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

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

I have to say that from quite an early age, if you take a picture of him he rushes round to the back of the camera saying "Can I see? Can I see?" And if he is not happy with the result, he forbids me from sending it on to relatives.

He does not however think it is cool to smile for photos or to attempt to look (what I think is) attractive. It is much better, according to him, to be brandishing a light sabre and pulling one's most scary-looking face at the photographer. The little girls in his class, meanwhile, are much better at smiling sweetly in photos.

Which tells you a lot about gendered ideas of "looking attractive in photos".