Tuesday, August 09, 2005
say CHEESE
Child's first photogarph, he is not even in thy senses, and is just looking around, trying to learn how to breath in air, as against the previous habbit of 9 months, of breathing in water like surroundings. Claps, noises go all around, to grab the attention of the kid, to make thy look where one wants to. The child reacts to what thy hears, and moves thy head towards the direction of sound. See's people's faces light up, and they behind something that has an eye, and few words are being spoken, to which the child has no corelation to coz the only language that the child knows is: 'make sound when hungry, make sound when thirsty, make sound when something happens, and make sound when nothings happening'. And the people around the kid are saying few words, which the child doesn't understand, and can't comprehend, but somehow, they're being told to him, being put inside the head. The words spoken to the child .... "smile" .. "say cheese" .... Why? And that's my question.
Since the time we're on our first ever picture, we're told to smile. Picture taking, becomes part of a family, and the family gets ready, and prepared for the picture. Sure does make sense, coz pictures are memories, of the times, which were there. And good pictures, sure can bring incredible memories, and as pictures are part of our memories, thus, we try and make them look as we'd want to look at them later, or as how we want them to be.
But the thing that goes missing from this is the point, that one does not have to smile / look good in every picture. Its all about being oneself, the way you want to be represented, the way you want to be looked at, and the way you want yourself. But the thoughts, ingrained in our minds, at the way early stages of our life, "Smile .. you're on camera", keep running through our heads, and want us to look good, to smile when we're on camera.
And most of the people, look great, just the way they are, i.e. while they're not 'putting up' that smile. Coz, people by their very self, are beautiful. Yes, smile does enhance the face value, but should not be looked at the very basis of the picture, and definitely should not be the pre-requisit, for one's picture.
I like the sentence from one of the movies that I watched few weeks back. The lady was taking picture of a person, for library membership. She puts the camera towards the guy and says "Smile if you like"...
Since the time we're on our first ever picture, we're told to smile. Picture taking, becomes part of a family, and the family gets ready, and prepared for the picture. Sure does make sense, coz pictures are memories, of the times, which were there. And good pictures, sure can bring incredible memories, and as pictures are part of our memories, thus, we try and make them look as we'd want to look at them later, or as how we want them to be.
But the thing that goes missing from this is the point, that one does not have to smile / look good in every picture. Its all about being oneself, the way you want to be represented, the way you want to be looked at, and the way you want yourself. But the thoughts, ingrained in our minds, at the way early stages of our life, "Smile .. you're on camera", keep running through our heads, and want us to look good, to smile when we're on camera.
And most of the people, look great, just the way they are, i.e. while they're not 'putting up' that smile. Coz, people by their very self, are beautiful. Yes, smile does enhance the face value, but should not be looked at the very basis of the picture, and definitely should not be the pre-requisit, for one's picture.
I like the sentence from one of the movies that I watched few weeks back. The lady was taking picture of a person, for library membership. She puts the camera towards the guy and says "Smile if you like"...
