Selfie: The Changing Face of Self Portraits Hardcover – December 27, 2016

Selfie: The Changing Face of Self Portraits Hardcover - Susie BrooksThis is a slim volume (just 48 pages) that reminded me when I picked it up of the hardback reading primers provided at primary school many years ago. It was only when looking at the author blurb that I realised this might in fact be a children's book. I had wondered who the target market was and, realising the author is a children's writer, perhaps the idea behind this book is to sneak in some art history under the guise of a book about selfies. Other than that, this is the sort of book you'd give as a stocking-filler or leave in the bathroom and flick through a chapter on the loo.There are only 2 pages on the selfie today, including just 3 pictures: the 2014 Oscar selfie, the first papal selfie (2013) and the 2011 macaque selfie. Apart from that, the book is filled with double-page spreads dealing with 20 other topics related to self-portraits, from cave paintings through a list of almost exclusively male artists, along the way touching on topics including group portraits of artists, artists painting themselves into portraits, self-portraits with funny expressions pulled and the first photographs. The two female artists included are Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun and Frida Kahlo.For sale at the time of writing this review at £6.99.

An intriguing little hardback about self-portraits (47 pages in slightly less than A5 format), suitable in my opinion for everyone aged say 9 upwards. The title was the allure and I thought the emphasis would be on selfies - it isn't; only two pages are given over to the modern selfie phenomenon and with images that have all been seen before - yawn. The substance of the book is a series of double page spreads of artists and their self-portraits, including the techniques they have used as well as questions to consider in call out speech-bubbles. I was very impressed with this little book - well produced, good quality paper and interesting text without being patronising.

Children's book, aimed at KS2. The idea that the iPhone 'selfie' has claims to art is an interesting idea, but it's not an idea explored here. Rather it's a capsule history of the self portrait, presenting the, to me, questionable idea that the selfie (extrovert,external) is comparative to the art discussed, which was generally introverted and internal. Van Gogh didn't paint himself with his ear cut off to get some likes on Facebook.

The book is ok, but nothing more. It's a basic stocking-filler type for novelty more than education/information. It deals with self portraits over the years, from paint to photograph, and it does impart some interesting facts but it misses out a lot of fairly pertinent selfie stories and is a bit patchy.