Evolution of photography

In order to buy a smartphone what is one of the major features we consider? For many of us, the answer would be Camera resolution! These days smartphone camera is getting better and better. So far in the world, 200MP is the highest resolution available with a camera in a smartphone. The more the resolution the better the details captured. People are fond of capturing the memories, posting it, and sharing them with others. But give it a thought what does the word photograph mean? If we break the word photograph then photo means light and graph is drawing. Have we ever given a thought to how the evolution happened when the camera was first invented as a big wooden box and now it is embedded in our smartphones? Earlier before the invention of the camera, painting was done to portray the thoughts or capture the surroundings. Obviously, it was a time-consuming process and required skills to capture very minute details. After centuries the Camera was invented by understanding the science behind the action of light on a sensitive material. In order to capture the world around us we use photographs so that we can refer to it later or provide evidence of something. But today the photography is not just about capturing the world around us, advanced technology can even generate the images of our imagination as well.

Are we becoming photoholics?

Today photograph has become the self-expression for most of the people. It is a medium through which we communicate our emotions, tell our stories, or share our experiences. As rightly said by the quote “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Today we carry the camera in our pocket and it is ready to capture almost anything and everything that we see around us. On top of that we can edit the photos improvise it and make it look better. The thought has now shifted from capturing the real pictures to making it picture-perfect. Often when people travel to different places or they have some special occasion they capture the moments so they can refer to it later and replenish those memories. Nowadays capturing the moments many a time become more like a distraction that prevents us from actually experiencing it.

We often forget to capture the moments by our inbuilt camera our eyes. There are people who has a constant need to stop and take photos every few minutes when on a vacation or during a new experience. And that is not sufficient, we are also highly conscious about how do we look in the photograph. And at last, we post the story or upload it for others to look and comment. Nothing wrong in that but ideally the camera will capture the things as is, it captures the reality, and on top of that you will have an option to edit and filter it. So many a times we feel the person looks different in photographs and in reality. There are people who love to get clicked, who has a photogenic face, they are aware about which angle best suits them. If we just keep a track of time, we can conclude that a lot of it is spent on engaging with applications to check the post and the photographs of other people. And we are busy projecting the desired version of ourselves to the world.

Insecurity of an unphotogenic person

On the contrary, there is another set of people who do not like to get clicked. We often hear people saying I do not have a photogenic face, or I do not look good in my photos. So, if camera captures the things as is then why as human beings, do we have different opinions on the same? Recently in a photography studio, I saw the photographer giving constant instructions to the person who was to be photographed. The comments were like please keep your body loose, it should be straight and erect, look into the camera. In addition to that he added like your eyes are too big compared to the overall face, do not keep it wide and open, this is a common problem with people having big eyes. The person who was being photographed looked nervous and confused, trying to settle down in the studio environment where all the lights and camera lenses were focused on him. The photographer was bit impatient, he was in a hurry to complete his task, he took a few clicks so that he could attend to another customer. The person who was clicked, now asked if he could check the photos before the photographer finalized the same. The photographer immediately replied the photographs can be no different from reality so there is nothing to check or try again, it shows reality.

Ideally, it is true that is what a photograph is supposed to be, but there is slight difference the asymmetry of eyes being bigger that we see in camera or in photograph is because of thoughts that are running behind the scene. For camera-shy people or who are not comfortable in front of the camera, they become conscious and hence it makes the body stiff and it makes them unphotogenic. Ideally, there is no such concept of unphotogenic it is the problem in our mind and our thoughts at that point.

Often it is told that your inner thoughts and feelings reflect our outer glow and radiance. Babies can be a very good example for it. Babies would be completely unaware of what is going in the surroundings, they are not insecure or they do not have any hatred or negative thoughts. That might be the reason why babies are always cute. We often love to see our childhood pics, as a child we are less bothered about things or people around us. A child will have different enthusiasm towards life, each day is a new day for them. Because in the back of the mind, a child is aware that there is someone who is taking care of all other thing for them. I have noticed that in people who do meditation or have a deep faith in God, their faces look very calm, the positive thoughts reflect as some special glow on the face.

Conclusion

It is simply ok to be unphotogenic, but we should be extra conscious while making commentary on how a person looks. Let us not judge the person by the asymmetry in the face or by the unphotogenic face. As human beings we do not have any control on our natural looks, it is gifted by God. There is very less scope of changing the natural looks, but we can just maintain it well. But we have the scope of working on our thoughts, behavior towards others and our deeds, and that is going to reflect on our outer glow. We all can have some imperfections and slight imperfections make us picture-perfect so let us embrace our imperfections. We should realize that we are still whole people, be ourselves and accept ourselves as is. This will raise our inner self-esteem and make us less camera-conscious. At the end of the day let us remember that it captures the things as is. Give more time to our senses to feel the experience, be present in the moment, and capture it with an inbuilt camera, which will convert it into memories that stay with us throughout our life.

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