“Selfie Harm:” Renowned Photographer Shows To What Extent Teens Edit Their Own Photos For Social Media

Teenagers feel a lot of pressure to be and look a certain way. But to what extent? To find out, creative agency M&C Saatchi has partnered with the renowned British photographer Rankin and MTArt Agency. As part of VISUAL DIET, a campaign that explores the impact of imagery on mental health, they asked a group of teens to polish their selfies for social media.

“In the series ‘Selfie Harm’ I was specifically looking and experimenting with the apps that are actually targeted at teenagers,” Rankin told Bored Panda. “They are like playing computer games and consequently are really good fun. I’ve personally enjoyed messing around with them but they are very addictive.”

Image credits: RankinPhotography

The project saw the renowned British photographer shoot a group of teens aged 13-19. They were then asked to spend a few minutes editing the photo until they thought it was good enough to upload to social media. “Initially, we used models and then I wanted to expand it to other teenagers, so we did a call out looking for [more] subjects.”

“The program we used was one of many like Facetune <…> but there are hundreds of these apps,” the photographer added. “The main thing is that we weren’t casting people that used these apps, but found teenagers and asked them to try them out. They were shown how to use them, which literally takes seconds as they are very easy to work out, then they did the editing themselves.”

Rankin also believes that there is no sense checking around it. “What you can do on these apps is way beyond what even a great photoshop operator can do. The technology is moving forward very quickly and the idea of being somebody in any way different from the person you are can be exciting, but what are the pitfalls around it. That’s what I’m asking. If you can be even just a ‘more polished’ version of yourself, how hard does it then become to accept who you actually are? This is a mental health minefield and this project is only just scratching the surface of it.”