Martin Gayford

Selfie queen

Martin Gayford celebrates the chameleon-like virtuosity of the American photographer, whose gripping self-portraits are on show at the National Portrait Gallery

issue 29 June 2019

The selfie is, of course, a major, and to me mysterious, phenomenon of our age. The sheer indefatigability of selfie-takers, not to mention their number, is amazing. Recently, I stayed in an apartment not far from the Trevi Fountain in Rome — a selfie-magnet so powerful that not only was it surrounded by a dense crowd during daylight hours, but a small, determined knot could still be spotted late at night, doggedly snapping away in the dark under a steady drizzle.

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