Selca: Taking Photos of Yourself, So You Don’t Look Like A Fool Taking Someone Elses

By Jee | Thursday, May 21, 2009 | View Comments

selca-not-selca

It is no secret, Asians like their photos — they like being in them and taking them. Koreans even have a term that identifies a whole different genre of photo-taking: selca, made by marrying two English words together, self and capture. Selca is all the rage and many celebrities and non-celebrities have a slew of photos they have self captured. There have even been tips on how to best selca so one is presenting their best feature. Singer/actress Nam Gyu Ri has gained much attention for being a selca-lover and newcomer Lee Si Young has gained love for her lovely selcas.

And maybe another reason while selcas are so popular is to avoid looking like the folks who have been captures in awkward positions in an attempt to capture the flattering image of people and such. I’ll be perfectly honest: I am pretty sure I’ve “posed” in similar fashion to capture photos of friends and family at outings, and I’ve seen more than one of my family members striking a similar pose when they’ve taken pictures. I just didn’t know exactly how silly it looked until multiple photos were posted in this blog post.

But hey, we all need to pay a price – no matter how awkward and embarrassing – if we want nice photos.

What next?

View Comments to “Selca: Taking Photos of Yourself, So You Don’t Look Like A Fool Taking Someone Elses”

Chris wrote:

Kungca – kung-fu capture

Posted on 22-May-09 at 6:39 am | Permalink
Candy wrote:

So Selca means being full of yourself. I don’t care if you’re asian or not.

Posted on 23-May-09 at 5:17 am | Permalink
Xxxtine wrote:

Um, I thought Selca stood for “self camera” … in any case …

The only reason why I bought a Canon was because of the flip LCD display so I COULD take pictures of myself. As they say, “You must document.” And I’m always full of myself.

*insert puffer fish expression and V-sign*

Posted on 23-May-09 at 10:40 am | Permalink
jessandherviolin wrote:

ROFL, we call it luvo-ing
but luvo-ing also counts for taking pictures with you AND your friends but you take it by yourself
i.e. you have to like turn the camera/phone around or use mirrors ^^
cam-whoring = excessive luvo-ing ROFL

Posted on 22-Oct-09 at 10:10 pm | Permalink
jessandherviolin wrote:

ROFL, we call it luvo-ing
but luvo-ing also counts for taking pictures with you AND your friends but you take it by yourself
i.e. you have to like turn the camera/phone around or use mirrors ^^
cam-whoring = excessive luvo-ing ROFL

Posted on 23-Oct-09 at 5:10 am | Permalink

8 Asians