“Video Selfie” or “Selfideo”?

I see kids taking a lot of pictures, and I mean a lot, with their smartphones. A high percentage of these pics are “selfies”. I reckon this is just totally normal behaviour for teens and many others nowadays. The selfie is not my cup of thee though. In paintings and also photography “self portraits” are an established category. And I must admit that I have a little collection of self portraits from the film age of photography. But taking selfies? Not me…

Just a few weeks ago I wanted to make a short video to show my mother how the garden looked like. Just a casual “walk-through-the-garden” video. By accident I apparently pressed the turnaround camera icon and suddenly I found my self staring at …. my self. It struck me that I was actually doing a “selfie” with video and spontaneously pressed the record icon and started to create a video. I instantly made up some rules for videoing this way: You have to be in the picture frame all the time, preferably looking at the front of the face. What you want to show is – as a consequence – behind the video-er etc.

By just holding the camera at arms length I managed to make a 4 minutes tour around the garden. I babbled along and tried to capture things in the background which otherwise would be at central stage. NB As the iphone shows you directly what you are videoing in reversed mirror mode you have to get used to penning left or right a bit though.

My kids found it hilarious as I tried to capture them as well, while walking around. As I was making the rounds I explained to them that I was making a “video selfie” or “Selfideo”. I just made up that name on the spot. (or maybe it is an existing term that I internalised without noticing it?). After that first time I did some more Selfie video’s and really enjoyed the dynamics and limitations of the new found medium for expression.

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