Historical Selfies of a Teen Girl Portraying Fashion and Cultural Trends from the Past 100 Years

By Alison Nastasi

May 10, 2014

Sixteen-year-old Annalisa Hartlaub created a compelling series of self-portraits for her school photography class. “I’ve always been fascinated, and a bit infatuated, with counterculture and how it shapes society and mainstream culture as well,” she explains. “So I decided to mix that interest with my love of fashion, makeup, and photography to create something.” Her historical selfies project portrays two fashion and cultural trends from every decade over the past 100 years. Mainstream culture is shown in the photo on the left, while the counterculture is depicted on the right. The side-by-side comparison reflects the different hair, fashion, and makeup styles that flappers, hippies, mods, and other youth subcultures would have obsessed over. It’s a clever form of dress up that explores teen fantasy and identity — through a teenaged photographer.