My high school graduate picture combined bad taste on my part with artless camera work on the photographer\u2019s part with hair so puffy that it had no part.<\/p>\n
A great blessing of being (almost!) fifty is that such pictures are hidden: a blessing I share with the world by not sharing with the world.<\/p>\n
Recently I received a question about high school pictures, a good question from a very bright student:<\/p>\n
I have been recently receiving a lot of graduation announcements. Many of which
\nconsist of various professionally done glamour shots. I do not see
\nanything wrong with a single conservative picture of the graduate, but
\na collage of all kinds of poses? I find this to be highly conceited,
\nmaybe even self-worship. Why does society accept this? Why are good,
\ndevout Christians blinded to the obvious self-adoration it promotes?
\nWhere did such a custom originate? How did it become so popular? And
\nwhere must we draw the line? (Or am I just crazy?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTime are bad when the prudent worry about being crazy. The student is certainly not crazy, though she might be wrong or driven to\u00a0censoriousness\u00a0by bad art.<\/p>\n
There is\u00a0nothing\u00a0inherently wrong with a series of \u201cprofessionally done glamour shots.\u201d Unlike torturing leprous kittens for fun, sending your friends a slew of poses might not be conceited or self-indulgent, it might even be good art.<\/p>\n
Charity demands my belief that some \u201cglamour shots\u201d are actually done by true professionals and impart glamour. My experience in receiving these shots has not been good, but I am a hopeful person.<\/p>\n
Why does anyone take a picture at graduation?<\/p>\n
Graduation is a moment where society marks movement into adulthood. Parents, close friends, and future biographers cherish such pictures, as do any future children looking for mockable parental moments. I can see parents and teachers asking for a photo as a gift as the graduate celebrates his teachers and parents gift to him.<\/p>\n
And then I am reminded that for some bizarre reason graduation is no longer a celebration of the school, a way to honor the teachers, but a celebration of the student for having the sense to open a priceless package: education.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t misunderstand me. I am all for parties and gift giving: almost any excuse will do. It just seems to me that a graduation should \u00a0be an acknowledgment of a personal achievement, which has the natural reward of a diploma, and a grateful thanksgiving by the graduate to his alma mater and teachers. Congratulations are due the graduate, gifts to the teachers.<\/p>\n
Hanging around me are class pictures, from the Immortal First Class, to present college students and I cherish those pictures. I enjoy getting shots of former students as the years pass: Christmas is a good excuse. I am thankful technology has let this happen constantly through Facebook.<\/p>\n
It is hard to see in that context the purpose of numerous \u201cglamour shots.\u201d As they are generally done, they don\u2019t capture the student in time, but someone like the student wished they were. I have had to look from the program to the person at a graduation, because the photo was so little like the actual, much more interesting person.<\/p>\n
I begin to suspect, and perhaps this is uncharitable, that the pictures are not gifts to us, but celebrations of self.<\/p>\n
If a person takes a slew of glam shots for a graduation (or even a wedding), because they love looking at a \u201cbetter than real life\u201d image of themselves, then the problem is probably not self-adoration, but self-loathing. For one moment, they can look like the Barbie or Ken in the glossy or one television. Mostly, such pictures make me sad, it is hard to get righteously indignant about the pathetic.<\/p>\n
My guess is that the cheapness of digital photography, the ease of manipulating images, combined with our consumption of millions of such image has led to the growth of the custom. It is mockable enough that a quick Google gets one to sites dedicated to mockery of such \u201cglamour shots.\u201d Such sites, the modern freak show, are cruel . . . and no more \u201camusing\u201d than the old freak show.<\/p>\n
All glam shots may not be self-indulgent, but all mockery of hapless high schoolers pictures is cruel.<\/p>\n
So I can imagine a context (barely) where a \u201cglam shot\u201d is a good idea, and dressing up can be fun, but it is hard to imagine a context where too much digital manipulation or \u201cposing\u201d is a good idea. Of course, we all pose for photographs, but in the hands of a bad photographer these become stereotyped, contrived, and hide more than they reveal of the soul.<\/p>\n
In other words: look your best\u00a0<\/em>to God\u2019s glory, but look like God\u2019s best you, not a false \u201cyou\u201d imposed on your form by fallen humans. I enjoy putting on grown up clothes and taking out the Fairest Flower, but I still am a portly, older man: flaws and all!<\/p>\n
Call me Biblical, but I want to love people for inner beauty shining through their forms than for glam.<\/p>\n
At the worst, of course, such shots are a symptom of a culture that so bombards young men and women with ugliness and with false images of people that they reach for one moment \u00a0of social acceptability. If portraits we must have, find an artist, spend some time with the artist, and get a good picture done . . . or just send a link to a Facebook collection of live shots.<\/p>\n
Christians want to love each other as God is making them to be inside. We accept and love any outer wrapper as a good gift from God!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My high school graduate picture combined bad taste on my part with artless camera work on the photographer\u2019s part with hair so puffy that it had no part. A great blessing of being (almost!) fifty is that such pictures are hidden: a blessing I share with the world by not sharing with the world. Recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1135],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john-mark-reynolds"],"yoast_head":"\n
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