This Artist Keeps Pretending To Be Dead To Protest Selfies

Jim Rowley

6 years ago

You can’t go anywhere in public without seeing people taking selfies. Or maybe you can’t go anywhere without taking a selfie yourself! (I hope not.) Ever since smartphones gave all of us cameras in our pockets, we’ve been living in the Age of the Selfie. People just can’t seem to enjoy an activity or a sight without taking a picture of themselves in front of it.

But one artist isn’t taking our selfie-obsession lying down. Well…technically she is lying down, but in a form of protest. Her name is Stephanie Leigh Rose, and she’s the inventor of the “anti-selfie,” or “stefdie”, a kind of selfie where you lie down in a public space pretending to be dead. In other words, it’s a bit like planking, but a little more morbid, and a lot more satirical.

According to her website, modern photography, and especially selfie-taking, has drifted away from photography’s original purpose, which was to document a “captured moment in time.” When looking at her “stefdies,” Rose encourages you not to focus so much on the death aspect, but on life. By reminding you of your own mortality, Rose hopes to inspire you to live life to the fullest.

The result is a series of funny, bizarre images perfect for anyone who’s experienced Selfie Overload. So the next time you visit a popular location like a national park, why don’t you just drop dead..and then take a stefdie!