2002-10-13
October 13, 2002
The technical quality of school portraits is not very bad, usually. The faces are well-lit, and a large format camera is usually used, so the pictures are sharp and accurate. For many families in the 1960's, it might well be the best technical photos they have.
But with the vastly increased popularity of 35mm cameras, however, that little niche is no longer quite so prominent, and I suspect a lot of families no longer bother with the school portraits. They take their own very good pictures.
The newer digital cameras offer excellent picture quality and would allow school photographers to take as many shots as they need to to get a good one. They can load them all onto a computer and then print out exactly as many as parents request, instead trying to shove "packages" down our throats.
What is going on here?
Your kid has to go to school. It's required by law. It doesn't matter whether your kid goes to a private school or public school, he or she is required by law to be there until he or she is 16. So, while we've got your kid, we're going to take an assembly-line picture and you have to buy it.
You don't actually have to buy it. I lied. You can choose to be "different' and not buy it or you can buy it. If you're poor, you might not buy it because it is fairly expensive, especially if you take the "package". If you take a picture with your own camera, it might cost you fifty cents. But the school photographers charge a lot more than that for a basic print. And, of course, they always offer you packages. They offer you these little wallet-sized photos that your kids can hand out to all their friends and you can mail to your relatives. Buy it. And you can buy the deluxe glamour photo if you want. That's really expensive.
The portrait pimps operate extremely efficiently. They are not interested in getting a personalized shot of your kid. They don't want to waste any time at all following your kid around to see what she does, who her friends are, or which piece of playground equipment is her favorite. No, the kids are marched into a room,-- assembly line style-- and snapped in about 45 seconds. They are snapped in front of a cookie-cutter non-descript amorphous background. The photos are printed for everyone even if you don't ask to see the larger prints. They are sent home-- the teachers have to get the photos to the kids and force them to take them home. You have to see them. Your kids see them. Your kids friends see them. Buy.
I saw a really remarkable set of school photographs once. They were photos I would have liked to have. It was taken at Calvin Memorial Christian School in the early 1960's. The photos were taken of each student at their desks or in their classrooms at an activity. Then they were all printed on one 5 X 7, in black and white. It was an amazing photo. You were immediately struck by the diversity of poses and expressions. It was filled with character and revelation and colour, even though it was black and white.
You can just imagine what the Portrait Studio Pimps would think of that. Lord almighty! You'd have to go into each classroom with a camera and think about each of 20 or 25 or 30 shots. You'd have to take time to do it right. It must have also taken more time to print. And then, of course, you lose the rubber-stamp enlargements that are so lucrative to sell to the fond parents.
The company that comes in to take and sell the photos does not have any competition. I questioned the idea once when I was a teacher in Chatham I was told that it would be impractical to have numerous companies compete. The school negotiates with and chooses a vendor and they have exclusive access to the students and teachers for that year.
Does it even matter? Are you happy about the fact that your child is photographed in exactly the same style, with the same background, and the same lighting, as 40 million other children in every town, city, and hicksville on the entire continent?
Of course, it does have the unintended bizarre side effect of collectivizing public memory of school children. The image of our children at school is that frozen, bland, colourless portrait photo of an awkward nervous kid sitting in front of a strange cameraman because the teacher told him or her to. It's almost like a tattoo or a uniform or, yes, a rubber stamp. Approved. Collectivized. A certified consumer.
Why is it impractical? Because the photo studios don't want to ask parents first if they want to have a picture taken of their children in front of a colourless, characterless backdrop and if they would be willing to pay $50 for a "package" of prints. If they did that, some parents might reasonably say "no". By forcing all students to have shots taken and then handing out the pictures at school and forcing the children to take them home, you have to believe, you guarantee much higher sales. Of course it's practical. It just doesn't guarantee enough profits to the company selling the photos.
I always feel bullied by this system. I don't like cookie-cutter photos, and I don't like them being shoved down my throat by people who care as much about your kid as they do about photography-- nil. I think the schools should take the upper hand here and start dictating terms. Stop using the cookie-cutter approach. Get out there into the classrooms on the new "annual photography day" and start taking pictures of students doing what they do at school, studying, listening, interacting, being smart-alecks, getting stumped, whatever. Use digital cameras so film cost is not an issue, and students can pick the best shot to use for their "official" school photo.