The art of being photographed.

[bunn]

I observe that the children of people that I know, if judged entirely on photography, would appear to be all stunningly attractive. Photographs that I own of people that I know from their own teen and childhood years, and photos of members of my own family suggest that by comparison, humanity up to about 20 years ago was largely composed of odd-looking, grumpy-faced or mad-looking and somewhat furtive trolls.

Either some sort of alien intervention has taken place unnoticed, or nowadays, people get photographed so often, and get to see the results so instantly, they have on the whole, got a lot better at being in photographs.

I expect Future Historians to come up with a complicated theory about nutrition and dentistry. Or to go with the alien intervention thing.

Comments

[sally_maria]

I have to take ID photos of people for my job, and one of the things I've noticed is that there genuinely are people who take more flattering photos than others, given their appearance when you're not looking at them through the camera system. It doesn't seem to be age-related, though I'm not taking pictures of children, so that may skew the results.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I was so horrified at the bags under my eyes in one passport photo that my sister counselled and applied foundation before taking some herself. Recently, I've seen that I had bags under my eyes when I was five, though not so pronounced; I looked a serious child.