“This too shall pass” is a 60-page book of photographs and text that are inspired by the selfie. The photographs and text were made in response to the selfie, which is a self-portrait that one takes of oneself with the intent of publishing on a social media platform. These are essentially self-portraits that would not function online based on their content and formal choices. In the context of this book and the paper, social media is specifically Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook.

The idea of the book came to after how the idea of a carefully curated Internet persona that feeds into the idea of having the “perfect” life. After realizing that I have gone through some intense things this year, none of that lived on social media. Not only did I find it inappropriate to disrupt the pain-free life I’ve manicured for the online world, I found it necessary to respond to it by putting these images and subsequent texts from my diary into a book.

“this too shall pass” creates an intimate space, and by having photographs and text in a book, the viewer engages in my personal life off of social media. This book is much more intimate than walking up to an art object on the wall. I want the viewer to hold my feelings, hold my pain, touch my image and interact with me. A book also mimics a scrapbook, which is also tying into my use of snapshot photography.

My photographs would not be functional in a typical family photo album, so I have made my own.