Pose and shoot

A few weeks ago, a teacher at my school invited a student to the overhead to explain a concept. As the girl was making her way to the front, another student stood up, snapped her picture and sat back down. My colleague, somewhat aghast and certainly surprised, confiscated the camera and gave a short lecture about the appropriate time and place to take photos. As teachers, we give it our all, but this is not a speech we expect to make. ("Now remember, class, no gum, candy or flash photography. Please hold your applause until the end.") It turned out the budding Annie Lebowitz was taking pictures of this friend in a variety of situations (as a quick scroll through her camera showed). She didn't mean to be rude or disruptive. All she wanted was a good action shot. Duh.

A few days later, K held a going-away party at lunch for one of her advisees who is returning to Canada. After cake, the kids' idea the perfect way to spend the rest of lunch was to take photos of each other. This makes sense at a going-away party, though these were not comemorative shots, but rather elaborately staged poses destined for Facebook.

This is harmless fun, of course, but it's made me think about how much things have changed in the digital age. Previously, you needed a special occasion to point and shoot (like a major holiday or a vacation). Only the most dedicated of photogs or pro newshounds carried a camera everywhere. Now, we all have them. Always. Not only can we be reached at any time, but the same device (our trusty cell phones) also makes it possible to be seen and recorded at any time. Reality TV probably has something to do with it, too. If anyone can be a celebrity, then anyone can have their own personal entourage, complete with flashing bulbs. Even a classroom can be a stage, if you can get your friend to play the role of paparazzi.

And, lest you think otherwise, this is not a phenomenon exclusive to middle class teenagers. Everyone is invited to get in on the act. The same week my colleague took away her student's camera, the mall down the street set up cardboard cut-outs of popular action heroes in the corridors between stores. They are the kind with a big round hole instead of a face. You stick your face in the hole and suddenly become, say, the Incredible Hulk, a member of the Fantastic Four or the Pink Power Ranger (True! I had no idea they were still around).

There are probably 20 of these cut-outs sprinkled around, and they have caused no end of delight to mall patrons, both young and young at heart. Because everyone has a camera, taking picture of yourself and your friends is now a form of public entertainment, provided to lure folks to a certain location, much like playground equipment, live music or big sales. In fact, these particular cut outs are not very kid-friendly (most being "life size," and much too tall to accommodate the 3-11 set). They are designed, it seems, for the very people who will use them most: adults and teens with cell phone cameras.

And use them they have, although plenty of kids have gotten into the act as well. The most common scene I've witnessed involves a group of 20-something southeast Asian men, hair slicked and pants pressed to military crispness, out for a turn around the mall. Amid gleeful laughter, they snap each others photos with their cell phones, trading off whilst others call out advice about the best face position. The second most common scene is a child from any locality, being propped up to the face hole and balanced on the knee of his/her mother. Dad point-and-clicks the iPhone or Nokia on the other side. I would love to witness a woman in an abeyya and full veil (only her eyes showing) sticking her head through the Little Mermaid board, but I think that's too much to hope for.

Mall fun aside, I haven't even mentioned the most obvious result of cameras being everywhere, the situation you see the most. At any given event or disaster (natural or otherwise), spectators are now not merely staring in glee or horror, but viewing the scene through their cell phone screens, all the better to post later.

As I mentioned before, I'm not writing this to sound like an old fogie harping for the good, ol' days of film and those annoying strips of slippery negatives. Hardly. My first camera was one of those kid-proof rectangles, which only took that ridiculous 110 film (pictured left). In high school all the way through the Peace Corps, I had a decent, totally manual Minolta, which I liked. But my 2003 digital point-and-shoot can do everything that Minolta could and more. Plus, I can erase the shots I don't like. What's not to love? I've just been thinking about how normal it has become to pose and shoot no matter where we are or what we are doing (at school, on our way to buy socks, etc.). Just like it has become normal to keep a hands-free device constantly clipped to our clothes/ear, or call someone five minutes before we arrive, and tell them we will be there in five minutes. It's a function of the times, and the labor-saving devices we've invented to make our lives easier. And now, since we don't have to save dimes for pay phones or plan ahead to arrive on time or dress up and go to Sears for our yearly portraits, we can do lots of other things. Like write blogs.