Instagram: A Diary

I was strolling through my Instagram and I came upon the video Naomi Shimada.

Naomi Shimada talks about the selfie album, “it is curated like a smart phone version of a self-portrait, a staple in art history”.

Hearing Shimada talk about how “the selfie as allowed [her] to document [her]self, as [she is] that day, how [she] feels that day” describing the process as a “real personal journaling, [the] the closest thing [she has] to a diary” made me want to think more conceptually about what Instagram profiles represent.

I thought specifically about Kim Kardashian. Everyone’s favorite celebrity :) hahhsbodjbsfobe

I compiled different photos from her Instagram that I not only think are beautiful photos, but also are worthy of existing out of the place of social media and commercialism, as Shimada deemed her own selfies!! Image & Intention: A Message Without A Code

Barthes writes, “The variation in readings is not, however, anarchic; it depends on the different kinds of knowledge - practical, national, cultural, esthetic - invested in the image and these can be classified, brought into a typology” (46). Social media allows for an image to be read successfully under different typologies. For example, the images Kardashian posts, though I may not buy the images, or her products, they exist as snapshots of her reality and that’s the beauty I’m interested in as a viewer. Social media allows us to track the lives of everyone, from celebrity to average person. With the added potential opportunity of making our image commercial.