Just looking over the many shots Mary took, over an hour and a half, to get a good holiday card picture of Natalie and Graham. Several reflections follow, all from reading Natalie's face (Graham being too young to really understand).
- It really must suck to have a photographer for a mom. All that sitting still can really make a young girl mad.
- Having lots of exposures of the same person really gives a lot of nuance, and in aggregate really provides a tremendous view into a personality, especially when there's an element of duress at work in the sitting and someone cavorting in the background to try to distract the sitter. The archival value will lie in the session and the range of expressions elicited, not the final picture selected for distribution.
Balzac famously resisted being photographed, fearing that a piece of his soul was being pealed off, like the layers of an onion. As if soul were a zero sum game. Who knows, maybe for him it was. I don't think it's a very lossy transaction, although, as any good pomo person will object, the distinction between performing a self and being onesself is pretty thin and can be easily effaced entirely by a perceived need to perform.
Hmmm. Better get ready for work.
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