“Selfie” is a word from the 21st century which leaves few people indifferent. For some, including a few of the sharpest social commentators on either side of the Atlantic, it encapsulates what they consider to be the particular individualism, not to say selfishness of young people born circa or since the year 2000. By entitling itself “The Self(ie) Generation,” one New York Times opinion piece makes a clear connection between the apparent tendency of millennials to prefer peer-to-peer relations to civic participation, on the one hand, and to take photograph after photograph of themselves, on the other hand.* Or consider another excellent article in the same vein, this time in Le Monde, of which the title speaks volumes about the journalist’s views: “Selfies: le tout à l’égo,” or in English, “Selfies: It’s All About Ego.”**
Another interpretation also exists, which I believe resonates more with anyone associated with young people, not just Generation X, but Generations Y and Z, those born into the universe of ubiquitous social media which has emerged in the last decade. For director and actor James Franco, “As our social lives become more electronic, we become more adept at interpreting social media. A texting conversation might fall short of communicating how you are feeling, but a selfie might make everything clear in an instant. Selfies are tools of communication more than marks of vanity… In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me.’”*** Similarly, technology journalist Jenna Wortham affirms, “Rather than dismissing the trend as a side effect of digital culture or a sad form of exhibitionism, maybe we’re better off seeing selfies for what they are at their best — a kind of visual diary, a way to mark our short existence and hold it up to others as proof that we were here.”****
A residency exploring the self
Ever dedicated to tying what students are learning at the Lycée Français de New York to the world in which they are growing up, we decided last year, when planning our three artists in residence for 2014-15, that one of them, the week our entire eight grade class would spend with acclaimed French photographer Martine Fougeron, would embrace digital self-portraiture as the canvas with which students would work. In our view, the “selfie” would allow them to reflect on the potential dangers of excessive or inappropriate self-exposure on the internet, as well as be the means by which they would be able to develop their own creativity under the guidance of an accomplished artist, in keeping with the mission of our artist-in-residence program so expertly piloted by the director of our Cultural Center, Pascale Richard.
Judging from the extraordinary photography exhibition which our Quatrième students and artist-in-residence Martine Fougeron inaugurated at school this past Friday afternoon, as the culminating moment in the week-long dive into their own self-expression in which they had been engaged over the preceding four days, the experience was memorable in every way. Out of respect for the privacy of our young artists, a notion of which we hope they will now, perhaps paradoxically, have a better understanding, we will not be publishing their selfies on this public blog. However, please allow me to boast: our students’ self-portraits are absolutely striking, in terms of their thoughtfulness, their originality, their authenticity, their beauty. One photographer has chosen to capture herself looking upwards and off to the left, contemplative and smiling at the same time, accompanied by the simple caption: “I’m a thinker.”
Another depicts a young man looking quizzically, though serenely into the camera, with several computers in the background, as if a mountain range he was about to climb. The words beneath the selfie: “I chose to take this selfie because I felt like it really captured the moment that I was spending with my peers and working on a collective project that we will be presenting in front of the rest of the class. I am looking up as if staring into my own ascending future full of its own twists and turns.” A third student shows an evidently happy face in one half of the picture, with a bright light shining to his left and a staircase to a doorway on his right. “I chose this selfie,” writes our student, “because it contains the symbols of my life. The light in the background on the left represents the hope and goodness of mankind. The door on the right represents the choice of our lives (good versus bad).”
There is also the young artist who appears to be in the middle of an art installation, given the words “Belong to something: introspective” painted on the white tile wall on which she is leaning and which occupies much of her photograph. “Art is everywhere you turn,” reads the caption. “In my city, it is the graffiti on the walls. In my city, art is in the galleries. In my city, it is in the parks, on the streets, in the restaurants, and the stores…Here is my reflection in something I love, Art. In this selfie, I am looking deep into my personal reflection in an Anish Kapoor piece, an artist I admire for his creativity and originality, but most of all, beauty. I am expressing my passion for art.” I could go on, dear members of the LFNY community, but it would be far, far better to see this wonderful exhibit with your own eyes. When you are next at school between now and the Thanksgiving break, please do visit it in the gallery space outside our Cultural Center. I dare say you will be reminded of Rembrandt, albeit from a different epoch!
*Charles M. Blow, “The Self(ie) Generation”, New York Times, March 7, 2014
**Amaury Da Cunha, “Selfies: le tout à l’ego,” Le Monde, January 16, 2014
***James Franco, “The Meanings of the Selfie,” New York Times, December 26, 2013
****Jenna Wortham, “My Selfie, My Self,” New York Times, October 19, 2013
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.