How the Humble Selfie Became Selfish
A trip to Bali and a phone full of photos I didn't take for myself. A look at how the humble selfie quietly became something else — and what we lose when documenting a moment matters less than proving we were there.
The selfie was never the problem. But somewhere along the way, it stopped saying "I was here" and started saying "look at me." In this episode I look at how that shift has played out in Bali — where the place has become a backdrop, the ceremonies have become content, and we've become more interested in proving we were somewhere than understanding why it mattered. I talk about photographing a dawn offering ceremony — no crew, no audience, just an ordinary morning that's happened every day for generations — and ask a simpler question than "will this get attention": does this photograph honour the place I'm standing in?
The companion article and photographs from Bali are at petegeorge.com.au.
00:00 - Untitled
00:00 - The Evolution of Selfies
00:17 - When the Place Becomes a Backdrop
01:31 - Photography Begins Before the Camera
02:19 - Before Sunrise, Bali Belongs to Itself
03:22 - The Changing Landscape of Travel and Culture
03:45 - An Ordinary Morning
04:51 - Collecting Ourselves in Front of the World
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The selfie was never the problem.
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The first selfie simply said I was here.
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It was a memory, a way of sharing an experience with family and friends.
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There is nothing wrong with that.
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I've taken photographs of myself while travelling.
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Most of us have.
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But somewhere along the line, the selfie changed.
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It stopped saying I was here and started saying, look at me.
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Something changed again after that.
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The place stopped being the destination.
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It became the backdrop.
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The culture became the prop.
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The people became extras.
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The experience became content.
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And somewhere in all of that, we stopped seeing.
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I noticed in Bali not because Bali changed, because we did.
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Search for Bali today and you'll find an endless stream of influence.
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Videos must visits, photo locations, perfect choreographed poses and articles about visa crackdowns on content creators.
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That's become the conversation.
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Not the people, not the ceremonies, not the artisans, not the quiet moments to make Bali.
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Unlike anywhere else on earth, we've become obsessed with proving we were somewhere instead of understanding why the place mattered.
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I've spent most of my life with a camera in my hands.
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Newspapers, weddings, sport commercial work, the streets of countries across the world.
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And one thing has become clearer than anything else.
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Photography begins long before the camera comes up.
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It begins by looking, by listening, by waiting, by allowing a place to reveal itself.
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Some of my favorite photographs happen because I spent 20 minutes talking with someone before I even lifted the camera.
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Sometimes I never took a photo at all.
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The conversation was enough.
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That's what worries me today.
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Not photography, not storytelling, the industrialization of content.
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We've built an entire industry about producing images that prove we travel.
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We're no longer sure we're actually traveling.
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We're producing, we're collecting content, we're collecting validation.
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And places like Bali are paying the price.
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For years, you could travel respectfully, immerse yourself in another culture, make thoughtful photographs, come home and tell stories about what you experienced today.
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This isn't always enough.
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If your work promotes your business, if it generates commercial value, if your photographs or films become part of your livelihood, you're now expected to enter under a different visa.
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Why?
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Because too many people blurred the line between being a traveler and running a business, the action of a minority changed the experience for everyone.
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I don't blame Bali for protecting its culture.
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If anything, I understand it.
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When enough people turn sacred places into studios, when ceremonies become backdrops, when local communities become unpaid actors in someone else's content, eventually those communities push back.
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And they should.
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A culture should never exist simply to feed somebody else's algorithm.
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When I walk through Bali, I'm usually out before sunrise.
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Not because I'm chasing the light.
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Because that's when Bali belongs to itself.
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The scooters haven't really started.
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The cafes are still asleep.
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The tourists are still in bed.
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Then, almost without fail, you'll see someone carrying offerings.
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No camera crew, no audience, no performance.
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Just another ordinary morning that has probably happened every morning for generations.
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And that's the thing.
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To them, it isn't extraordinary.
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It's Tuesday.
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I hear the musicians preparing for ceremony.
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I watch families dressed in white walking quietly through the streets.
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I see generations continuing traditions that existed long before I arrived and will continue long after I've gone.
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Those are the moments I want to remember.
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Those are the stories worth telling.
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Those photographs aren't about me.
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They're about.
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Perhaps that's the difference.
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The humble selfie became selfish the moment we stopped asking what can I learn from this place?
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And started asking, what can this place do for my content?
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Maybe that's the question every traveler should ask before they press the shutter.
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Not will this photograph get attention?
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Does this photograph honor the place I'm standing in?
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Because when content becomes more important than culture, we've stopped traveling.
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We simply started collecting ourselves in front of the world.
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That's Pete George as I see it.
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If this one's landed for you, the article version is up at Peter george or@petegeorge.com along with the photographs from Bali that this episode is built around.
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And just remember to see with purpose and share.
