There’s no question a lot of high school yearbook photos could be better. Or at least we wish they could be better. Or at least we’d like to change the way we looked at the time. My high school yearbook featured girls with a lot of high hair and perms. (This was 1991, mind you.) But kids these days are taking senior portraits to the next level.
Writes Steve Hendrix in the Washington Post:
The Instagram generation, devoted to “selfies” and bombarded with digital imagery, is increasingly forgoing the time-honored cap-and-gown pose in front of the blue-mottled screen for portrayals more elaborate, personal and, of course, expensive….
After the $300 session fee (and the optional $120 hair and makeup service), [Brooke] Daniels’s minimum charge for prints and other products is $850. One Fairfax family dropped $7,000 recently for a deluxe senior shoot that included multiple prints of the daughter on canvas, suitable for filling a living-room wall.
[Chris] Steuble said his customers usually spend between $300 and $1,300, with the average being $700. He offers a “photo safari,” during which he and the student’s family set out to shoot in a range of settings, “some brick-and-
mortar, some nature, some urban street scenes,” he said.
Before our heads explode, let’s remember this isn’t every student of the millennial generation. Not everyone is in love with him- or herself. Or perhaps, more accurately, not every parent dotes on her child the same way, constantly telling her she is the Most Special Person in the Universe. But have a look at this photo gallery (yes, these are some attractive kids, but wait til you get to the Great Gatsby theme!).
In addition, the Post offered this video, akin to those photo-shoot sessions at Sports Illustrated.
As one reader commented, “Yes, you’re special. So very special.” (Now that song is stuck in my head.)
LOL! I think back to my high school days (admittedly QUITE a while ago) and imagine the reaction of my Irish father to something like this. If I had been desperate to do this, he would have simply asked me, “Great! When are you getting a job?” That would be just before he disowned me.
I keep thinking that there is a broad theme around this self absorption, self obsession, the ridiculous flaunting of your very own specialness, and that is, something has to replace G-d. Something, seems sometimes like it could be anything, but something is going to do it. This lack of humility is a symptom, not the deeper thread here. Were I smarter, I would tie this together with environmentalism and other religious endeavors but I’m not.