I have always enjoyed looking at old photos—newspaper clippings or photo albums from my past or other peoples’ past. There is a kind of comfort in it—a chance to connect with the old days, to see and experience history without going there.
Throwback Thursday, with hashtag #tbt, has been a phenomenon since 2011 with people posting or reposting older photographs on social media. It turns out that Throwback Thursday has a positive psychological impact. Colleen Leahey writes in Fortune, “Sharing old photos is a fun way to remember the good ol’ days, but it may also help people counteract feeling alone. A 2008 study published in Psychological Science found that nostalgia alleviates feelings of social exclusion.” The study’s authors wrote, “The past, when appropriately harnessed, can strengthen psychological resistance to the vicissitudes of life.”
So that’s a good reason to post and view those old photos of bell bottoms, and peace signs; or Pokemon, and flash mobs.
Aerial photography has been practiced since Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, photographed Paris from a hot air balloon in 1858. Drones are just the latest method of doing aerial photography. New Canadian regulations make recreational drone photography more difficult, and, in many cities, downright impossible. But taking photographs with a drone is considered commercial, as opposed to recreational, so different rules apply.
Transportation minister Marc Garneau pointed out in a CBC interview that “people who use drones for commercial, academic, or research reasons already have to get a special certificate, and most fly them safely.”
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky uses helicopters and small aircraft for breathtaking aerial photographs that call attention to environmental issues. In China, he had a lot of problems with slow-moving bureaucracy and decided to experiment with a drone. In a story in the Telegraph, Burtynsky explained, “The whole process started from the question, ‘How can I stand where I want to stand and shoot from where I want to shoot, in a place where I can’t get up in the air?’”
Drone photography has many potential problems. Lucy Davies, writer of the Telegraph piece, pointed out, “Drone photographers are on the increase, but the number of people who are getting decent results from them remains low. There is a saying in the industry that every production company has a broken drone in the cupboard, which is fairly accurate. It’s not as easy as it looks.”
Additionally, there are all the security and privacy issues. Tiny drones already exist, and they are only likely to get smaller. Every time I read a drone story, I remember Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slapstick, with miniaturized people zipping around undetectably.
Ultimately, it’s good to keep in mind that art is produced by people, not by machines.
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Phototip: If don’t have a drone to capture photos, try to find a high rise with a glass enclosed elevator.
Before Photoshop, the process of faking a photo was more complex, and could involve multiple exposures, airbrushing, hand retouching, and other composite photo techniques. This usually required a lot of work in the darkroom. Most early April Fool’s prank photos seem crude by today’s standards, but sometimes they were pretty slick–as in the 1926 German photo of a “Triple Decker City Bus.”
Some pranks are evergreen and may even become expected. U.S. political writer Andrew Sullivan, who now writes for New York magazine but for years had his own blog (the Dish), celebrated April Fool’s Day every year by RickRolling his readers. Yes: every single year. Andrew has a New York column scheduled to appear this Friday; check it out to see whether he’ll do it once again.
Where photos are concerned, digital technology immediately made it so much easier and faster to manipulate and retouch for effect. One of the best known of recent years is a photo spoof that appeared in the April edition of Popular Photography in 2005. Dorothea Lange’s famous picture of a migrant mother was given a digital makeover so that she would fit in better with magazine advertising. True, it was a clever commentary on the superficiality of retouching; but it hit a nerve and produced hundreds of comments, both positive and negative. (Many people found it more demeaning to the subject than funny.)
Do keep in mind that a prank is just that. Once a year we are allowed to take some liberties. If you’re the person doing the fooling, be sure you’re not stepping on anyone else’s dignity in a misguided attempt to be humourous.
And if you’re the one who gets fooled, remember to enjoy it. Of course you’re the smartest person in the room! Obviously! So if someone is able to put something over on you on April 1, appreciate their cleverness and laugh it off. You can always start planning right away for next year.
