Take a look at this photo of Patricia Highsmith as a young woman. Pretty good looking - I think we would all agree. Then compare it to the photo below when she had aged. Is one image a truer representation than another?Then take a look at that photo of James Broughton below as a younger man (I know it's not very clear, but there are not many photos out there of Broughton as a young man). Still the difference is striking.
Now, both Broughton and Highsmith led lives on the edge in more ways than one. Their appearance in later life perhaps reflects the toll their life style took on them. Still one can ask which image best represent them.
This does bring to mind the whole issue of what image is appropriate for someone who has died. That person can be represented by a range of images. We tend not to use the childhood photos, which are an immature, not fully formed person. Should they be represented by the last living image that they bore? Or by some kind of median or average image. Say take the the age at death and divide it by two. In that case - Broughton, for example would be best represented by an image at the age of 42. Which image would you choose for yourself? Is one truer than another?
1 comment:
If you look at the obits, you will see that sometimes two pictures are there: one as a young adult and one as an older adult. Personally, I want one that makes me look good, and since I don't take a good picture, I may have to go without one.
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