#Selfie (Book Review)

Story and photo by Anyassa Vasquez

(Reposted by WebMaster B2X)

#Selfie is a documentary photography book by Samantha Manriquez. Its contents are based on people and their desire to take selfies. All these photographs were shot in both the Las Cruces, NM and El Paso, TX area. With a serialized approach Samantha finds people in the act of taking a selfie. She captures her subjects in a medium frame while having the camera in front of the subjects. There is a constant amount of sharpness throughout the book with some exceptions. The approach of shooting with a frontal view helps get a sense of how the people feel while taking the selfies. The only images that fall short of producing the same impact are the photos shot from behind the subject. Eliminating the audience to see the subjects face causing a sense of disconnection. This book gives a glimpse to how people in modern society like to take photos of themselves now. Selfies have become a major trend in our society. To help push this book forward captions and interviews on why the subjects enjoy taking selfies or feel the need to take selfies. It would be an interesting feel to understand why out modern society feels the need to selfie themselves.

About Author

Bruce Berman

Professor Bruce Berman has been a photographer for many decades and a teacher for a few. He started out in Chicago as a street photographer shooting riots for UPI, AP, The Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor. Mostly interested in photographing people his photography eventually morphed into the idea of doing documentary photography although at the time he didn’t know there was a name for it.
On an assignment, he got lost in the desert and ended up in El Paso and has lived three blocks from Mexico for over forty years.
He has covered the border, northern Mexico, West Texas and the southern United States ever since.
Now concentrating exclusively on documentary photography -and teaching- he has found himself back at his roots.
Teaching at a university has provided Berman with opportunities to do research and work with a new generation of photographers. He calls them “the next great generation of shooters.”

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