Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

MineNo5611 t1_ja3rql8 wrote

Reply to comment by dubiousadvocate in George Harrison invents the selfie during the Beatles trip of spiritual discovery to India. Taken at the Taj Mahal, 1966 by butterflypoo69

Ehhh. That’s really pushing the definition of a selfie I think. I think a selfie is something that can only be done with a portable camera digital camera or smartphone that the subject is holding. Otherwise, it’s just a well timed self portrait. When someone says “selfie”, what usually comes to mind is a picture of yourself in which the camera is obviously at the end of an extended arm or pair of arms.

−7

2rd_ferguson t1_ja3zbzi wrote

And you don’t think that can be done with a regular film camera?

2

MineNo5611 t1_ja43u9g wrote

I meant to say a portable camera, not just digital or smartphone but my brain wasn’t working. Obviously you couldn’t do that with the type of early camera that guy was using all the way back in the mid-19th century.

2

dubiousadvocate t1_ja48osu wrote

The first portable camera (obscura) was invented in the 1600s which was a refinement of a five hundred year old invention. Portable cameras were used in the American Civil War.

You’re trying to make a cultural argument and that’s fine.

But you’re also making historically inaccurate claims as well. If you really want to argue that a handheld camera as being the sole requirement for a selfie that would be the 1880s.

Give it up as a well intentioned misunderstanding? 😉

2