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Self-Portrait:The First Ever Selfie
Robert Cornelius used a box fitted with a lens to create the image. He uncovered the lens, ran into frame, posed for several minutes, and then ran back and covered up the lens. The image was taken outside his family’s lamp store. It’s considered the first selfie. -
The First Revolving Selfie
Gaspard-Felix Tournachon photographed himself a dozen times as he slowly rotated in a swivel chair. He then stitched all the photos together to make a rotating selfie. His ingenuity back in 1865 foreshadowed a lot of things to come in the future of photography. -
Kodak Brownie Box Camera
In 1884, American entrepreneur George Eastman patented a film roll he had been working on for years. By 1888 he perfected it and his first camera went on sale that year. It was called the Kodak and it came pre-loaded with enough film for 100 pictures. The only problem was the entire camera had to be sent to the factory for processing and reloading when the roll was finished. -
First Teenager Selfie - Anastasia Nikolaevna
The Kodak Brownie took the world by storm and everybody was using it. Anastasia Nikolaevna posed in front of a mirror and snapped a selfie using her Kodak Brownie camera when she was 13 years old. She sent the photo to a friend and on the back of the picture she wrote, “I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling.” -
The First Polaroid Camera
Edwin Land is the inventor of the first instant camera, and the instant camera.
The polarizing filter, which Dr. Land developed during World War II for the Polaroid company to provide military forces with infrared technology.
The camera was also coined the “Picture-in-a-Minute” camera, because you were able to develop the film using a chemical reaction in the roll film without the need of a dark room laboratory, which enabled it to be developed without needing to wait for it to be sent away. -
Buzz Aldrin Takes the First Selfie in Outer Space
One of the most famous selfies in history was taken by American engineer and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin is most known for walking on the moon with Neil Armstrong as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, but in 1966 he made history by snapping the first selfie in outer space. -
Creation of the Extender Stick
Hiroshi Ueda and Yujiro Mima created the extender stick. Ueda said that the extender stick was made because he had a hard time comfortably taking pictures with his wife while on a trip to Europe. When their patent ran out in 2003, Wayne Fromm, a Canadian inventor and entrepreneur picked up the “stick” and was still running with the idea in 2005. -
The Word Selfie Finally Appears Online
In September of 2002 an Australian man named “Hopey” posted a photo of his busted lip on an image-hosting website. He then went to a message board and wrote something. He added a link to the photo and it was the first time anybody dubbed their image a “selfie” online. -
Front-facing Phone Cameras
The first front-facing phone cameras were introduced way back in 2003. The cameras were designed with conference calls in mind, but the selfie might be its most widespread function today. -
Creation of MySpace
Myspace, the largest social media platform at the time, includes profile picture option. The “Myspace Pic” era encourages users to hold camera at arm’s length to take their own profile photo. -
The Iphone & Apple
Apple releases the iPhone 4 with front-facing camera on their phones. This became an international phenomenon. Samsung estimates the average person will take about 25,000 selfies in their lifetime. -
The launch of Instagram
Instagram was released to the public in Apple’s App Store on October 6, 2010, and reached 25,000 users on its first day. Less than three months later it had one million users, a phenomenal achievement. After, in 2011 Instagram introduces hashtags and filters. By creating filters, users are able to edit their photos. Hashtags allowed the introduction of the “duck face” or “I woke up like this” trends. -
First Selfie Hashtag
In October of 2010 photo-sharing app Instagram launched and quickly took off — registering 10 million users in a year. On January 16, 2011 the first image with the hashtag selfie (#selfie) was uploaded to the app by user Jennifer Lee. https://www.instagram.com/p/BDas2/?img_index=1 -
Selfie is added to the Dictionary
“Selfies” is added to the Oxford Dictionary. Usage frequency for the word “selfie” has increased 17,000% since 2013.