Wanted to reply to this earlier, but knew it would get long-winded and I'd run out of time...
It certainly wasn't intended to convey that feeling, and apologies if it did.
I think I muddied the debate a little, because we were originally talking about art photography (or at least wannabe art photography) inasmuch as the TV series sells itself as a way for photographers to break through into the gallery world. johey24 then asked "What is it with these people and the self-portraits ... is it merely egocentric or is it social paranoia..." and I went off at a bit of a tangent talking about the increasing trend for young women to get involved in self-portraiture.
Although I didn't make this clear, I was talking about this more as a social phenomena than as an art world phenomena. There is a slight link, in that many of the women posting self-portraits think they are being arty, in the same way that many of the people applying to be on Picture This think they are being arty. (I realise this could easily develop into a conversation on "arty" vs. "Art", which is something I could also say a lot about, but won't on this thread). But basically I was talking about the broader phenomena of young women photographing themselves, from the level of Flickr amateurs looking for positive comments on their photography down to Myspace flirts looking for more "adds".
Again, I should have made it clear that I wasn't specifically referring to art-world recognition, in fact "attention" would have been a better word than recognition. The type of self-portraiture I'm talking about is attention-seeking, and in that respect it is successful in that it gets attention. Yes, sexualised attention rather than the adulation of art critics, but still... attention.
I have a feeling that there are also some parallels that can be drawn between this sort of behaviour and self-harm, but as this is a forum post rather than a lengthy academic paper I won't pursue that avenue any further, other than to say this is just stuff I've noticed in my work with young people and in my travels on the Internet. It's only my personal theories, but I feel that there's at least an element of truth to it.
Also, regarding Stanley's objections, I'm still pretty certain that this is mainly a female.... not sure what word to use here: "obesession" is too strong a word, "pursuit" too weak. Anyway, I do think there's a gender imbalance. For example, look at the most "relevant" results when you search Flickr for self-portrait groups:
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=self-portrait
I also want to make it absolutely clear that I'm not seeking to blame/accuse/criticise women for behaving in this way. Bleeding-heart liberal that I am, I'm convinced that "society" is to blame. In an earlier post, I used the word "affluenza", a slightly inaccurate buzzword which I intended to stand in for something like this: our capitalist society makes it very hard for people to find a sense of self-worth from within themselves and their own abilities. Various distorted achievements have become short-hand for success in the modern world: money, fame, power and beauty. Of these, the latter is the only one most young women can easily attain, and so it's hardly surprising that large numbers of them take advantage of the Internet to say "Look at me! Look at me! Aren't I beautiful?"
And given the rather basic wiring that joins the male brain and reproductive system, it's hardly surprising that large numbers of people reply "YES! YES! you are!"
Rather embarrassingly, I don't know a lot of Sarah Lucas's work (although I once met and photographed her at a Cork Street gallery opening. She seemed really nice - we were both very drunk though, and didn't talk much art. I also really liked her wank lorry at the 2006 Frieze art fair). I think she's very pertinent to the discussion though, not as an example of the phenomena I was talking about, but as somebody who understands and comments upon it.
Perhaps more relevant though is Tracey Emin. For years, I thought of Tracey as rather a poor artist, somebody whose work was theraputic for her, but too personal to be of much relevance to anyone else. Over the last few years though (and for exactly the reasons described above) I've revised this opinion. I now think she thoroughly deserves her status as Britain's most iconic contemporary artist.
Tracey really is everywoman: her need for attention, her sexual misadventures, her self-harm, self-hatred and self-esteem problems are (again in my experience) a true portrait of the nation's younger (teenage & early 20s) women.
