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Photo: Behold, One Of The First "Selfies"
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 9, 2012
Modified Nov 9, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 9, 2012
Modified Nov 9, 2012
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Courtesy of The MCNY
Long before people were taking selfies with their iPhones to post to social networking sites, people were taking selfies with their pals even though no one would really see them... like, HASHTAG WHAT WAS THE POINT? We stumbled upon this photo from 1920 featuring (they even tagged themselves at the bottom of the pic!): Uncle Joe Byron, Pirie MacDonald, Colonel Marceau, Pop Core, and Ben Falk. This is clearly a selfie, and the caption at the MCNY explains how they did it:
"Five photographers posing together for a photograph on the roof of Marceau's Studio, while Joseph Byron holds one side of the camera with his right hand and Ben Falk holds the other side with his left hand."
That's right kids, next time you complain about having to use one of your hands to take a selfie, remember this used to be a two man job! (By the way, the studio was likely his outpost at 285 Fifth Avenue, between 30th and 31st Streets... should you want to recreate this shot on the roof.)
Now, please put your played-out jokes about how this is really an Instagram photo from Brooklyn in 2012 in the comments because those never get old.
Tagged
flashback
history
old school
photograph
self portrait
selfie
ye old selfie
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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