It worked for me, a very long time ago, although it wasn't self photography.

My gay partner and I were enjoying New York City's Pride festival one day when a cute guy handed me a business card and told me he was an art photographer and would like to talk to me about modeling. Could I give him a call next week?

Well.

I was flummoxed.

I didn't like the way I looked. Didn't care for my face. Didn't care for how my body looked. I thought I was generally unattractive despite plenty of people telling me otherwise. I figured they were just being nice.

Long story short, I called him out of curiosity. I modeled nude for him in his studio. The experience was both professional and highly validating. The photographer was careful to establish and stay on the right side of boundaries, while being at the same time kind and complimenting.

I got some lovely prints out of the experience, which my partner framed and hung, and then one day about a year later I got a call.

The photographer had signed a book deal and he was including a photo of me in the book. (I always knew that was a possibility, so while I was surprised, I was not shocked.)

Months later, I walked into my favorite book store, opened up a coffee table book, and found my photo inside.

I didn't much care for it. I thought a tiny amount of extra flesh around my middle was ugly. I thought that my non-shredded body wasn't worth looking at. I didn't find myself worth looking at, so why should anyone else?

My face isn't in the shot, so that didn't come up, but ... that photo in that book went a long way to improving my self image. My partner pointed out that every model in the art book was beautiful. So, why would I be the anomaly?

It's not like the artist said, Let's shoot a bunch of beautiful people and include one ugly guy for comparison's sake.

Over the years, I heard a lot of compliments about that photo, mostly from people who had no idea I was the model. (Because I wasn't about to tell them, LOL.)

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, I agree with you. Artistic selfies are different from modeled shots by a pro, but the principle feels quite similar. Many people have irrational insecurities about how they look. For me, at least, having a nude photo out there in public worked to get me over that and to stop telling myself I had to have a perfect body for people to think I was reasonably attractive.