Pictures...

Hate having my picture taken.

I never smile in pictures unless the person manages to ambush me with a camera while I'm smiling. I was always told to smile more in pictures but I just couldn't because it feels so awkward and fake. Even when the photographer asks me to smile I would always refuse until they get fed up and take the picture anyway.

I don't smile much in real life either, usually. I get people telling me I need to smile more, which is annoying. I'll smile if I find something amusing. I usually end up forcing smiles in social situations to make the other person feel comfortable, but this gets exhausting after a little while. A lot of people also think I look angry or pissed off when I'm perfectly content.

Thinking about that also makes me realize my smiling in conversation is a way of responding non-verbally. Since I don't like talking much, my forced smiles are a way of telling the person that I'm paying attention to them without having to respond as much.

paradox wrote:Yeah, i get that comment a lot too. All my life, people have told me that i look so awfully serious. But i think it would just be retarded to smile when there’s nothing to smile about.

I get this a lot too. When I was getting my driver ID photo taken the person said "I was too young to be that serious." My driving instructor for driving school said my learners permit photo looked like a mug shot and he used to be a prison guard.

That's me in the avatar. No expression at all, but I'm told I look angry or sad.

The infamous deadpan-expression.
Most people think that someone that doesn't look happy is sad or angry. I have that problem myself.
Moreso if I am outside, since I tend to frown in bright light.

jofride wrote:That's me in the avatar. No expression at all, but I'm told I look angry or sad.

You do not look sad, but there is something about this photo that makes me think about the stereotypical american prison photo.

Kathleen: cute vessel you've got there.

I hate having my picture taken. I have thrown out any and all pics that I could get my hands on that have ever been taken of me.

i don't like having my picture taken by others... I take pictures of myself, but i still never smile...

Only time its ok for other to take pics is if it is for something that needs to have a picture for it. (I'm a musician so promo pics is what i am referring too....) stuff like that...

it is just ARGHHHH being asked to pose for a pic... then when i do, they are like "smile".... "pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease"...

then i do it.. then they are like "crap, its blurred... one more"....

*evil look*

I hate pictures, with a passion. If I don't notice people taking them I don't care, but having a camera fixed on me unnerves me and I don't know what to do, so I usually have an angry look.

It used to be worse with the medicate which dilate the pupils and give a definite "stoned" look.

I have this one which I am "ok" with it ... boyfriend harrassing me after a larp to take pictures because he liked the dress. I guess I like it becuase 75% of my face is hidden. It's also not really me, it's a character. I don't usually dress like this or wear makeup for that matter.

SpiritParticle, what struck me is that you have a very similar smile to the one I make when I have my picture taken. Is it possible that there is some "schizoid smile" out there?

SpiritParticle wrote:I have always been fascinated with pictures of myself. There is some strange distance or feeling about knowing that THAT is what I live in....that's the vessel people experience as being Kathleen. I don't know myself as an image, but as consciousness....so it is always odd and interesting to be reminded of what contains me.

Kind of reminds me of The Looking Glass Self (Cooley):

In a very large and interesting class of cases the social reference takes the form of a somewhat definite imagination of how one's self--that is any idea he appropriates--appears in a particular mind, and the kind of self-feeling one has is determined by the attitude toward this attributed to that other mind. A social self of this sort might be called the reflected or looking glass self:

"Each to each a looking-glass
Reflects the other that doth pass."

As we see our face, figure, and dress in the glass, and are interested in them because they are ours, and pleased or otherwise with them according as they do or do not answer to what we should like them to be; so in imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it.

So basically we (people) cannot actually directly see what we look like, or rather how others view us, and as such (according to the theory) we identify ourselves within society based how we believe other people see us. Not that I subscribe to that particular theory but I think it's interesting to think about these kinds of things.