Inadvertent Selfies on eBay

'Selfie' was the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year 2013 after a 17,000% increase in the frequency of its usage. Amongst this proliferation of public portraiture, there are other more accidental and inadvertent 'selfies' that are littered online. I have taken eBay as a platform from which to archive these inadvertent selfies in mundane objects such as spoons, mirrors, old televisions, and ski goggles.

Cropping and enlarging these images displaces their original intention, shifting their status from a functional advertisement. Up close, they could be abstracted, pixellated digital paintings but, at a distance, the subject of these portraits slowly emerges into a recognisable form.

The appropriation of others' photographs (whether inadvertent or not) questions the creative role of the artist, and issues surrounding authorship and privacy in an online world in which everyone is a creator.