Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Visage


Slowly but surely, as their comfort level with "being out here" has increased, more and more of us have revealed ourselves with a photograph, allowing the world to know us by our faces. Surprisingly, many of these photos have not been the carefully crafted, airbrushed, or photoshopped-to-death portraits so many people put out here to show their best side. I find that rather refreshing.

Bloggers, at least in my mind, are a lot like radio Disc Jockeys, who you try to picture in your mind, creating a face out of that voice, only to discover when you finally meet them or see them on TV that they look nothing like you imagined. However, there have been some remarkable exceptions in that many of my blogging breathren have looked exactly like I imagined them, and perhaps that is because it is their words that crafted their personas rather than their voices. The moment Buffalo leaked a picture of himself on his blog, it was "Yep, that's what a Buffalo looks like!".

Many of our bloggers of the fairer sex have included pics of their husbands, and I am not the least bit surprised to notice that no matter how hot the sister, the hubby is rarely a Mel Gibson, but is more often of the "everyman" variety. I have yet to encounter a buck-ugly guy in our group, except for maybe Tim when he gets a little bit crazy with the photoshop. I exclude myself from these assessments as the only jury I have been so far subject to, I'm married to, so she's biased. But, no, she wouldn't rate me a Mel Gibson material either.

I, personally, have this love-hate relationship with the camera. When I look in the mirror, I really have no quarrel with my visage. The camera, however, seems to have this evil purpose in mind whenever it records my face, for whenever I look at the results, it's like "Who in the hell is THAT?" It doesn't mesh with my mental view of myself. Perhaps the mind does it's own form of photoshopping whenever you study yourself in the mirror, making you see only what you WANT to see, except when you focus in on that zit or that nose hair escaping from a nostril. Perhaps I have this inability to freeze on my face that carefully crafted expression I paint on my mug in the mirror whenever a camera is involved. Who knows, all I know is that I have one hell of a hard time coming up with a picture that I'm willing to share with the world, being so critical of my own visage. Thank Bob my wife doesn't share this affliction.

Then there's podcasting........and that's a whole new can of worms altogether........

9 comments:

Kindness said...

My love hate relationship with the camera goes like this: love to take photos, hate to be in them.

Alex Pendragon said...

Well, hun, as far as I can tell, the camera LOVES you......so don't sweat it.

Miss Cellania said...

The same thing happens to me all the time when I meet listeners to my radio show. "You don't look a thing like I pictured you. I thought you'd be... taller. Um, I mean, bigger." Yeah, I have a big fat voice. But its better than surprising them by being fatter than I sound!

Time said...

I've always thought the problem with photos is that they can only capture a fraction of a second. In that frozen moment you lose the element that makes most people attractive in person -- the spirit. Photoshop can restore the spirit. So diss it all you want, but it is magical to me.

Buffalo said...

That my face reflects my life, my years; well, it doesn't make me mad.

Glad you finally put up your mug. Can't say it makes me want to take a shower with you, but what the hell?

It's all good, bro.

Romeo Morningwood said...

I think the real magic behind blogging is that you can reveal the real you and get away from the millisecond catergorization that we automatically do with faces and body types.
In the blogosphere you can have a little work done and beef up your resume so that you can be more like the person that You think that You are and not who everybody THINKS that they see.
It is harder for the ladies because of all the creeps out here but I am available to hunt down and destroy any morons who hassle my e-friends...I have done it a few times and it is sooo much fun.
Let me at 'em!

Alex Pendragon said...

Ms C......You have a radio show? What DON'T you do?

Tim.....No dis, Bro, we all love what you do with photoshop.

Buf.....ah....dude.....that's not me........

HE.......you know, maybe it would be so much easier for everybody, especially in the dating arena, if we were not allowed to meet anybody face to face until we have "gotten to know them" via these kinds of forums, so that you can go into it knowing them insided as well as out, making that first visual clue so much less discriminating. Nothing I hated more than meeting a damn good looking woman who then opened her mouth and ruined the whole experience!

JP (mom) said...

I've learned, through photographs, to start to recognize myself ... it's rather odd, but I don't really carry around a vision of how I look ... and thus, I'm always surprised at the woman staring back at my in photos & the many different ways those photos have captured my personality. Good post, interesting thoughts to ponder...JP

darlingina said...

Once again i'm all caught up on Your posts Michael. And must say i would much rather read Your blog than any newspaper or magazine! i'm amazed at how your writing continues to grow and develop with each and every post. The thoughts that escape You are outstanding my Friend.
Love & Peace,
~darlingina~