Vintage Celebrity Selfies Taken before It became Mainstream

The very word "selfie" came into use after a smartphone appeared in the pocket of everyone you meet. But taking pictures of yourself, of course, began long before that. The first selfie in the world is considered to be a picture of the photographer Robert Cornelius, which he took in Philadelphia in 1839. The American used an improved daguerreotype plate, which reduced the exposure time: Robert only stood still for five minutes. 

With the development of photography, the need for such self-torture disappeared, but until the gadgets with a front-facing camera were invented, the selfie remained not too popular genre. The more interesting it is to look at the self-portraits made by celebrities of the past. These selfies are much more diverse than modern ones.

Photo by Robert Cornelius. It is preserved in the American Library of Congress.

Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining. Jack Nicholson obviously thought he was being photographed. 1980.

Rowan Atkinson, 1987.

Marilyn Monroe with her friend, 1962.

Frank Sinatra, 1930s.

Stanley Kubrick again. Perhaps his most famous photograph, 1949.

American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, 1966.

Paul McCartney and his family, 1969.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, 1992.

George Harrison, 1966.

John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, 1954.

Michael Jackson, 1996.

Sophia Loren and the famous photographer Richard Avedon, 1960.

Madonna, 1982.

American singer Stevie Nicks, 1970s.

John Lennon, 1967.

American photojournalist Terry Fincher, born in 1966.

Jeff Bridges and Sam Elliott on the set of The Big Lebowski, 1998.