ABSTRACT
Social networks are sites for the exhibition of amateur photography, and a field for artistic experimentation. They are also apparatus that impact subjectivity and democracy, benefiting interests of neoliberalism. Moreover, they have generated a new chapter in the history of photography, the selfie, which demands an interdisciplinary methodology to be understood. This article proposes that the selfie refers to self-objectification. It investigates this hypothesis by departing from the theory of photography developed by Philippe Dubois, concepts from psychoanalysis, and diagnostics issued by Achille Mbembe and Giorgio Agamben concerning the effects of late capitalism on subjectivity. Last, the article analyses the use of the selfie by the artists Amalia Ulman, Aleta Valente and Cindy Sherman, discussing the limits of networks as a site for art.
Photography; Selfie; Neoliberalism; Democracy; Subjectivity