Crowd turns its back on Hillary Clinton as photo captures the age of the selfie

It is a photo that captures perfectly the age of the selfie.

Hillary Clinton, who could soon become America's first woman president, stands at the front of a room packed with people.

Yet instead of having all the eyes of the room trained on her, the crowd has turned its collective back, cameras aloft, seemingly captivated by someone far more interesting on the other side of the room. Even Clinton seems to be greeting the newcomer.

Far from being a snub, the crowd at a campaign event in Orlando is simply desperate to place themselves in the same photo frame as the historic presidential candidate. Welcome to generation selfie.

The image, snapped by Barbara Kinney, a photographer on the Clinton campaign, was posted on Twitter, where it was shared more than 8,000 times in a matter of hours and drew hundreds of comments.

"Wow millennials really do hate Hillary," one commented, tongue in cheek.

Others suspected Clinton orchestrated the photo-op herself. "I'm assuming she asked people to take selfies? Almost Trump-class on that kind of social media strategy," one tweeted.

Another commented: "This is so strange that I'm wondering if she invited them to all do it at once."

Clinton got in on the act later, taking a selfie herself with some supporters.

The selfie phenomenon has created some memorable snaps. There was the one when the Pope snapped himself and some visiting schoolchildren at the Vatican.