Ten Things I Hate About You
South Bend Parking Garage - Paige Jones
Ten things I hate about this photo. Number 1, I hate the shadows cast by my car, it is a distraction to the subject (in this case me). 2, I left my phone and keys in frame causing more clutter to the overall picture. 3, in the case that I try to crop said phone and keys out of the photo, it takes away from the leading lines of the ledges. 4, I hate the way I'm posed, it is stiff and overall boring in nature. 5, the sky is boring.
6, The photo is blurry. 7 the electrical boxes in the background are ugly. 8, I hate my smile but that is not necessarily a photo error, 9 I find myself overly critiquing a photo that should represent fun not self-criticism. The final thing I hate about this picture is the fact it represents every teenage girls overly critical nature.
I, even at twenty years of age, find myself overly hating and 'fixing' my pictures to fit a certain type of box I have inadvertently made for myself. Every Instagram picture has to be perfect, no rolls, wrinkles, or double chins. No blurry pictures or bad poses. Nothing cringy nothing real. It may seem like social suicide to post a picture you don't look perfect it. But prioritizing perfection over authenticity is something we shouldn't strive for.
So I encourage you to post that bad photo. Post the blurry vacation picture or the awkward smile, post the funny pose or the outfit fail. Post what makes you smile, post the things you'll scroll back on and think, "Hey, I had a lot of fun here". Make your social media a living breathing scrapbook of you authentic self.
This reminds me that I've been having photography recontextualized for me over and over again lately. I have tons of photos that don't seem "post-worthy", photos which I've accumulated ever since I got my first cell phone seven years ago. Now I am taking a photography course where there are a variety of parameters that must be followed, with nothing being staged or propped. It makes me wonder if a course like that will change how I take photos, or if I'll carry on taking all the grainy and off-balance photos I want.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I have always taken photos in whatever manner I please.
Between the photo of the canyons in your introductory post and the photo of yourself in this post, I believe that every photo captures a moment and contains a special kind of sentimental value. Like it captures the essence of the moment.
But that's just me rambling :)