Bored Panda
47 Vintage Celebrity Selfies Before Smartphones

47 Vintage Celebrity Selfies Before Smartphones

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Taking a selfie nowadays is the same as having your breakfast for most of us - no day goes without one. Eating a fancy dinner? Time for a selfie! Watching a game at the stadium? Snap away! Chilling at the beach? Perfect! And with our modern technologies, it has never been easier to document your daily life. But how has it all begun? Surely you cannot make a nice selfie picture without a high-tech smartphone, right? Well, let us take you on a history trip of the Selfie, and we'll show you how Hollywood stars used to do it way before our time.
You might be amazed in learning that probably the first-ever selfie dates way back to 1839 - that's not even the 20th century! And though this first vintage photo of oneself has probably requested sitting still in front of the camera for at least 15 minutes, it was well worth the patience. With better technologies and smaller photo cameras, people favorited bathroom selfies more until someone came with the ingenious idea of holding the camera in front of your face. And that's precisely how the modern selfie was born.
Now, scroll down below for the visual part of this history lesson. You'll be delighted to see such vintage photography gems of old Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra snapping their mirror selfies and such beloved recent-times culture icons as Stanley Kubrick or Kurt Cobain documenting theirs. Selfies aren't so bad, after all!

#1 Rowan Atkinson, 1987

Rowan Atkinson, 1987
Unknown
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57points

#2 Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Marilyn Monroe, 1962
Unknown
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51points

#3 Jeff Bridges & Sam Elliott, 1997

Jeff Bridges & Sam Elliott, 1997
Unknown
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50points

#4 Self-Portrait By Photographer Joseph Byron, 1909

Self-Portrait By Photographer Joseph Byron, 1909
Joseph Byron
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49points

#5 Frank Sinatra, 1930s

Frank Sinatra, 1930s
48points

#6 Stanley Kubrick On The Set Of "The Shining" With His Daughter. Apparently, Jack Nicholson Thought Kubrick Was Taking A Photo Of Him (1980s)

Stanley Kubrick On The Set Of "The Shining" With His Daughter. Apparently, Jack Nicholson Thought Kubrick Was Taking A Photo Of Him (1980s)
Stanley Kubrick
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47points

#7 Linda, Paul And Mary McCartney, 1969

Linda, Paul And Mary McCartney, 1969
Linda McCartney
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46points

#8 John Lennon, 1967

John Lennon, 1967
John Lennon
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42points

#9 Neil Armstrong, 1969

Neil Armstrong, 1969
Neil Armstrong
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42points

#10 Photojournalist Terry Fincher With A Fish-Eye Lens Strapped To His Foot, 1966

Photojournalist Terry Fincher With A Fish-Eye Lens Strapped To His Foot, 1966
Terry Fincher
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33points

#11 Andy Warhol, 1979

Andy Warhol, 1979
Andy Warhol
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31points

#12 Madonna, 1982

Madonna, 1982
Madonna
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27points

#13 Paul McCartney, 1959

Paul McCartney, 1959
Paul McCartney
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26points

#14 Michael Jackson, 1996

Michael Jackson, 1996
Michael Jackson
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25points

#15 Stevie Nicks, 1970's-80's

Stevie Nicks, 1970's-80's
Stevie Nicks
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25points

#16 Ilse Bing, 1931

Ilse Bing, 1931
Ilse Bing
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24points

#17 George Harrison, 1966

George Harrison, 1966
George Harrison
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24points

#18 Robert Cornelius In The First Daguerreotype Taken In North America. It Is Believed To Be The First Photographic Self-Portrait, 1839

Robert Cornelius In The First Daguerreotype Taken In North America. It Is Believed To Be The First Photographic Self-Portrait, 1839
Robert Cornelius
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22points

#19 US President John F. Kennedy And Jacqueline Kennedy, 1954

US President John F. Kennedy And Jacqueline Kennedy, 1954
21points

#20 Princess Anastasia (Daughter Of Russia's Last Emperor), 1914

Princess Anastasia (Daughter Of Russia's Last Emperor), 1914
Princess Anastasia
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20points
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