AS SOMEONE who has been ‘forever’ tasked with taking photographs I can assure you few people are ever ‘excited’ about this happening and most of those are women.
When I became involved in ‘the game’ it was the mid 1990s and the wait between click and print was at least an hour.
Dropping the spool off for developing meant a nervous wait to see how the photographs turned out.
Nowadays it’s instant and most people use their phone to capture memories.
Imagine explaining to my 20-something self how I’ll be using my phone to take photographs in the future, that would be a confusing conversation for sure.
In the 1990s people didn’t like having their photograph taken either.
It’s always been a struggle.
Men don’t seem to have the same issues.
In the 1990s there was no social media, AI or filters.
If you wanted to alter how you looked in a photograph you needed to learn how to use computer software.
I’d toss a handful of spools from the office cabinet into my bag – that’s how we worked back then … give the photo editor lots of options.
I didn’t like having my photograph taken.
I was too fat, skin texture was poor, my hair was too frizzy … I looked old.
Except now when I see the few photographs of myself back then I realise I was none of those things.
Insecurity about how you look didn’t stop when digital photography came about, instead things ramped up a notch.
We use apps to apply filters and smooth over wrinkles, widen eyes, brighten teeth and slim us down.
We put checks and balances in place so no one tags us on social media with a photograph they’ve taken that we may not like.
Mums are photo dodgers and use the excuse they need to be behind the lens to avoid being in front of one.
Any photos uploaded to socials are adjusted, tweaked and smoothed over.
The damage filters do is already happening with women looking at the photos that ‘made it’ to their image collections going back 10 years and wondering what happened.
What happened?
You never looked like that, no one looks like that.
Texture, pores, lines and flyaway hair is part of being human.
Your body size fluctuates, we have babies, gain unwanted kilograms and earn our tiger stripes (stretch marks).
One day your kids will be grown, have children of their own, your photos with them at this time will be treasured.
What will they see once you’re long gone?
An AI representation of what you’d like to look like or the person they loved and who loved them back?
