Why do publicists insist on that goofy fist-tucked-under/against-chin pose for stills? It always looks bad, and it always screams, “Hey, I’m trying to hid my double-chin.”
It’s even worse when it doesn’t work, like on the back cover of Robert Parker’s Gunman’s Rhapsody.
It does remind me, though, of my Mom. No, not the chin. The publicity picture thing. As an orchestra geek — culminating, title-wise, as Concertmistress (First Violin) at Stanford — she got to pose for way too many pictures for the school paper, the yearbook, etc.
And, inevitably, it was the same shot: group of people gathered around music stand, with one person designated as “the pointer” — the person pointing at the music, as if to observe, “Look, music!” Or, “Wow, that was the part where Fred came in late, that idiot!” Or, “Hey, the photographer had the great idea of staging a quasi-candid shot, and told me to be the one pointing at the music.”
Think about it. Think of it the next time you see a group shot of that sort. It’s not just musician shots; it’s the same with executives. One’s sitting at the chair (usually the boss), one’s standing there looking, and a third is standing there pointing at some important passage in a memo or report or something.
It’s become kind of a family joke. And it’s still goofy.
imagine, if one were one of the apostles. “hey! how come the big guy gets to sit in the middle…again?”
Poor Michelangelo. He had to paint Jesus and Twelve Apostles all “doing something.” It’s a tribute to his artistic genius that he didn’t have any of them gathered around Jesus, pointing at the menu …
Eddie Izzard has a neat bit about that painting. How Jesus is doing “big arms,” then all the other apostles want to do “big arms,” and how Jesus says no, then “we’ll look like a squadron of Spitfires.”
Okay, it sounds better coming from him.