Los Angeles Gets a Museum of Selfies

Two California game developers made selfies the topic of an interactive exhibit in California.

“The ‘Museum of Selfies’ came to us,” said co-founder Tommy Honton. “It was evocative and we knew it would be controversial and make people go, ‘What?’ More than that, we realized that selfies had a very interesting story to tell.”

The museum opened as a pop-up in February and will be 8,000 square feet with real portraits from artists — the original selfies. It will also have the world’s longest selfie stick and a “skyscraper,” which allows visitors to create the illusion of a vertiginous photo.

The museum wants to tell the history of self-portraiture and answer questions like, “How many people have died from selfie stick accidents,” or “How many selfies are posted per day online?” Naturally, visitor selfies are highly encouraged throughout the museum.

Honton says selfies have been around for centuries in some form. “They aren’t this new thing that signals the vanity of modern culture or the downfall of mankind,” he says. “They are actually the logical extension of what humans have been doing since the very beginning of art. It’s amazing how art, technology and psychology had to converge for selfie culture to become a thing.”

The Los Angeles Museum of Selfies will be operational until April, but will be extended if interest is high.