Althouse: "Kids are like rookie literary critics, always on the hunt for sentimentality. The camera becomes a worrying signifier to them..."

October 9, 2015

"Kids are like rookie literary critics, always on the hunt for sentimentality. The camera becomes a worrying signifier to them..."

"... that tells them that they are engaged in something that is good for them or Meaningful. They don’t want to be engaged in any activity that is worthy of being photographed."

John Dickerson applies himself assiduously to the task of analyzing why his children, once so unselfconsciously vulnerable to the camera's inspection, became impossible to photograph as they turned adolescent.

Interesting quote — isn't it? — the way he takes himself out of the vignette. The "worrying signifier" — the camera— is in the hand of a human being, the father. And the meaning of the camera isn't merely that they are doing something "Meaningful," but that the father sees meaning in what they are doing. When they were younger, they lacked the ability to think about the father's mind, and now that they have acquired the great power to imagine things from the perspective of another, they object. Is it that "they don’t want to be engaged in any activity that is worthy of being photographed" or that they demand control over what their now-conscious selves mean?

24 comments:

Mr. Colby said...: From what I can tell, adolescents seem more than fine with having their picture taken - just so long as they (or their friendly peers) are the one(s) holding the camera.; 10/9/15, 1:16 PM
Birches said...: I want to say so many things in response to this navel gazing article, but I'll refrain. For now.; 10/9/15, 1:19 PM
Achilles said...: Maybe they realize that all of these pictures will turn into blackmail material in the future. When they were younger they didn't notice. Now they watch parents gather and laugh at these galleries of pictures of them. Especially the naked ones.; 10/9/15, 1:22 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Huh.

I was told to select all images with pies. I failed. Then I decided that of the seven or so images left, one might be construed as a pie (though it was not a pie). Ceci n'est pas un pie, I thought. Then the world fell apart.; 10/9/15, 1:26 PM
n.n said...: It wasn't so long ago that I was a kid. I recollect that my aversion to unsolicited snapshots was prompted by a dread of judgments in absentia. I still prefer personal contact.; 10/9/15, 1:34 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: The person demanding control is the person with the camera, almost every time. How did the kids get so gun shy about the camera in the first place, because they suspected he might try to take their picture someday, or because he was constantly intruding on their life with it?; 10/9/15, 1:46 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: The kids remind me of the ducks around here, before duck season, they congregate wherever and you get to see flocks of goldeneyes, or mergansers, or whatever near shore and fearless. After duck season has gone on for a little while, there are little flocks tightly clumped in little groups well away from shore. Why don't those ducks want to share their life with us humans anymore>; 10/9/15, 1:55 PM
rhhardin said...: Dogs regard cameras as unacceptable because you stop looking at them.

Learning to take pictures blind is useful.; 10/9/15, 1:56 PM
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York said...: Another thing this piece reminds me of is the repeated lament of Gypsy Rose Lee's control freak mother in the movie: "Why does everybody keep leaving me?!?"

Not the first clue that her obsessive behavior was at the root of others actions.; 10/9/15, 2:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: As I recall the kids are fairly good at being the people we imagine them to be, but cut loose among their friends. Then college signals the end of our image of them and the independence of being what they see as their image among the wild world of interesting options.

All the world is a stage, but the young do get to pick the costumes and the roles they want to audition to play. Drama is a good transitional activity.; 10/9/15, 2:10 PM
Sebastian said...: "Is it that "they don’t want to be engaged in any activity that is worthy of being photographed" or that they demand control over what their now-conscious selves mean?"

The latter, in the sense that they mistake the rejection of the parental perspective for the achievement of control.; 10/9/15, 2:43 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: This is why I hide in the bushes when taking photographs of Cheerleaders.

I am Laslo.; 10/9/15, 3:54 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Sometimes just having a classy business card that reads "PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER" is enough to get them in the back of the Van.

I am Laslo.; 10/9/15, 4:01 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: "...or that they demand control over what their now-conscious selves mean?"

The Child as Self-Aware Celebrity in Their World shuns the Paparrazi.

I am Laslo.; 10/9/15, 4:10 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Bob: captcha insists that a quiche is a pie. Since I adhere to the McArdle school of Pie, I (WE, right?) know that is a Wrong Thing, and Must Not Be Allowed.
(It made me choose pies again just now. Fortunately, no heretical "pies" were in question, THIS TIME.); 10/9/15, 4:49 PM
wildswan said...: I've had that exact experience - among my relatives, adults included, the majority discontinue what they're doing when they see a camera and adopt the "school picture grin", the others drop to the ground leaving a blur on camera or shove the camera away with their hand. But it's like tracking wildlife - you can catch them if they are doing something like sports at a slight distance. What telephoto is for. Or at a holiday dinner you can get a picture of a group with several faces in profile and several more glaring at the camera, then you crop the glares. Lot of nice shots of strangers on beaches together with some section of my family with their backs turned or wearing sunglasses. Or you start giving directions to a couple of cousins, "OK, now lean over the brook" and the others start fooling around and, click, you have them. Always use a camera set on sports speed when trying to capture family fun.

I'm not sure that this way of acting has to do with death except that they seemed to think they'd be doing something memorably silly and people would be laughing at them till the day they died. (I got a great shot of someone thirteen years old at a Little League game swinging a baseball bat so hard he twisted around while you can see the ball going by at ankle height. But this is a "director's cut" shot and is never shown in groups. ); 10/9/15, 7:05 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Cameras do love some people, though. They like my wife. They hate me. I have four sons, and I can see that cameras love two of them and are not terribly fond of the other two, in spite of their animated beauty.; 10/9/15, 7:10 PM
wildswan said...: "Cameras do love some people, though."

I found that also - some people simply do not look on camera the way they look in life. You get maybe two shots over five years that look like one person (the others I throw out) and a whole gallery of another person. I've always wondered why.; 10/9/15, 7:26 PM
Bob Ellison said...: wildswan, I like to think it's like music. Sometimes you can cage it, but usually not.; 10/9/15, 7:49 PM
BN said...: First we had the Me Generation. Then we had the Look At Me Generation. And now we've got the Stop Looking At Me Generation (said in a whiny voice).; 10/9/15, 9:13 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "The Child as Self-Aware Celebrity in Their World Shuns the Paparrazi."

Surprisingly close to true.

I think the pre-adolescent child gets to feel like a celebrity and accepts the parents as paparazzi. The adolescent child, aware now that he is not a celebrity (and possibly uneasy about the low status), is disturbed by the parents operating under the delusion he has lost.; 10/10/15, 6:52 AM
Barry Dauphin said...: And this guy hosts a show called "Face the Nation".; 10/10/15, 7:27 AM
RichardJohnson said...: John Dickerson applies himself assiduously to the task of analyzing why his children, once so unselfconsciously vulnerable to the camera's inspection, became impossible to photograph as they turned adolescent.

When I was 15, my parents took me to a photo studio for a picture. I didn't want to go. I was at an age where I was starting to chafe at parental commands. The picture from the session- which would have been the best one taken- shows me with a scowl. Yes, you can force me to have my picture taken, but damned if I am going to like it.

Similarly from that summer, my father ordered me to come with him to a Republican Party picnic [While my father voted for Ike, he subsequently voted for Demo Presidents nearly all the time, but remained a Republican at the local level because he considered them honest underdogs.] I was not a happy camper, and showed it. "Why were you so sullen?" my father asked. I made no reply- didn't he realize I didn't want to go? After all, I had already told him I didn't want to go.; 10/10/15, 7:28 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "Ann Althouse said...
"The Child as Self-Aware Celebrity in Their World Shuns the Paparrazi."

Surprisingly close to true."

Why "Surprisingly Close"? Because Laslo wrote it, it was insightful, and thus surprising?

Harumph I say, with a smile on my face.

I am Laslo.; 10/10/15, 9:08 AM