So, I've used this interaction off and on just for fun. When University first came out, I was mildly disappointed to discover that the cell phone 'selfies' interactions (including the platonic and romantic versions with friends) didn't show up in the phone's photo inventory as a picture I could put on my sim's wall, but I got over it. At least the interaction wasn't causing a freeze for me, so I happily moved on.
Yesterday, though, after my sim returned to his home world from the university, lo and behold, the two selfie shots he'd taken of himself and two friends were in his inventory. So this leads me to believe that this interaction IS supposed to produce photo objects, but it's not. Is my general experience the norm, or has my game been bugged this whole time and I just didn't realize it?
(As a side note: I tried having him take another selfie, and nothing shows up in his phone's photo inventory. Still. Grrrr.)