Would websites like THIS have existed before there were digital cameras?

[bernie moore]

"Why do all the children have beans in their ears." "The Fantasticks" 1960

[Richard Williams]

<p>"Still, I have to admit...it's true, I never thought I would see the day when being sissy would be "popular." People have the right to dress and act however they want. But I also have the right to say that emo <em>is</em> kind of sissy and extremely narcissistic."</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glam_rock</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Romantic</p>

<p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture</p>

<p>This sort of subculture has been around for decades ('Emo' itself has existed in some form for a quarter of a century or so, though it's only become completely mainstream in the last few years). Kids were expressing similar opinions in photocopied fanzines in the 70s, on bulletin boards in the 80s, in newsgroups and Geocities sites in the 90s, and on MySpace pages more recently. Narcissistic pictures have been uploaded since flatbed scanners became readily available. Cheap P&S cameras and ubiquitous phonecams just make the process much simpler, widespread adoption of broadband makes communicating this way practical, and social networking sites make everything easier to aggregate. I'd be very surprised if sites like this <strong>didn't</strong> exist in 2009. Incidentally, although they're obviously going for the 'phonecam self portrait' aesthetic, a fair number of photos on that site look rather too studied and well composed to have actually been taken that way!</p>

[aeaster]

<p>Hey, how else can they be nonconformists like everyone else?</p>

[aimee_pieters]

<p>This many people have this much time?</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>I probably shouldn't admit this here, but what the heck...</p>

<p>I prowl the web looking for photography related trends among various subcultures. That includes lurking on some of the chans, which is why I don't find that emo website particularly disturbing. As an armchair fan of semiotics, I'm fascinated by not only memes but the art of intertextuality in messages and meta humor in images that don't need words to convey complex messages about current events.</p>

<p>If anything, there's something not quite right about that emo website and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a parody. It's just a little too carefully contrived and smacks of an outsider who is trying a mite too hard to appear like an insider. So it's either a very clever parody, or the website owner isn't really an insider and is clumsily trying to represent himself as something he's not. I just can't imagine a true emo kid visiting that site and not screaming "Gimme a f**king break!" C'mon, it's a step-by-step, fill in the blanks, color by numbers workshop in "How to do emo." Nope, I'm not buying it.</p>

<p>Richard Williams makes a very insightful observation regarding the "phonecam self portrait aesthetic". You really have to study this stuff carefully to spot the differences between the truly artless self indulgent stuff and the more deliberate, carefully contrived photography that ironically mimics the same aesthetic.</p>

<p>It's like the difference between snapshots my grandparents took, and the work of William Eggleston. My grandfather was totally unconscious of the fact that he had mastered the art of the American snapshot. He was unaware of it, so his photos were both artless and charming. Others have to work a bit harder to convey this with a knowing sense of what they're trying to accomplish. To many observers, there is no apparent difference. (Heck, sometimes I'm not sure I understand what the hell Terry Richardson is doing, but I wish I had his job.)</p>

<p>And as Richard points out, this stuff goes way back. In the '80s I did some freelancing for a zine in San Diego. I remember laughing my butt off over a piece another writer/photographer did, a series of photos and interviews of insufferably hip local musicians and artists, all posing for their equally impossibly hip fans. One particularly severe self styled hipster modeled himself along the lines of a Gary Numan. I've never forgotten a quote from that interview: "I don't understand the concept of 'fun'. I don't have 'fun'. Ever."</p>

<p>A few of these kids are very aware of what they're doing and having a bit of fun with the impressions they make on observers. A few weeks ago I observed the development of a flurry of activity on a thread in which an emo kid uploaded a series of self portraits along with cryptic messages. As the thread developed it became clear the intent was to poke fun at the confused and outraged reactions that were predictably generated by this seemingly inexplicable display of self indulgence. But it was actually a very carefully contrived bit of performance art, not much different from some spontaneous street theater I've seen.</p>

[patrick j dempsey]

<p>Chris, I've been there about as long. I migrated to myspace from friendster. Friendster did something interesting that myspace did away with... it limited your "view" of the Friendster world based on who you friended.... it was basically the Kevin Bacon meme made into a website and it is still a really cool concept. What was interesting about that is if you friended just one "popular" person, your world of friend possibilities expanded 1000 fold. I still look at my Friendster account occasionally but I never took it serious because of the same reasons I don't take facebook serious... it is purposefully limited based on friend "connections" which while it seems cool in one way, it's actually downright snobby. Facebook does it, but not in a cool or interesting way, just in a strictly snobby one. And I can assure you that in 2004, the snobby, self portrait in mirror narcissists were all over Friendster and all over Myspace. You may have been comfortably lurking in your corner of myspace (which is actually one of the really cool things about the site, it's niches) but there were large niches of trendiots on the "ster" and the "space" all those years ago.... as I said, I was indoctrinated by just such a girl. It actually wasn't until around 2006 that Myspace really seemed to explode with more diversity and become something more useful than it's meager beginnings. Unfortunately, everyone is moving towards the facebook model, with it's twitter-esque stream of nonsense and cluttered interface. The ability to blog, the forums and the flexibility of myspace are what made it unique and interesting... but popularity is king, and popularity rarely finds usefulness to be all that important.</p>

[manuel barrera houston,]

<p>to think I wasted my youth, drinking and chasing women;-( rather then stuck in front of a monitor, what a wasted youth</p>

[tom_cheshire]

<p>Oh, Chris, just watch American Idol. Everybody thinks they are great and special. All the teens think they are "all that". Well, it ain't true. I look at these young people and they look clueless and like they came off an assembly line. Trying to find themselves? They can't do it by looking like everybody else. I see these people walking around and ask (silently) "Don't these people have a mirror?" At least I look like somebody because I don't look like anybody and that means I have some individuality. And my question to all the young folk is "Would it really be so bad if you all suddenly decided Cary Grant was cool and started to dress like him?"</p>

<p>No, Chris, websites like this couldn't exist earlier. </p>

[thomas_hardy1]

<p>When I read the original post I thought Chris was some 18 y/o who came upon a bunch of kids with a alternate deviant lifestyle which was hidden from him by his parents.</p>

<p>But, I did a little math and low and behold ... he's actually 32 years old! That's a different generation.</p>

<p>Chris I'm sorry to inform you that you have now reached adulthood. A curmudgeon, (LOL). I remember turning 30 years old and starting to feel an odd nervousness around teenagers. I developed a "move along, you're bothering me kid" attitude for some reason.</p>

<p>Now that I have teens of my own, I feel much more comfortable around them. I look at the things they do which I think are kind of crazy and just shrug it off. </p>

<p>The only thing different today is the technology. As one smart man said once, "there's nothing new under the sun".</p>

<p> </p>

[doug elick]

<p>I wish my grass was Emo. Then it would cut itself.</p>

[thomas_hardy1]

<p>I actually took a look at the website. Seems to me that once you start trying to define this 'emo', the kids will move on to something else because it just can't be cool anymore.</p>

[mt4x4]

<p>Well...... some good has come out of this website.<br>

<a href="http://www.emo-corner.com/forums/uploads_gallery/1234629754/gallery_37758_41_17702.jpg">[LINK]</a></p>