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Melinda Camber Porter purchased a Polaroid camera in 1979. She was fascinated by the fact one was able to get instant feedback with a photo from a camera, and not wait days or weeks to get ones traditional photography developed. Today we of course call this a ‘Selfie’.

From 1979 to 1983 Melinda Camber Porter took over one-hundred and twenty-five Polaroid Selfies. She placed each of her Polaroid Selfies in chronological order into a three inch thick ringed photobook. She was obviously fascinated with and had deep interest in what ‘Selfies’ showed her about herself.

She now had the ability to take a photo of herself in many different ‘emotion states’ and see if she could capture the ‘emotional state’ of her mind in her face on the Polaroid Selfie. She wrote various annotated statements next to some of her Polaroid Selfies that gives us insight into her Polaroid Selfies. She wrote, “I am depressed”, “I am trying to be happy”, “I am thinking of love” and so forth about her state of mind when she took each Polaroid Selfie.

Melinda Camber Porter was addressing the classic Mind-Body problem. Does my face of my Body show what I am thinking in my Mind, when I take the photo? She was using the new Polaroid camera technology as her laboratory equipment to log her thoughts as expressed in her face. For some reason she understood the photos were important enough to log each Polaroid Selfie in chronological order over the years 1979-1983. She knew they did provide her with some type ‘insight’ into her life and emotions and wanted to keep them in diary form.