Julia Scher 8-85, 1985

Self-portraiture has been integral to Julia Scher’s practice from the outset. This early Polaroid self-portrait by Julia Scher, taken in the 1980s, sits at the intersection of personal memory, pop culture, and emerging technologies of vision. Long before the term selfie existed, Scher used instant photography as a means of self-documentation and quiet resistance, capturing herself in moments that blur the line between performance and private ritual. Influenced by Hollywood's iconography—tight headshots, heart-shaped frames, the aesthetics of exposure—Scher reclaims these visual codes to ask deeper questions about gender, visibility, and desire. Her use of the Polaroid camera, a technology once marketed for spontaneity and intimacy, becomes a critical tool to explore familial dynamics and the act of looking itself.