It’s not common that I have my picture taken. Mostly I’m behind the camera and not in front of it. I like it that way, though plenty of other people dislike having their picture taken far more than I do.
I recently took pictures of my coworkers for our new website. It was quite illuminating to observe who does and does not enjoy having their picture taken. I believe enjoying it, or at least not hating it, correlates to being good at it and being good at it makes good pictures.
I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either. I won’t comment about wether or not the images came out, I’m of the firm opinion that most people cannot judge wether or not a picture of themselves is any good.
There’s too much baggage assosciated with how we view ourselves. Our residual self image, as they call it in The Matrix, casts a long shadow and anything that cuts against it hurts us.
It might start with mirrors. We see ourselves reversed most frequently; it’s possible people might hate photographs of themselves somewhat less if they were reveresed. I suppose everybody else might find them disquieting in that case, though I doubt they could guess why.
Is it better to prioritize the subject or the viewer? There are far more viewers of course, but I don’t know them or care about their unnamed masses nearly as much as I care about anyone I am likely to take a picture of.
On the other hand growing comfortable with images of yourself, and with having them made seems like a healthful thing. The opposite of dysphoria. That being said, it is the obsession with such images that drives people into dysphoria. Social media suggests that their ceaseless creation for the express purpose of consumption by untold hordes to be normal and good.
It is not normal or good.
Websites like this or our new work website, photo books, prints, singular text exchanges, these are the extent to which images ought to be shared.
Celebrity is evil, anything approaching it is bad and we all aspire to it every time we use social media.
I recently took pictures of my coworkers for our new website. It was quite illuminating to observe who does and does not enjoy having their picture taken. I believe enjoying it, or at least not hating it, correlates to being good at it and being good at it makes good pictures.
I don’t hate it, but I don’t like it either. I won’t comment about wether or not the images came out, I’m of the firm opinion that most people cannot judge wether or not a picture of themselves is any good.
There’s too much baggage assosciated with how we view ourselves. Our residual self image, as they call it in The Matrix, casts a long shadow and anything that cuts against it hurts us.
It might start with mirrors. We see ourselves reversed most frequently; it’s possible people might hate photographs of themselves somewhat less if they were reveresed. I suppose everybody else might find them disquieting in that case, though I doubt they could guess why.
Is it better to prioritize the subject or the viewer? There are far more viewers of course, but I don’t know them or care about their unnamed masses nearly as much as I care about anyone I am likely to take a picture of.
On the other hand growing comfortable with images of yourself, and with having them made seems like a healthful thing. The opposite of dysphoria. That being said, it is the obsession with such images that drives people into dysphoria. Social media suggests that their ceaseless creation for the express purpose of consumption by untold hordes to be normal and good.
It is not normal or good.
Websites like this or our new work website, photo books, prints, singular text exchanges, these are the extent to which images ought to be shared.
Celebrity is evil, anything approaching it is bad and we all aspire to it every time we use social media.
