Photographs Don’t Lie

I used to think that photographs lie. That they don’t capture the true beauty of a person. Like some people are prettier in real life but when put on picture, they don’t look as good. And there are those who are photogenic – beautiful on film but not quite so in person.

I realize now that I was wrong, though. Let me explain.

Some years ago, a friend of mine asked me if another friend of mine whom I always talk about was pretty, just out of curiosity. I said yes, and proceeded to look in said friend’s Friendster account for a picture that I could show to the person who asked. The funny thing was, I couldn’t find any pretty picture of her at all. I mean, I thought she was pretty, but somehow none of her pictures seemed to do her justice. So I gave up the search and just let it be. Maybe she just wasn’t photogenic, I thought.

Years later, other friends pointed out to me that she wasn’t as pretty as I thought she was. So why did I, and a lot of other people, think so? Because she thought she was, and projected that belief outwardly on everyone within her radius, making us believe it too.

Photographs, however, are two-dimensional, and do not quite capture a person’s “overall impact.” So someone who is not really actually beautiful would not reflect so on paper. Photographs, therefore, do not lie in that sense. And therefore the truly beautiful people, in a purely physical sense, are those who are photogenic.

Attitude changes everything.