LOCATION: CAMERA ROLL, iPHONE

It has become one of the staples of the often deemed Y-Generation's way of living. It is a phenomenon of recent, despite the notion that the concept of it all is as old as time is. It is now a coined term understood across the borders, as it effortlessly defeats the walls of language and translation into pulp in one synchronized motion. And all of us, including myself, have been guilty of such an act. Of course, I am talking about......"THE SELFIE."

Recently, I had learned that Makati, a city in the Manila portion of the Philippines, has claimed the title as the selfie capital of the world. And then, I had come across a song made by the Chainsmokers, in which the main vocal presence is a girl rambling on, only to end her sentences while simultaneously leading to the beat drop, with the words "Let me take a selfie". Not to mention, the most POPULAR tweet of all time, was a major "SELFIE" prompted by Oscar-Host "Ellen Degeneres"

Now, selfies are quite simple. Take your camera, face the lens towards you (or in the case of the smartphone, rotate the camera to FRONT) and snap, snap snap. There you go, in all your glorious umm.... glory.

However, I had noticed something while going through the camera roll of my iPhone, thumbing through the photos of the last year or so, even as far as my photo stream could recall. I had noticed, that the pictures of "myself", didn't seem to abide by the principle rules of "THE SELFIE".

First of all, I did not take them myself. It was always somebody else taking them for me.

2nd of all. Most of them did not include a face, which is THE mainstay of a "SELFIE".

In fact, most of them looked like this.

MACHU PICCHU, PERU

or like this...

PETRA, JORDAN

I noticed most of them followed a similar formula. However, it was still not"traditional". Then I realized, why MY "selfies" didn't stand by the traditional guidelines.

First of all, none of my "selfies" ever come out that well, quite honestly . My best ever attempt at traditional "SELFIE", still has the camera covering a good portion of my face. 

JAMES BOND ISLAND, PHUKET

Second, as a person, I know I'm quite shy still. So handling myself, while handling a camera to take a picture of myself, is still a concept I'm trying to master both physically and mentally. Most of the time, I'd rather be the person BEHIND the lens taking the picture.

But the 3rd reason is probably THE main reason they are, the way they are.

It's all about relationship.

Whenever you look at a selfie, the focus is stabilized wholely on the person in context. In my "selfies", the focus wanders on a tangent. You see me, but not really. You see a silhouette facing the opposite way of its captor. Then you see what I'm seeing; hopefully, whether it be a random landscape that seems to dwell into nothingness, or whether it be Machu Picchu in the near distance. The fact is, the picture is not simply all about ME. 

Because in all honesty, it never really is, and I don't think it should ever be. Which is probably why I don't mind being in pictures when it's with other people. 

What it is about, is the relation between myself and the environment I'm in. The gesture of balancing the focus on the corresponding beauty between world, and traveler. In essence, my "pose" is just a visual prop, a symbol of my embracing of the worlds before me, new to my senses, yet old to time and nature. 

Simply put, these pictures of "myself" are not really "selfies'' in any sense at all.

I don't mean it to be the glorification of outer-self, but rather that of an inner presence that's hoping to resonate without being all-about-my-face as well as all-up-in-your-face. Because that's essentially where all journeys begin, regardless of end point or destination.

And this is not to say that I'm opposed to the traditional "SELFIE". I, myself love a great selfie. As a matter of fact, I'm slowly learning how to actively use the FRONT camera feature without dropping my phone at the sight of my face. It's a process gaining the conscious comfort to place the focus all on one's self, more specifically, MYSELF.

In due time, I'll get it.

But in the meantime, pardon my backside and join in on the moment at hand.

For whether your extending your arms at full lengths so you can get a straight shot of you and everything else that can fit in the dimensions of your smartphone grid/camera LCD,

or simply breaking out of your shell to ask a stranger to take a picture for you... the purpose of it all is to take advantage of the ability to share with the rest of the world, a frozen frame of joy.

-PASSPORT|kenny