Description
Selfie Harm was produced as part of VISUAL DIET, a campaign from M&C Saatchi, in partnership with Rankin and MTArt Agency, exploring the impact on imagery on mental health.
I photographed fifteen teenagers with barely any makeup and a super simple, natural aesthetic. Rankin then gave them their image to edit using one of the hundreds of free apps downloadable within seconds.
We didn’t cast people that used these apps regularly, we found teenagers and ask them to give it a go. They were shown how to use them (FYI it’s insanely easy and a lot of fun, which is a huge part of the issue) and then they were briefed to filter their images to get more social media likes. The results were astonishing; the difference made in five minutes of tweaking is eye opening and quite honestly, scary.
Today, more than ever, people are mimicking their idols, making their eyes bigger, their nose smaller and their skin brighter, and all for social media likes. It’s just another reason why we are living in a world of FOMO (fear of missing out), sadness, increased anxiety, and Snapchat dysmorphia. As the apps are getting more sophisticated and the technology more polished, not only are they blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, they are encouraging a disturbing culture of homogeneity. Selfies are less about showing you who you are and more about which celebrity you want to look like. It’s the exact opposite of what self-portraits were supposed to be. Rembrandt would be turning in his grave.
”I have a long and problematic history of working with and battling against this movement of image manipulation. At one point celebrities, brands and magazines would tirelessly demand the use of Photoshop, and so it became a large part of my job. At the time, I made quite a few projects critiquing it, including Flawless Girls, Ageless Beauty, and Bootyfull. But I’ve also been personally criticising for my use of the tool, which was absolutely correct! Due to the discussion surrounding it, and the subsequent backlash, the industry has shifted, changed its relationship to Photoshop, and the world of advertising has largely transformed.
But these apps and filters are a different beast entirely. They are free, accessible, easy to use, game-like and (I think) much more dangerous. When doing research for this project, I played with these apps a lot to understand the appeal. They’re addictive, very impressive and you can have a lot of fun warping, changing and reimagining your appearance. But it’s when people are making an alternative or ‘better’ social media identity that this becomes a mental health problem.
This project is just the tip of the iceberg; the technology is constantly developing, becoming more sophisticated and more polished, every single day. That’s why we need to open a discussion about how we are approaching, viewing and changing our own images. Instead of simply telling people to stop, we need to accept that this is a complex issue; the technology is here and it’s here to stay. But we need to challenge the way image manipulation is being used and abused in the wider world. Selfie Harm is my attempt to get people to talk about the issues threatening mental health today” - Rankin discussing Selfie Harm, 2019.