SELFIE-STEEM

In the digital age, selfie-editing apps have emerged as a form of expression for young people. However, these tools create a mask of perfection that distorts their image. The obsession with achieving unattainable beauty has led to the troubling phenomenon known as “selfie dysmorphia.” This disorder affects the construction of physical identity, causing young people to spend up to five hours a week altering their appearance on social media. However, when we imagine our grandmothers sometimes undergoing similar retouching, we see how absurd this concept is.

To address this topic, I work with photographs of women from the turn of the century to which I apply filters. I also consider it important to play with the medium through which the photographs are viewed, as opposed to using mobile devices. To achieve this, I use a flashlight. I place a series of portraits on transparent plates that slide through the magic lantern, revealing the changes in their faces.

By forcing the viewer to observe more slowly than on a mobile phone, since it is necessary to manipulate the strip to move it in front of the magic lantern, they are given time to appreciate the absurdity and grotesqueness of these alterations, encouraging reflection.

As an integral part of the installation, audio clips with beauty tips taken from YouTube highlight the social pressure associated with physical appearance, intensifying the viewer’s sensory and emotional experience.