposedly looks like me, she doesn't actually look like me to me, but my barista friend sees the two of us as lookalikes?

Sometimes these doppelgänger moments are best kept between oneself and one's mirror-induced image. That's why this week's selection of selfies ponders the more existential aspects of the phenomenon, asking whether the mirror is your friend, foe, or false memory, and if it produces within you the notion of a doppelgänger or the possibility that such a person is in fact out there - you just haven't met them yet.

Jackie/Jacqueline Tong / 唐文曦
Occupation: Hong Kong-based arts & culture writer
Selfie type: Spectacles Selfie
"My selfie doesn't mean much to me. It's pure superficial ego. I even think it's redundant for those who care about me and see me from time to time anyway. People might think, 'Oh Jackie/Jacqueline/唐文曦 looks cool/ugly/not her/so her' for a few secs, 'like' or boo at the Facebook status, and they forget about it. Also, I don't really like my face; it's boring - that's why I put myself behind the phone. My glasses are way more interesting. I prefer that tantalising bit of my glasses. Hahaha~ I think I intrinsically look rather uninteresting (which is ok, because I have a life, i.e. I don't photoshop my own face or go get plastic surgery).

"Nowadays media is image - simulacra. It's very vacant, at times stupid, but pathetically and hypnotically influential. I associate the self with the concept of 'doppelgänger' because I find nothing genuinely real these days. The self is quite contrived. But then the unreal is fascinating at the same time and can possibly be self-enhancing if one 'likes' one's own image enough. That 'unreal' is a projection of desires. Selfies are just 'doppelgängers' in different forms/styles. We're so banal and bored (and repressed). Quoting from Chris Walla in the book Doppelgänger: 'Confronted with our significantly more banal everyday life, we're measuring our actual selves against our online selves with hopeful resignation[.]'

"On the flip side,there's also this very 'real' element that selfies on social media can help you socialize in real life, so I don't think the line can be drawn so clearly between the real self and the self. After all, it's still your real face in a self. Our idea of the 'authentic self' is rather tricky. I'm not sure how to explain the motivation other than insecurity and selfie being a form of ego-booster. And connecting one's image to another's person's eyes - make connection with another person - to be 'liked' or maybe, to be 'loved.'"

Sofia Leiby

[image has been removed at the request of the artist and with the permission of the author]
Occupation: Artist
Selfie type: Studio Selfie
"Here's a selfie from March 12, 2013. I occasionally take 'studio selfies,' and am interested in this gesture by the artist. I had a friend who did a project where he would dress up in drag to paint, to see if it made the paintings different. I think of this as weirdly similar: if I look like complete shit, I don't think my paintings will come out well. So maybe that's why I sometimes 'check out' myself in the third person to see how I'm looking, even though it was unlikely I interacted with anyone in the studio (except maybe my studiomate, and we had opposite schedules.) I took this in the disgusting bathroom at my studio in West Chicago. If I leave the studio dizzy, or feeling zoned out, I consider it to be a successful work day: I was able to get out of my head for a couple of hours. My expression in this photo indicates, looking back, that this shot was taken on one of those days just as I was getting ready to bike home."

Patrick Carberry
Occupation: Professor of English, Harper College
Selfie type: The Video Selfie #SELFIE
"This video essay was born one lazy afternoon when I opened the Photobooth app on my Mac, held down the left arrow, and watched as the pictures flicked in reverse to incrementally reveal the person I was three years ago when I purchased the computer. Up until that point, I had never revisited any of these images, never considered the deeper and underlying reasoning behind my desire to capture them. My initial thoughts were of the necessity and utility of selfies in the age of digital communication (Facebook profile, Gchat avatar, etc.), but very few of those Photobooth pictures were actually taken for that purpose. It wasn't until I began filming other subjects (almost all of whom were strangers I approached on the street) that I found a different and more nuanced explanation of the selfie.

"While very few people actually said 'no' to being filmed, the consenters had two different responses to my strange request of: 'Hey, can I film you holding up a selfie?' The first camp said, 'Oh, Jesus. My phone is filled with them.' The more skeptical subjects said, 'Well, I only take selfies when I am trying on clothes/when I am holding my cat/when I'm with my girlfriend/for Snapchat.' Both answers seem to be a way of coping with the embarrassment of admitting to taking selfies, but I wasn't entirely sure what was all that embarrassing. I wrote and filmed the essay to try to unpack that embarrassment, to defend the act of self-documentation."

Jefferson Godard
Occupation: Gallery owner, Aspect Ratio Projects
Selfie type: Designer Selfie
"I love the baroque absorptive properties that convex mirrors possess," Jefferson Godard tells me via email. He snuck this selfie in Paris at a chic eatery called Le Dauphin, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas. "They distort space and the viewer while creating an illusion of space at the same time. It is like design narcissism in a completely surrealistic yet modernist tone. For me, it was an unbelievable moment that I was having, going overseas for an artist of mine, Chelsea Knight, who was showing at a major institution. In a last minute/night before moment, I took the advice of a friend that had recommended the neighborhood to me. Not finding any restaurants that had open tables I was recommended to try this place by a nice chap. This last minute decision to dine at a hot little brasserie was intensified when I found out that the space was designed by an even hotter architect! The food was great, but I felt that I had to seal the deal and get a shot in. Also, I wanted to see how distorted this experience made me ... "

Heather Marie Vernon
Occupation: Artist
Selfie type: Mirror Magnification
"Caught in the mirrors, I either attempt to see myself as others see me, or I get seduced myself in the reflective play by play. I am seized in the pursuit of illusions, so there really is no pussyfooting around here. Is the illusion my only friend? Is a young girl or woman's key to self-understanding in this struggle to own, control, and manipulate this image of her 'selfie'? Or is this 'selfie' reflection a setup? Within feminist narcissism can this be redefined as an empowerment aid for self agency and efficacy? Thus is the 'selfie' a philosophical tool for an existential experimentation to prevent dissociation, in our mediated culture, and is this therefore an important illusion for everyone? Do we need to say, I am here, can you see me, because when I am seen, then that is when I am more real? Is the growth of the 'selfie' a more humanist app then a commodity fetishist's wet dream? In our desire to reflect more than we are, what are we really truly saying in our manipulative chase?"
"Mirrors should think longer before they reflect." -Jean Cocteau
* * *

I, Selfie is a series of ongoing conversations around people working in the medium of the selfie. The selfie imagemakers are accepting themselves as objects and reflecting their images back through the smartphone camera lens. They control the images of themselves that float around these murky virtual waters, but they cannot anticipate how these images will be received or perceived by others who exist in the internet void, a space that we pleasurably and both selfishly and selflessly indulge in.
Email Hyperallergic your selfie at selfies [at] hyperallergic.com, along with a brief explanation of why you shot it and what it means to you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mirrors Multiply the Selfie: The Doppelgänger Dilemma

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CHICAGO - The selfie is a mirror, an illusion of a mirror, an egotistical moment wrapped in time, and an embarrassing moment post-shave. But there is something curious about seeing your doppelgänger reflected back at you rather than running into him or her on the street.

# data[].attributes.body
Velasquez

# data[].attributes.body
Van Eyck

# data[].attributes.body
06022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CHICAGO - The selfie is a smartphone-produced version of the self-portrait, which has been a staple of art and photography history since artists first began seeing examining their own images in the mirror. The selfie series here on Hyperallergic has mostly utilized images shot mostly with smartphone cameras, a way for the one shooting the picture to see themselves the way they would like to be seen. Thus far, the selfies have concentrated mostly on twins, mirrors, and the philosophical implications of disseminating the selfie via social networks and the internet, wherein the selfie can receive validation from their social circle.

In the selfie mode of photography, there is no outside photographer with a camera shooting them the way they see them. But selfies are not necessarily self-empowering; through their social network dissemination, they appear decontextualized, awash in a sea of internet anonymity. A selfie is a selfie is a selfie. But what about a self-portrait? Here are five art historical self-portraits that are predecessors to the modern-day selfie. Put your smartphone away (or let it die, like I just did), take a look in a John Berger-esque way, and remember what life was like before those mini-interruptions that we like to call iMessages, texts and ongoing gchat-like conversations presented you with more faces that you'd care even to see IRL.

Francisco de Goya

The Spanish painter Goya was no stranger to self-portraiture. In fact, when he wasn't painting bull fights, crucified Christs, boys playing soldiers, ladies on swings, the Holy Family, and portraits of important people such as the Count of Floridablanca and the family of Infante Don Luis, he was busy looking at himself. Most great artists have a litany of self-portraits which, before the era of selfies and other forms of instant digital photography, were a way of capturing the aging process, the maturation of the artist, and a glorious outfit. Here we see a self-portrait from 1795, which was begun in 1790 and took five years to complete; the artist is painting in a Romantic style, with a hazy light coming through the widows, and a generous paint palette. His fashionable black top hat pairs well with his matador-esque black coat with red lining. Previous Goya self-portraits took about five years to make as well; there's one from 1770-1775 and another from 1783, both of which portray the artist as stately, proud and lost in thought. In comparison, his 1795 portrait brings forth a confidence that, in his younger years, the artist had not yet achieved.

Marie-Denise Villers

Marie-Denise Villers' "Young Woman Drawing" (1801) is thought to be a self-portrait (as argued by Anne Higonnet), yet at one time it was credited to Jacques-Louis David. Behind every man there is a great lady, and sometimes she is the creative force in question. This work of art was exhibited in the Salon of 1801, and shows the young woman intently matching the viewer's gaze while taking a momentary break from her laborious task at hand. Dressed in a flowing white gown and pink ribbon around the waist, she is a fashionable dame for this time, and she is painting herself as she sees herself rather than how a man fashions her. If this were a selfie photo of today, certainly she would have had to set-up the smartphone on a timer, posed in front of a mirror, and snapped. Instead, she labors over the drawing, possibly in front of a mirror. The self-portrait takes time; it is a quiet study of oneself over the period of weeks, months, possibly years, whereas the selfie serves its purpose in the moment, capturing but a millisecond rather than a layering of many seconds.

Gustave Courbet

Does desperation make the artist appear sexier or just more isolated in his imaginary world? Painted more than 20 years before he discovered " The Origin of the World" (1866), this tortured-looking self portrait of the artist in the middle of a manic, deer-in-headlights type of moment spotlights what happens when an artist stops taking their meds. No, just kidding: This is actually a portrait of what every young emerging male artist under the age of 30 should strive to look like. We hope Courbet brushed up on his handsome handlebar mustache after this portrait, for it serves as a reminder that those things take work. His slightly rosy cheeks, however, glow in that kind of manic pixie dream girl way, as he "exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures," as originally stated by the film critic Nathan Rabin. Of course, just substitute genders as you please, and if you'd like. Either way, Courbet is probably dreamier than Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but that really depends on which teen-girl you ask.

Man Ray

The Dada and Surrealist artist Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky) was known for his avant-garde images (before the avant-garde died!), including self-portraits and photographs of famous figures such as Catherine Deneuve, Helen Tamiris and Picasso. Man Ray's muse, the model-turned photographer Lee Miller, was also captured in a similar surrealist style as Man Ray captured himself wherein the side portrait of the subject seems to both float and glow simultaneously, somewhere between a sabattier and solarization, both of which reverse tones in the photograph, thus rendering a surprising dimensionality where it did not previously exist. Man Ray's self-portraiture, like his contemporary Marcel Duchamp explored the the construction of identity and very much echo the purpose of selfiehood today.

Frida Kahlo

Is it possible to write a post about self-portraiture in art history without mentioning Frida Kahlo? Nowadays the famous artist is grouped into the teen-girl tumblr aesthetic, and her self-portrait becomes a selfie through gif-ification. Here we see an early full-on unibrow self-portrait from 1937 entitled Fulang-Chang and I (Fulang-Chang y yo), in which Frida paints herself with her spider monkey pet. Most fans of Frida like to talk about her many love affairs with famous writers and artists, or her torrid marriage with Diego Rivera, or her glorified sickliness. I will talk about none of those things here because this somber self-portrait of the artist with her furry companion is more than enough. Much like Courbet, she paints her cheeks rosy; her gaze drifts to the side, never catching the viewers' eye in a similar way as contemporary artist Peregrine Honig's twin boys. Kahlo's pet monkey reminds me of Paris Hilton's monkey Baby Luv, which notoriously attacked her in 2005 and was declared illegal in 2009. Luckily, Kahlo didn't have to deal with monkey separation anxiety. Today, Kahlo has doppelgängers roaming about, shooting selfies, and being regular teen-girl heroes.

* * *

I, Selfie is a series of ongoing conversations around people working in the medium of the selfie. The selfie imagemakers are accepting themselves as objects and reflecting their images back through the smartphone camera lens. They control the images of themselves that float around these murky virtual waters, but they cannot anticipate how these images will be received or perceived by others who exist in the internet void, a space that we pleasurably and both selfishly and selflessly indulge in.
Email Hyperallergic your selfie at selfies [at] hyperallergic.com, along with a brief explanation of why you shot it and what it means to you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CHICAGO - The selfie is a smartphone-produced version of the self-portrait, which has been a staple of art and photography history since artists first began seeing examining their own images in the mirror. The selfie series here on Hyperallergic has mostly utilized images shot mostly with smartphone cameras, a way for the one shooting the picture to see themselves the way they would like to be seen.

# data[].attributes.headline
Amanda and her cousin Amy - Mary Ellen Mark

# data[].attributes.subject
Amanda and her cousin Amy - Mary Ellen Mark

# data[].attributes.body
06022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A good photograph can speak volumes about its subjects, yet still leave you wanting to know more.

The acclaimed and prolific American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who died May 25 at the age of 75, was known for her humanist portraits: homeless children in Seattle, prostitutes in India, a family living out of its car. In 1990, she took one of her most memorable shots, titled Amanda and her cousin Amy. The location is listed as Valdese, N.C.

"This photograph raises a lot of questions and leaves me with a slightly uneasy feeling," says Jeff Jacobson, a New York photographer and a friend of Mark's. "That, I feel, over and over again is the hallmark of her best work."

In light of Mark's death, NPR sought to find out more about the two children in the photograph, particularly Amanda: Why was she smoking and wearing makeup and fake nails at age 9? What does she remember of the photo shoot? And what has happened since that sunny afternoon in 1990?

She now goes by Amanda Marie Ellison - her surname was Minton at the time of the photo. She is 34 years old, lives in Lenoir, N.C., and indeed still remembers the photo.

"Never forgotten it. Never in my life have I forgotten it," she says.

Ellison says Mark formed a bond with her over multiple photo shoots, but after Mark left, Ellison lost track of the photographer's name and phone number. For 25 years, she says she searched for the photo to no avail. Then last month, after Mark's death, her cousin posted the picture to Facebook and tagged Ellison.

"I cried. I cried. Because ... all at once, there it was," Ellison says.

In 1990, Mark had been sent to rural North Carolina by Life magazine to cover a school for "problem children." Ellison was one of those children. "She's my favourite," Mark told British Vogue in 1993. "She was so bad she was wonderful, she had a really vulgar mouth, she was brilliant."

Mark added: "I was something of a problem kid. I was emotional, wild, rebellious at school. I'm very touched by kids who don't have advantages; they are much more interesting than kids who have everything. They have a lot of passion and emotion, such a strong will."

Ellison openly concedes she was a "wild" child, but she says she was just emulating the adults in her life, all of whom by her memory were drug-addicted, residing in a low-income housing complex nicknamed "Sin City." It was around that time that she began to smoke.

"If I couldn't get [cigarettes], if somebody wouldn't give them to me, yes, I'd steal a pack of cigarettes and be gone," she says. "I'd sit in the woods and smoke 'til they were gone."

Two years after the photo, at age 11, Ellison says, she was taken into foster care and later lived in group homes. She says she developed an addiction for hard drugs when she was 16.

Amy Minton Velasquez, Ellison's cousin and the other child in Amanda and her cousin Amy, corroborates much of her account.

"I mean, I had a rough childhood," Velasquez says. "But I will say this: That young'un, she was put through things that would probably make the hair stand on your head if you really knew."

Ellison says at age 9 she knew there were deep problems with her childhood; she viewed Mark's photos as not just a fun diversion but as a possible solution.

"When she came along and took those photos, I thought, 'Well, hey, people will see me and this may get me the attention that I want; it may change things for me,' " Ellison says. She thought someone would see the images and come rescue her. "I had thought that that might have been the way out. But it wasn't."

Jacobson, the New York photographer, says Mark was not the type to give her subjects false impressions. But he says, "In any photographic encounter, the one person that always benefits and always is in a more powerful position and always knows more is the photographer."

By her own admission, Ellison's adulthood is still tumultuous. She has served time in prison and says she is still "surrounded by crazy people and drugs." But she says her life has improved, and she wishes she could talk again with "that photographer lady."

"If I had to guess," Ellison says, "I would say she would be, I don't know, overwhelmed with joy that I have made it this far."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Happened To The 9-Year-Old Smoking In Mary Ellen Mark's Photo?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A good photograph can speak volumes about its subjects, yet still leave you wanting to know more. The acclaimed and prolific American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who died May 25 at the age of 75, was known for her humanist portraits: homeless children in Seattle, prostitutes in India, a family living out of its car.

# data[].attributes.body
06022017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I've seen people get their hands cut off, a ten-year-old girl raped and then die, and so many men and women burned alive ... so many times I just cried inside my heart because I didn't dare cry out loud."
-14-year-old girl abducted by the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone

You're lying in your bed and slowly drift off to sleep. Suddenly, you are awakened by violent screams. You are frozen with fear. The door of your room bursts open, and before you know it, you have been picked up by strange men in uniform and are being dragged out of your house and thrown into a truck with twenty other teenagers your age. It is still dark outside and difficult to see exactly what is going on. But you already know what's happening.

You are about to become a "child soldier".

For thousands under the age of eighteen, this is their reality. More than 300,000 child soldiers are fighting in armed conflicts in more than thirty countries worldwide.

According to one group commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo, "[children] make good fighters because they're young and want to show off. They think it's all a game, so they're fearless."

A large number come from disrupted family backgrounds, economically or socially deprived families, or are children who come from conflict zones themselves.

Widely perceived to be a cheap and expendable commodity, child soldiers tend to receive little or no training before being thrust into the front line. In the early 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, thousands of Iranian children, many straight from school, were sent with popular militias to the front line, often given a symbolic key to the paradise promised them as martyrs.

Most prevalent are child soldiers in Africa and Asia, but across the globe it is a growing phenomenon. One of the reasons behind this growth is the shortage of male recruits in countries at war. And with the technological development of smaller, more lightweight weapons, children are able to load, carry and fire deadly arms.

One former child soldier from Burundi stated that, " My first role was to carry a torch for grown-up rebels. Later, I was shown how to use hand grenades. Barely within a month or so, I was carrying an AK-47 rifle or even a G3."

Once recruited, the children are often treated brutally, and punishments for mistakes or desertion are severe.

'Susan', a 16-year-old soldier abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, recalls, "One boy tried to escape [from the rebels], but he was caught... His hands were tied, and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before. We were from the same village. I refused to kill him and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it. The boy was asking me, "Why are you doing this?" I said I had no choice. After we killed him, they made us smear his blood on our arms... They said we had to do this so we would not fear death and so we would not try to escape ... I still dream about the boy from my village who I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me and saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying."

Not all child soldiers are forced to kill, yet the horrors they suffer will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. One Peruvian woman recruited by The Shining Path at the age of 11 recalls, "They beat all the people there, old and young, they killed them all, nearly 10 people ... like dogs they killed them ... I didn't kill anyone, but I saw them killing ... the children who were with them killed too ... with weapons ... they made us drink the blood of these people ..."

Besides the risk of death or injury in combat, child soldiers suffer disproportionately from the rigours of military life. Younger children collapse under heavy loads; malnutrition, respiratory and skin infections and other ailments are frequent.

Child soldiers may also be at additional risk of drug and alcohol abuse (these substances are often used to recruit children or desensitize them for violence), sexually-transmitted disease including HIV/AIDS, and unwanted pregnancies.

Harsh training regimes and other forms of ill-treatment often lead to casualties and even deaths among young recruits. Emilio, who was recruited by the Guatemalan army at age 14, says, "The army was a nightmare. We suffered greatly from the cruel treatment we received. We were constantly beaten, mostly for no reason at all, just to keep us in a state of terror. I still have a scar on my lip and sharp pains in my stomach from being brutally kicked by the older soldiers. The food was scarce, and they made us walk with heavy loads, much too heavy for our small and malnourished bodies. They forced me to learn how to fight the enemy, in a war that I didn't understand why it was being fought."

In 2000, a dramatic breakthrough was achieved in efforts to end the use of children as soldiers. On January 21, after six years of negotiations, governments from around the world agreed on a new international treaty to prohibit the use of children as combatants.

The new child soldiers protocol establishes eighteen as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, for compulsory recruitment, and for any recruitment or use in hostilities by non-governmental armed groups.

By late May 2001, a year after its adoption, 79 countries had signed the treaty..

Despite the endorsements made, more than half of the countries that signed have not followed them in practice. It is apparent that protocols and proposals offer little help to the children who are brutally forced into the violence of war. Political pressure from the international community is needed to help the situation. Evidently, there is still much work to be done until no child soldiers are used in war.

As you drift off to sleep tonight, give some thought to those children who are dragged out of their beds and conscripted to fight in armed conflicts and treasure the fact that you are safe under your covers.

For more information on child soldiers visit:
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers:
www.child-soldiers.org
Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org
UNICEF: www.unicef.org
Warchild Canada: www.warchild.ca

...and check out UNICEF Canada's www.giveitup4kids.ca to see how you can help those less privileged.

Photos courtesy of UNICEF Canada

Even More Stories You May Like (courtesy of Google)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Forced To Fight: Child Soldiers In The Third World | Faze

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I've seen people get their hands cut off, a ten-year-old girl raped and then die, and so many men and women burned alive ... so many times I just cried inside my heart because I didn't dare cry out loud."