Under the immense Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro and its picturesque Guanabara Bay, dozens of tourists jockey for position to get selfies with the stunning panoramic view illuminated by the setting sun.
A tangle of arms and selfie sticks are lifted for solo shots, couple snaps, family photos: getting the perfect picture with the statue or Sugarloaf Mountain in the background is the goal.
The only definite fail? Ending up with other tourists taking selfies in the frame.
Brazil is a selfie-mad country. But it is hardly alone.
Around the globe, selfie culture has become a facet of daily life — social media sites are flooded with pictures, tourist attractions are overrun with those seeking selfie nirvana.
In some cases, that quest for the ideal happy snap has been deadly, when amateur photographers take the hobby too far. For celebrities, it can be a moneymaker.
But for the average tourist, it's a way to make memories.
Philippe, a young French engineer on holiday in Brazil who has Christ-like long hair, positions himself in front of the imposing Christ the Redeemer statue, an Art Deco work made of reinforced concrete and soapstone.
"My colleagues laughed, saying I look like Jesus. So I needed to take a selfie to send them," he said.
But he isn't all in on the idea.
"On social media, it can give a false impression. People only post pictures of beautiful things — the sun, Rio, the beach," he said. "People end up getting depressed because they have the idea that their life is crappy."
For Brazilian Daniela Lemes, taking selfies is "a happy moment, shared with family (…) in marvelous places like this one."
On the other side of Rio, at the waterfront Museum of Tomorrow, aesthetician Tatiana da Silva de Paula admits she takes 100 to 200 selfies a day.
"First I take some to see how I look. Then I post them on social media for my friends and family," she said.
– Selfie wars –
About 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) away, in the heart of Rome, the Trevi Fountain is the must-have selfie spot.
Sarah and Fivos, a British couple from Manchester who came to the Eternal City to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, were part of the selfie scrum.
"We are happy with the selfie we took, but with so many people, you have to wait for the right moment to get the good shot with no people in the frame," said Fivos.
Nearby, Elia and Chiara, two young Italians, took a selfie with their parents in the background… taking a selfie.
On this day, as on most days, there is such a huge crowd at the fountain, immortalized by Fellini in "La Dolce Vita," that tensions can mount.
In August last year, police had to separate two groups of tourists who had come to blows when they wanted to take a selfie at the same spot.
In Athens, even celebrities join the millions of tourists seeking romantic mementos. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg showed up at the Acropolis with his wife in May, after music legend Paul McCartney did the same.
– Practically a national sport –
In Egypt, before the Great Pyramid outside Cairo — the last of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World still standing — Bangladeshi tourist Sheila Ahmed uses her smartphone to do as so many have done before her.
"Generally, I am not a fan of selfies but it's easier to just hang up your phone and take a picture of yourself at whatever place you want," she said.
"Especially here I am in front of the Great Pyramid — where would I want to take a selfie if not here?"
In the United States, at Mather Point on the majestic Grand Canyon's south rim, picture-taking is constant, but some go to extremes — and the very edge of the cliff.
"We can see well enough from here," British tourist Kathryn Kelly said, looking at a woman in an especially risky spot. "I don't see the point stepping closer to the edge."
In South Korea, taking selfies is practically a national sport. To mark his 100 days in office, President Moon Jae-in shot a selfie video message.
North Korea seems to be the last place on Earth immune from selfie fever, where people prefer more traditional pictures.
Nevertheless, the country's leader Kim Jong Un has posed for two selfies — with a Singaporean minister and a Russian journalist.
Selfies: five times more deadly than shark attacks
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) June 27, 2019 –
Selfies, which have become a global sensation in the last decade or so, have remarkably killed five times more people than shark attacks.
And the death toll has crept up incrementally each year as smartphones become more sophisticated and selfie-sticks increase the range at which people can snap themselves, prompting them to take bigger risks for the perfect shot.
Between October 2011 and November 2017, at least 259 people died taking selfies around the globe, according to India's Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, compared to just 50 people killed by sharks in the same period.
While women take the most selfies, young men, who are more prone to take risks, make up three quarters of the selfie deaths — in drownings, crashes, falls or shooting accidents.
India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion and 800 million cell phones, holds the record for the number of people dying in the act of photographing themselves, with 159 recorded so far.
That is more than half of the global total — and a testament of sorts to the nation's love of group photos and its youthful population.
India has seen selfie-snapping groups of youths die when they were hit by a train or drowning when their boat sank at the moment they were clicking the shutter.
The situation has become so dire that India has set up "no selfie" zones — 16 of them in the city of Mumbai alone.
The country came in far ahead of Russia (16 deaths), the United States (14) and Pakistan.
In Russia, people have fallen from bridges and high-rise buildings, shot themselves or even died while handling a land mine. Police issued a guide to "selfies without danger" in 2015.
In the United States, most of those involved in selfie deaths fatally shot themselves while seeking the perfect pose. A number of people have fallen to their deaths at the Grand Canyon.
Rescue services in Croatia used Twitter to ask tourists to "stop taking stupid and dangerous selfies" after a Canadian miraculously survived a 75-meter (250-foot) fall in the Plitvice lakes region.
In January, Taiwanese social media celebrity Gigi Wu — known as the "Bikini Climber" for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini — died when she fell into a ravine. She was 36.
– Inappropriate selfie spots –
Even when they are not fatal, selfies can be extremely macabre.
In 2014, a Brazilian woman sparked rage online when she took a smiling selfie in front of the coffin of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos at his funeral.
Social media influencer Sueli Toledo also caused a stir online when she posted a picture on Instagram with the caption, "My look today for the funeral of a super friend."
Selfies in places deemed sacred or hallowed — especially when they honor the dead — can also raise questions.
At the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland, visited by 2.1 million people every year, museum staff do not hesitate to contact people who post selfies deemed to be inappropriate.
From Brazil to Vietnam and Germany, witnesses to traffic accidents have posted selfies at the scene of the crash — generally seen as gauche.
More and more, selfies — even in tourist havens — are becoming a bit of a nuisance for locals.
Residents of the picturesque Rue Cremieux in Paris were so disturbed by the constant stream of selfie-snapping tourists outside their windows that they started their own Instagram account, clubcremieux, where they publish pictures of the most absurd posers outside their doors, skewering them with barbed captions.
The same thing happened in Hong Kong, where residents of the vast multi-colored Quarry Bay apartment complex put up signs banning photos.
In Brazil, several youths made a buzz on Facebook in 2017 when they posted smiling selfies taken among terrified bus passengers who had thrown themselves to the floor during a shooting.
Facing the mad frenzy of endless selfies, Vienna has launched a campaign for a digital detox.
The Belvedere Museum has put up a large copy of Gustav Klimt's classic painting "The Kiss" near the original and added a giant red hashtag, so that visitors can take their selfie next to the facsimile and actually look at the real work of art.
