I have long been associated with the media, having spent more than two decades in business journalism before I crossed over to PR and communications.
From time to time, communications professionals have to arrange corporate photo shoots, which can be less than pleasant.
Having been a print journalist until then, I had no previous experience on this score and little clue of what awaits me on the other side—the “dark side,” as some journalists derisively say, only to find many among them chasing light and crossing over of late. But that, as they say, is another story!
Looking back, I am convinced there is more than a grain of truth in what a newspaper column once described these shoots as “the way firms use photography to bend reality.”
These carefully curated vanity exercises usually present an alternate reality of the organisation and, most often, its leaders. The end product frequently bears little or no resemblance to the subjects in real life.
I have been directly involved or been a fly on the wall in organising many such shoots. These mind-numbing exercises—often kicked off after days of brainstorming—have left a scrapbook of memories, offering a glimpse into human frailties and insecurities with comic-tragic consequences.
There was once a head honcho who otherwise exuded power, confidence, and an attitude befitting his exalted position but seemed to suffer from peladophobia—an irrational fear of baldness. His coterie of advisors added fuel to the fire, appearing to worry even more about his bald plate. After considerable thought, his headshot was cropped at his forehead to mask his bald head and passed off avant-garde style!
In another incident, a sales maven was advised to show his aggressive self. He was dressed in gym clothes and fitted to the T to look his part. There was a minor hitch — our man had never been to a gym! So, there he was, pumping iron, evidently for the first time, attempting to seem macho only to make bystanders worry for his health. He later settled on the floor, dumbbells by his side, exhausted with a faint smile.
Yet another would never be happy with his tie. He would move it a little to the left and then to the right, tighten the noose and then untie it. His nervous fidgeting with the tie would make shoots stretch out into hours.
Some, however, turn incredibly accommodating at the sight of a camera without the slightest hint of annoyance. They climb rickety ladders and stare dramatically at the sky. An enthusiastic executive once almost got their head stuck peering through a circular window!
All for the love of the company, of course!
(The writer is a communications professional)
