Duncan Davidson: Why Do We Hate To See Our Own Photos

You hear the camera shutter. You run with curiosity to look at your picture your friend just captured. Your eagerness diminishes once you see yourself.

You: Eww! This is not how I look!

(You order your friend to delete it and capture a nice one but your friend argues.)

Your friend: It’s a beautiful picture!

(His words don’t convince you.)

You: We’ll try a few more shots until I look perfect!

If you are the one who is totally happy looking at all your pictures and never consider any of those bad then I have to take my hats off!

If you are the one who doesn’t like seeing your picture, you are at the right place. Hold on!

Duncan Davidson, a photographer has little something to tell you. This could change your way of looking yourselves in pictures from now on.

How do you perceive yourself?

The basic question Duncan asks. I read a few lines recently which goes like this “Who are you? Are you the person in the mirror? Are you the one when you are painted? Are you the one someone else describes?” Now I shall ask you “Which one is the real you?” You might feel like shouting at me for this question and migh say “Its the Mirror, Idiot!” Well, it is the mirror, I agree! Don’t you think there are two other perceptions also here, perception of an artist and perception of someone who looks at you.


 It looks almost right but not right!

The picture what we see in the mirror is the picture we have registered in our brains. Everybody has his best profile which he loves. This best profile serves as a standard image to compare other pictures and decide how good they are


Is your perception correct?

The best profile what you have selected is the best of all and its something which you choose delicately and it has to be absolutely correct!


 Then what’s wrong?

I am sorry for using the word wrong, it might sound a little harsh. There is nothing wrong with the perception. You chose it and it is bang on!

It’s just that at times we are so confident with a single perception that the other ones don’t seem to impress us. If you stand in front of the mirror and look at your other profiles, they are beautiful too. The same thing implies to the world we live in. Your perception or meaning of beautiful may be killing the real beautiful you.

As Duncan says believe what your friends say, they know you more. If you don’t believe in others perception watch this: Are You Ugly?

You are beautiful from all angles, you look pretty even with those negative adjectives you use to describe yourself. Lets not lose ourselves with the definition of beauty the society gives us or the definitions we give ourselves.

May be its time to change that rigid perception. May be its time to appreciate the real YOU.

P.S. You are beautiful :)

 

9 thoughts on “Duncan Davidson: Why Do We Hate To See Our Own Photos”

  1. Thank you Anita for your response. Ha ha I agree with the celebs photos and capturing at tourists spots. Though we feel we don’t look good in it we start to love the pictures because of the celebs or the places and gradually accept that we don’t look as bad as we thought when we saw the picture for the first time :)

  2. Thank you Najm. We appreciate your honest confession :D I do it too… Photogenic ah? You must look good in most of the photos then… Looking at your picture I have to accept about you being photogenic :)

  3. Lovely post Vidyashree, love the video ! Though I am quite photogenic I have used the sentence ” I don’t look good in this, delete it NOW” hundreds of times :D You are absolutely right about appreciating the REAl us :)

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