Although “selfie” was named word of the year in 2013, it may not necessarily be a product of the internet age—people appeared to have used this distinctive method to capture self-portraits way back in 1920.
Design and lifestyle website Twisted Swifter recently shared an intriguing photograph that shows a group of men holding a camera at arm-length to take a self-portrait—while this way of photo-taking is now ubiquitous, this photograph stands out because it was taken in December 1920.
The picture was taken by the photographers of the Byron Company and is one of 23,000 images from the studio that have been digitized by the Museum of the City of New York.
The image below shows the same group in the process of capturing a vintage selfie, although it is unclear if both of the photographs were taken on the same day.
The selfie does not seem quite so 21st century now, does it?
[via Twisted Swifter, images by Byron Company via the Museum of the City of New York]