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A London College Is Offering a Course on Taking the Perfect Selfie

5 minute read

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to improve your selfie game? Hopefully not! But if it is, you should consider heading to the U.K. to take a new course dedicated solely to the art of the selfie.

City Lit, an adult-education college in London, is now offering a photography class called “The art of self portraiture.” The month-long course, which begins in March, is a “theory/practice introduction to photographic self-portraiture; it is conceived for students to improve their critical understanding of the photographic self-portrait, as well as a platform to develop ideas towards the creation of a coherent body of work.”

So in other words, yes, it’s a selfie class — but it’s not for basic iPhone pics. Students must come equipped with their own SLR cameras and knowledge of basic photography principles. Besides taking selfies, students will also need to participate in lectures, presentations, seminars, discussions and group work. It costs £132, or about $200.

Get those duck faces ready, everybody.

10. Ellen’s Oscars Selfie

And the award for most retweeted tweet in history (so far) goes to…the selfie Ellen DeGeneres orchestrated at the 2014 Academy Awards, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Channing Tatum, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong’o, Angelina Jolie, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep and Jared Leto. It may have been sponsored by Samsung, but that didn’t stop us from retweeting, memeing and talking about it for weeks.

9. Biden’s First Instagram Selfie

When Vice President Joe Biden joined Instagram as @vp in April, he showed millennial voters how hip he is by sharing a selfie with President Barack Obama in the back of a car. Around that time, the two were on a joint trip in Oakdale, Pa., to announce an increase in funding for job-training grants. Before you knew it, he was posing for selfies with Katy Perry and with voters at campaign rallies before the midterm elections.

8. Queen Elizabeth Photobombs a Selfie

Australian field hockey player Jayde Taylor was surprised to find the Queen smiling in the background of a selfie she snapped at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in July.

7. Boy’s Selfie with Paul McCartney and Warren Buffett

A young man snapped the selfie of a lifetime with former Beatle Paul McCartney and business tycoon Warren Buffett sitting on a bench outside of an Omaha, Neb., ice cream joint in July.

6. Mars Rover’s Selfie

Mars Curiosity Rover Selfie
NASA/JPL

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover took an out-of-this-world image on June 24 to mark a full Martian year, which is 687 days on Earth. It had a productive year, between collecting rock samples and discovering a former lakebed that NASA says had “essential elemental ingredients for life.” But no word on how close it is to finding living organisms capable of taking selfies.

 

5. Guy Takes Selfie Running from the Bulls

San Fermin Festival in Pamplona
Rafa Rivas—AFP/Getty Images

During the Pamplona bull run over the summer, a man was wanted by the police for taking a selfie in front of two bulls, violating the Spanish city’s regulation prohibiting the use of mobile devices to ensure festival-goers’ safety. He reportedly faced a $4,100 fine and definitely faced endless ridicule on Twitter.

4. Guy Kicked in the Head by Speeding Train While Taking Selfie

In a train-wreck of an idea, a man gets smacked in the head by the conductor while trying to take a photo of himself as a speeding train whizzes by. He admits in the video description that the idea was “messed up,” so kids, don’t try this at home.

3. Brad Paisley’s Selfie Trolls Westboro Baptist Church

The country music star took a selfie in front of Westboro Baptist Church members protesting his hit song “Alcohol” with “God Hates Drunks” signs before a Kansas concert. He seemed to get a kick out of it because he does’t drink, and the image has racked up nearly 245,000 “likes” on Facebook to date.

 

2. World Cup Victory Selfie

This soccer tournament only happens every four years, so naturally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a sport about taking a selfie with the team’s striker Lukas Podolski after Germany beat Portugal to win the 2014 title.

Correction appended, December 8, 2014: The original version of this article misstated Germany’s opponent in the final match of the 2014 World Cup. It was Argentina.

1. Kim Kardashian Almost Gets Attacked by Elephant While Taking a Selfie

Based on this photo, it looks like reality TV show star and prolific selfie-taker Kim Kardashian was almost injured while trying to pose for a selfie with an elephant in Thailand. The Internet loved this picture, but one major question remains: Will she include this image in the book of selfies that she’s publishing with Rizzoli next year? It’s also possible the elephant just wanted to see how it looked in the shot.

 

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