Selfies beyond self-representation: the (theoretical) f(r)ictions of a practice

Drawing on a wide corpus of ethnographic research pro- jects, including on photography practices, young film- makers and writers, and current research with young unemployed people, we argue that contemporary under- standings of selfies either in relation to a ‘‘documenting of the self’’ or as a neoliberal (narcissistic) identity affirmation are inherently problematic. Instead, we argue that selfies should be understood as a wider social, cultural, and media phenomenon that understands the selfie as far more than a representational image. This, in turn, necessarily redirects us away from the object ‘‘itself,’’ and in so doing seeks to understand selfies as a socio-technical phenomenon that momentarily and tentatively holds together a number of different elements of mediated digital communication.