Narcissus in Bloom

An Alternative History of the Selfie

Matt Colquhoun

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Paperback

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English

Repeater Books
12 September 2023

Photographs: portraits; Philosophy: aesthetics; Popular culture

Narcissus in Bloom is a short history of the self-portrait, beginning with Renaissance painters like Albrecht D rer, Rembrandt and Caravaggio, through to photographers and celebrities like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, Lee Friedlander and Herve Guibert.

Analysing the ways that so many artists have regarded their own image, how might the age of the selfie be considered as a time of transformation rather than stasis? By returning to the original tale of Narcissus, and the flower from which he takes his name, this book offers an alternative reading of narcissism from within the midst of a moralising subgenre of books that argue our self-obsession will be the death of us. That may be so. But what will we become after we have taken the watery track, and rid ourselves of the cloistered self-image given to us by late capitalism?

Narcissism is the defining pathology of the twenty-first century, but what if it is not self-obsession that defines us but a need for self-transformation?

Narcissus in Bloom is a short history of the self-portrait, beginning with Renaissance painters like Albrecht D rer, Rembrandt and Caravaggio, through to photographers and celebrities like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, Lee Friedlander and Herve Guibert.

Analysing the ways that so many artists have regarded their own image, how might the age of the selfie be considered as a time of transformation rather than stasis? By returning to the original tale of Narcissus, and the flower from which he takes his name, this book offers an alternative reading of narcissism from within the midst of a moralising subgenre of books that argue our self-obsession will be the death of us. That may be so. But what will we become after we have taken the watery track, and rid ourselves of the cloistered self-image given to us by late capitalism?

By: Matt Colquhoun
Imprint: Repeater Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 130mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9781914420634
ISBN 10: 1914420632
Pages: 1
Publication Date: 12 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Matt Colquhoun is a writer and photographer from Hull, UK. He is the author of Egress- On Mourning, Melancholy and Mark Fisher (2020) and the editor of Mark Fisher's Postcapitalist Desire- The Final Lectures (2021). He is currently based in Newcastle upon Tyne and blogs at xenogothic.com.

Reviews for Narcissus in Bloom: An Alternative History of the Selfie

Narcissus in Bloom is a real achievement ... it marks a return to a now lost tradition: big-picture cultural theorising that speaks to and illuminates present-day anxieties in unexpected ways, spoken in the vernacular of contemporary popular culture, of the likes of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and more. Relating one's emotional self to those around us is at the very heart of Colquhoun's queer critical and political project. Narcissus in Bloom is ambitious, moving, inspirational and loving... a purposeful and universal work driven by the author's passion for photography.