Essay- WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER - STEPHEN LEACOCK

WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER

-          STEPHEN LEACOCK

     Stephen Leacock’s With The Photographer is taken from “Behind the Beyond”. Leacock is famous for his humourous writings.  In, With The Photographer, Leacock shared his bitter experience with a photographer

     One day Leacock went to a studio to take his photograph. The photographer looked at him without enthusiasm. He made the author to wait for an hour. Then he took him into the inner room to take photo. He placed a machine in front of the author. The photographer was not happy of the author’s face. He said  that the author’s face was quite wrong. The author accepted it. The photographer added that it would look better if it was three quarters full. To prove his skill in photography, he asked the author to open his mouth and to close it. He felt that the author’s ears were bad so he asked him to drop them a little more. He asked Leacock to roll his eyes under the eyelids, to put the hands on knees, to turn the face little upward, to expand the lungs, to bend the neck. By all means he wanted the best feature and expression of the author.

    By the photographer’s comment about his face, he felt humiliated. He couldn’t bear the insult anymore, as his face was his own only. He had lived with it for forty years and he knew its faults. The author was angry and started to rise from the seat, the photographer took his photograph.

     On Saturday, the author went back to the studio to get his photograph. The photographer showed his photo. The author was not able to identify his own image in it, because the photographer made so many changes in his eyes, eyebrow, mouth etc. The photograph didn’t look like the author’s photo at all. So the author asked the question ‘Is it me?’

     The author wanted a photograph that would have looked like himself.  He wanted something that would depict his face as God gave it to him. He wanted something that his friends might have kept after his death to reconcile them to his loss. But what the author wanted was no longer done.

     Leacock didn’t accept the photo given by the photographer, because the photo was too beautiful to bear any resemblance to his appearance. Leacock preferred his featureless face as it is and would not accept an improved one which is unlike his face.