--- description: Decades before "duck face" and Kim Kardashian, these 1940s entertainers took early versions of what we now call selfies. title: This Is What Selfies Looked Like in the 1940s image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ef1b5cc3675eb4/698859dbf887dc6b44e9142e/150707-selfies-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [photography](/tag/photography/) ## photography Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is What Selfies Looked Like in the 1940s  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 13, 2015 12:00 PM CUT  Actor S. Z. Sakall "Cuddles" holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph. Actor S. Z. Sakall "Cuddles" holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph.Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 13, 2015 12:00 PM CUT When Gjon Mili invited celebrities to his studio in 1944 for a session in self-portraiture, the word “selfie” was 70 years from inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary. “Duck face” was nothing more than the mug of a quacking animal, and Kim Kardashian’s father was a newborn baby, 36 years from fathering the future queen of selfies. But one look at the portraits they produced that day, and it’s not hard to imagine the subjects holding an iPhone 6 instead of a remote-controlled shutter release. Photographic self-portraits date back to 1839, when Robert Cornelius mugged for his camera in the back of his family’s store in Philadelphia. So when Van Johnson and Geraldine Fitzgerald took their own photographs with Mili’s help, they were not pioneers, but participants in the evolution of an art form. And their poses are not so different from those of today’s selfies: Fitzgerald sports a barely-there smirk and Johnson an expression of “gee golly” innocence, actor S.Z. Sakall “cuddles” himself while singer Lauritz Melchior feigns surprise. Their photos make it clear that although the technology we use to capture it has advanced by leaps and bounds, human expression—duck face aside—has changed little over time.  Photographer Gjon Mili instructing actress Geraldine Fitzgerald on how to take her own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk "undefined")_._  Actress Geraldine Fitzgerald holding shutter release as she takes her own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actor Van Johnson holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actor John Garfield posing as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actress Joyce Reynolds holding shutter release to take her own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actor Robert Alda posing as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actor S. Z. Sakall "Cuddles" holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actress Larraine Day holding shutter release as she takes her own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Singer/actor Lauritz Melchior holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Director Michael Curtiz holding shutter release as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Makeup artist Perc Westmore posing as he takes his own photograph. Gjon Mili—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3948062/selfies-1940s/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3948062/selfies-1940s/"},"headline":"This Is What Selfies Looked Like in the 1940s","datePublished":"2015-07-13T12:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:47:18.038Z","description":"They didn't use a selfie stick, or even the word itself, but these self-portraits most definitely fit the bill","url":"https://time.com/3948062/selfies-1940s/","keywords":["photography","Newsfeed","Hollywood","LIFE Magazine","1944","Gjon Mili"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ef1b5cc3675eb4/698859dbf887dc6b44e9142e/150707-selfies-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24ef1b5cc3675eb4/698859dbf887dc6b44e9142e/150707-selfies-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actor S. 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