Express yourself

Opinions are divided. Some believe that taking selfies can be harmful as it promotes narcissism, unrealistic expectations, and comparisons. Others believe that selfies empower people and offer freedom of expression. What we do know is that selfies allow us to actively control the image that we produce – drawing attention to ourselves by creating an impression and communicating our identity to the world. 

As always, this latest Miansai campaign draws on a single concept – in this case the “selfie” – rolled out into various iterations. For the first shoot, the models empower themselves to take their own photo or “selfie”, choosing their poses and interacting with each other in an authentic way. It is as if the photographer has either got lost on the way to the shoot or decided to let them choose how they want to show themselves to the world.

Digital images are transmitted through a network of cables, so our proposal for the still life campaign was to create abstract compositions using vibrant electrical cables, bent and cut to reveal their inner wires splayed as if in a playful dance. Miansai pieces hang draped or nestle in amongst the wires, sparkling against an impenetrable black backdrop.

The video campaign draws on the repetitive nature of social media, where a single selfie has the potential to go viral, shared over and over again via numerous channels and communities. To represent this phenomenon, we used duplicate footage of the same model with a selfie stick, as if multiple models were walking in unison. For the final iteration, we created collage-like compositions of multiple hands decorated with Miansai jewellery, each one holding a smartphone and resulting in a kaleidoscopic effect.