Janet CollinsThe New Paparazzi
January 12th 2009 09:16
Jockeying for the best shot
Everyone thinks they are a photographer these days. Never is this more apparent that at a formal occasions such as a wedding or a christening. I have been to both in recent months and wow, talk about guests as paparazzi.
I know it’s not only on these occasions where we see cameras being whipped out and people elbowing people out of the way for that perfect shot, but it is these formal occasions where it is in overkill. The occasions are almost tailored to suit the guest photographers – to ensure they get the photos they want.
I was at a wedding not so long ago where every formality of the wedding had a pause for a photo and big groups of guests would lunge forward jockeying for the best photo angle. What was worse was the formal entrance of the bridal party where a groomsman and bridesmaid looked absolutely horrified and shocked at the twenty of so cameras jumped out clicking away.
At a christening I was at recently, the priest spent the whole time telling families and friends of those being christened what was about to happen and when it would be good to take the best photos. It certainly appeared to me that the ceremony was organised around the photography aspects rather than the other way around. So much for the spontaneous photograph!
It is true, we humans do not want to miss anything but it’s not only the pocket sized cameras and mobile phones with inbuilt cameras that have made this possible. The fact that it’s all so cheap to take photos means that we can click away to our heart’s content. We don’t even have to have our photos developed if we don’t want to. We can just upload them onto our computer and keep the record there.
A photographer acquaintance of mine laughed one day when she was telling me about a wedding where she was the official photographer. One of the guests told her she had found “the perfect backdrop” for a particular shot and went on to tell her how she should shoot it.
These mobile phone cameras or pocket sized digitals have come in handy for news outlets as well. Some of the images we have witnessed on news items would not have been possible had it not been for at the scene amateur photography. Remember the London bombings and some of the vivid images that were brought to us by mobile phone cameras.
While this type of eyewitness photography has its place, it an also lead to some frightful behaviour as well - behaviour that can get way out of hand. An incident in the UK last year is testament to that. In October, UK’s Daily Mail reported a story of a young man who plunged to his death in Derby in Northern England. It was the behaviour of onlookers that took on-the-spot photography to a new level.
While seventeen-year-old Shaun Dykes was contemplating suicide as he stood on the top floor of a multi-level car park, he was goaded by spectators for three hours who dared him to take his life. While police tried to talk Dykes out of jumping, onlookers yelled “Get on with it”, “Jump” and “How far can you bounce?”
What was even more horrifying for the police was what happened after Dykes finally leapt to his death. The onlookers who were goading him on his fateful plunge rushed over to the body and proceeded to take photos with their mobile phones. At least the Daily Mail showed enough respect and restraint by refusing to publish any of the photos.
Maybe it is the competitive nature of humans that emerges in the area of photography. We want to be the one who gets the most beautiful, the weirdest, the ugliest, the strangest and the darkest pictures of all. The lengths that some will go to get them, however, border on the extreme. How far can this go? It almost makes the whole wedding guest paparazzi look tame in comparison.
What about all the photos we end up with? When I think of all the photos taken at those nice occasions, the weddings, the christenings and even the special birthday parties, I wonder what everyone does with all the photos. There must be hundreds of thousands of them.
Information source:
dailymail.co.uk
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Comment by AmyHuang
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Thats beyond me.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Thanks for dropping by.
Comment by Cibbuano
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Even worse is having to sit though people showing you their nondescript photos.
I've rebelled against this by not taking any photos, even when travelling.
Comment by Janet Collins
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I usually have a camera with me I must confess but I swear I have never elbowed anyone out of the way or stalked anyone to get a photo.
Welcome back!