SELFIE–OBSERVATIONS
– Images of One’s Place in the World or Whatever…
Kalleria Gallery, Helsinki, Finland. 2016
Who is this Robert Cornelius anyway?
In October 1839 he sets a silver-coated copper plate into his camera obscura, removes the cap off the lens,
sits in front of his device for several minutes, motionless,
staring at the lens.
The shimmering plate captivates a gaze – still a sceptical one:
is it really here, the first selfie ever!
*
I don’t possess that funny stick and until recently,
I even had a phone that didn’t take pictures.
But what if…
How to be present in an image (and in this world…), and at the same time remain somehow invisible,
not protrude to the foreground
with one of those wide grins?
*
I am my body, says Merleau-Ponty and lingers for a moment
at the mouth of Plato’s cave,
then lowers his eyes to his feet.
*
“For now we see in a mirror dimly…”
or
“It’s time to look in the mirror!”
?
*
Eventually, I couldn’t help including a few poses with celebrities
in the selection.
