Why should you smile for the photographer? Or why should you consciously smile at all? What is this tradition of showing your teeth or twisting your lips for the world?
Shouldn’t your inner self gleam through unfiltered? As it is? What is this “fool yourself and the world” madness? A game where both the observer and the observed are fooling each other?
False display of happiness cannot ever substitute for true inner peace and contentment. I do not know about the origins of laughing Buddha, but any image of the “enlightened one” that comes to mind shows him half smiling, tranquil, and at peace with himself. Sri Rama has always been depicted as emotionally stable, balanced, and radiant. Maybe this trend of smiling for the camera is a very recent phenomenon.
A smile is a natural gesture, a sentiment ( bhava ). The face radiates what lies within unless one tries to radiate what others want to see. Most of our words and actions have an artificial touch of conformity and are tuned for social acceptance. Now when even the facial expressions become a victim of this madness not much “naturalness” is left.
The glorious man-made era of selfies and pouts has rendered that natural pose and poise redundant. The more you twist your lips and distort your face, the better your camera appeal.
Well, it entirely depends on you as to what you do with your face in this “my choice” era. I am a bit outdated though and find it tough to mold my expression as per external diktats. Why can’t the camera capture “what is “? Let it capture those dry, dull, depressed faces. Let it learn to capture those natural expressions once again. Let your style quotient go to hell and you be captured with your innocence or beastly self, whatever it is. Let you allow the camera to capture the real “YOU”. Why should an entire generation and population be caught with the same expression? The world indeed becomes boring this way.
Why should the so-called influencers and celebrities be allowed to project heavenly sides of their lives and sway the youth with falsity?
Just as mega/Giga/Tera/peta pixel cameras will come and go and become redundant, the nonsense they have led to will also die a slow death. The era of bland, “expressionless” pics will be back again. The child will smile and laugh, irrespective of someone capturing him or not. You will become a child again. The flower will become a flower again, irrespective of its color, season, or attraction.