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With The Photographer

The story is about a man who visits a photographer to get his photo taken to give to friends after his death. However, the photographer alters the photo significantly to make it look better, resulting in a photo that does not resemble the man. This leaves the man disheartened as he just wanted an accurate photo of himself.

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ursanne14
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550 views2 pages

With The Photographer

The story is about a man who visits a photographer to get his photo taken to give to friends after his death. However, the photographer alters the photo significantly to make it look better, resulting in a photo that does not resemble the man. This leaves the man disheartened as he just wanted an accurate photo of himself.

Uploaded by

ursanne14
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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With The Photographer: a blog

The story ‘With the Photographer’ conveys the theme of original self and distorted self. It also gives a
message of acceptance and confidence.

The story ‘With the Photographer’ is taken from a literary collection by Stephen Leacock, titled ‘Behind
the Beyond, and other Contribution to Human Knowledge’. The author wants to give his photo to his
friends, as a means to remember him after his death. However, the purpose is defeated when the
photographer alters the photo to make it look better but it results in being different from the author’s
appearance.

While the author is at the studio, waiting for his turn, he reads a few magazines which carry photos of
models. This creates a sense of inferiority and perfectionism in the author. He also makes efforts to
improvise his photo whereas initially, he just wanted a photo for his friends, as his memory. The harsh
comments of the photographer awaken the author, he respects God’s creation and becomes confident
of his appearance.

The author, Stephen is forty years old at the time of this incidence. He wants to get a photograph of his,
to be given to his friends, as a memory to remember him after his death. With this aim, he visits a
photographer. The dull, stooping man asks the author to wait and he is kept waiting for an hour. He
reads various magazines in the meantime.

On being called, he is asked to sit on a stool. The photographer pulls a huge camera and gets inside it.
He is not satisfied with what he sees and so he comes out and removes all the curtains with a rod,
perhaps to get more light and air inside the room.

He goes back into the machine and stays for sometime and the author thinks that perhaps he is praying
to God to get a good photo.

He exits the machine with a serious expression and comments that the author’s face is wrong and it
would be better if it were more chubby. The author gets hurt by such words, agrees with the man and
adds that even the photographer’s face would look better if it were more chubby. He adds that many
faces are such that they will look better if they are wider, larger and huge. The photographer goes on to
hold the author’s face in his hands, as if to kiss him, he then twists it as far he can and says that the head
is not appreciable. He goes inside the machine, asks the author to open the mouth and then to close it.
Then he comments that the ears are bad too. He makes the author droop the ears, roll the eyes, bend
the neck, squeeze the stomach, etc. to make the face fuller but is not satisfied. As the narrator is about
to rise from the stool, a photo is clicked and the photographer says that he has barely managed to
capture the right expressions on the author’s face. However, the author revolts by saying that it is his
face as God has made and he is aware of its appearance not being attractive. However, he accepts it as it
is. Now, as the man has clicked a photo, the author wants to have a look but is asked to return on
Saturday because the photographer has to develop the negative and make a proof. On the designated
day, the photographer shows him a proof of his photograph which does not resemble the author. On
being asked, the photographer reveals that he has used his drawing calibre and a few techniques to
improve the photo so that it looks better. The author is disheartened because all he wanted was a photo
which looked like him. He says that the photograph was a masterpiece of the photographer’s skills and
he must keep it to show to his family and friends. As for the author, it is a worthless thing. With this he
leaves the studio, teary eyed.

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