The case for… Bad photos of ourselves

Photograph by Shaw + Shaw

Well – let’s strike a pause. What is a bad photo? Anything outside your one approved angle. A non-curated background, that maybe has municipal bins in it, rather than the plastic flower wall outside a Japanese bun shop. Any unfiltered image in which you don’t resemble every other person on Instagram, frozen in to a craven, faux-coquettish pouts. Perhaps you should be grateful.

The candid shot is long recognised as the hallmark of authentic portraiture, capturing a spontaneous essence, bringing life to the dead frame. The picture that you like of yourself is – apologies – cold, self-contained and inert. Of course you don’t recognise your eyes closed in laughter. Or the brief moment of innocence as you arrange yourself. The group shot that is blurry, because friendship is a vibration. Such visions are the photographer’s gift – accept it.

To live in reality, we must be exiled from fantasy. This is uncomfortable, yet infinitely rewarding. See the bins of the city in which you live! Treasure your one squinty eye, that takes in just as many trees! Know yourself beautiful, simply because you are alive. There is no better or worse with a miracle. Rather than think of a ‘bad’ photo as a sallow memento mori that could drive aperson to therapy, imagine yourself truly loved. And quit hassling me about it, OK?

Rhik Samadder is co-running a creative writing retreat in Tuscany, 20-27 September, open to all