(an excerpt from the upcoming book Postdigital Arcadia)
Selfie photography serves not only a traditional role of photographic (self)recording, but also for manoeuvring the space behind one’s own back. Unfortunately, as two realities, the unmediated and mediated, human and machine vision, are not matching, there are many accidents of selfie-makers due to the crabwalk. By this, the photographic technology based on the rear-view mirror – in which objects (may) appear closer than they are – finally resolves one of the largest tragedies of human self-perception; the inability to see and control the world behind one’s back.
Keywords: background, mobile photography, optical devices, photography, selfie