Picture Perfect
There is an unwritten rule that photographs taken for official documents must make their owners look hideous. In this regard I am reminded of Jaspal Bhatti's take on the Voter ID Cards issued in India. As he correctly pointed out people have to be forced into believing that the horrible thing printed on the card is actually their face. You may think that this is not true. You may say that you have seen Driving licenses with nice photos on them. But I assure you, compare the photo to the actual person and more often than not you will go "ewwwww" (referring to the photo of course). This is particularly distressing for me as I am not exactly what you would call photogenic.
My first memory of such photos is from college. I still remember my photo on my college ID. In order to avoid the reflection from my glasses turning my eyes into two flashes of light, the photographer asked me to lower my chin and peer over the top of the glasses. I do not wish to describe the effect here, but rest assured it still haunts me. Thankfully, my company id did not require a photo. Here at Texas A&M, I have had 3 id cards to date. None of the photos are worth looking at. The most harrowing was the last one I got made. The girl behind the counter asked me to stand on the blue square and clicked away......3 times (no kidding). She finally gave up on the third attempt. The result is that inspite of the flash being operational my TAMU id card has such a dark photo that one has to really squint in bright sunlight to make out the contour of my face.
But it's not just the machine's fault. I think people get nervous when asked to pose for any photo. When the photo is for an official document it's worse. Case in point is my DL. Anybody looking at the photo would be left in no doubt that my face has been cropped from a photo of me in a police cell holding a slate spelling out my prisoner number. And that's bad because I have to show this card wherever a picture ID is required. Luckily for me, I just changed houses and today I went to the DPS to get a new DL reflecting my new address. I decided to leave nothing to Fate. I shaved extra close. I washed my face twice before leaving home. I wore contact lenses so that the glasses won't ruin it for me. I even stood before the mirror and practiced my smile a few times. When the lady asked me to stand on the blue square, I did and brought on my perfect practiced smile. But the lady, having taken many such photographs was aware of the unwritten law. She asked me to get my chin down a bit and while I was doing that, without giving me time readjust my smile back in place she clicked. And so now I wait in agony for the 2-4 weeks the lady said it would take for the new DL to reach me. What is worse is me knowing that when the DL arrives, the agony will be extended till such time when I change my address again.
I think government should allow people to get busts made for them and then take pictures of the busts. That way a lot of unpleasantness will be avoided and the next time somebody asks me for my picture id I would be able to present him with my DL without any embarrassment.
My first memory of such photos is from college. I still remember my photo on my college ID. In order to avoid the reflection from my glasses turning my eyes into two flashes of light, the photographer asked me to lower my chin and peer over the top of the glasses. I do not wish to describe the effect here, but rest assured it still haunts me. Thankfully, my company id did not require a photo. Here at Texas A&M, I have had 3 id cards to date. None of the photos are worth looking at. The most harrowing was the last one I got made. The girl behind the counter asked me to stand on the blue square and clicked away......3 times (no kidding). She finally gave up on the third attempt. The result is that inspite of the flash being operational my TAMU id card has such a dark photo that one has to really squint in bright sunlight to make out the contour of my face.
But it's not just the machine's fault. I think people get nervous when asked to pose for any photo. When the photo is for an official document it's worse. Case in point is my DL. Anybody looking at the photo would be left in no doubt that my face has been cropped from a photo of me in a police cell holding a slate spelling out my prisoner number. And that's bad because I have to show this card wherever a picture ID is required. Luckily for me, I just changed houses and today I went to the DPS to get a new DL reflecting my new address. I decided to leave nothing to Fate. I shaved extra close. I washed my face twice before leaving home. I wore contact lenses so that the glasses won't ruin it for me. I even stood before the mirror and practiced my smile a few times. When the lady asked me to stand on the blue square, I did and brought on my perfect practiced smile. But the lady, having taken many such photographs was aware of the unwritten law. She asked me to get my chin down a bit and while I was doing that, without giving me time readjust my smile back in place she clicked. And so now I wait in agony for the 2-4 weeks the lady said it would take for the new DL to reach me. What is worse is me knowing that when the DL arrives, the agony will be extended till such time when I change my address again.
I think government should allow people to get busts made for them and then take pictures of the busts. That way a lot of unpleasantness will be avoided and the next time somebody asks me for my picture id I would be able to present him with my DL without any embarrassment.
posted by Avinash | 9:34 PM
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