Every so often you see an item on the news, or social media, with a caption something like ‘best selfie of 2015’ showing a picture of someone simultaneously wrestling a shark while extending their arm in that telltale gesture, or being photo bombed by dancing Chihuahuas, or maybe five world leaders showing they can be spontaneous and goofy while taking time off from discussing important plans to appear to do something about global warming or, or…

In all of these cases, it’s the content of the photo that earns the caption. This is all fine and well, but in placing so much emphasis on what’s in the picture we overlook one of the defining characteristics of the selfie, that of pose. To me, this is where the true quality of the new artform lies.

Therefore, I propose that from now on, any awards for best selfie of the year should take into consideration the following criteria:

Facial expression: this does not need to convey happiness, but should reflect the intentions of the photographer/subject, plus the relationship between knowingness and sincerity
Stance: very important, you are not only conveying a self-image, but are also acting as steady support for the camera – all blurring for whatever reason should be penalised
Nuance: this comprising detail in relation to the entire concert of gestures, props and clothing.
Context: highly important, but should always be subordinated to the photographer’s ideas, so kiss goodbye to the photo-bombing Chihuahuas, they weren’t intended.
Inanity: this is a difficult concept to define positively, but in the case of the selfie I think it has something to do with evidence of ‘really meaning it’ despite the banality of the form.

This is only my first attempt at distilling these key elements and will doubtless need amending. However, I believe today’s photograph exemplifies the above qualities to a conspicuous degree.