This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper, Tanzania on 4th July 2023.
In the history of humankind, visual communication has proved to be significantly important. It is reasonable too to acknowledge that photography, an essential component of visual communication, has been essentially transformative and of great influence.
Photography set the foundation and opened doors for a wide array of scientific adventures. Those who lived 100 years ago would hardly foresee that photography would advance and become as important as it is today, especially as an almost indispensable social device.
In photography, advancement is vivid in all its ramifications, software and hardware technicalities, research, academic inquiry, aesthetical variety, interests, skills, as well as its social aspect which is in part the interest of this article.
Photography has always been a social thing. This is the reason people are made to look nice, wear make-up, smile, or get themselves set before a picture or a video is taken. Even if the moments are not as perfect, photos are taken to reflect the best.
The more photography made its way as a societal device, the more particular styles of photography were developed. These were based on respective matters of social interest.
As a result, we have wedding photography, which is different in style, mode and approach from sports photography, astrophotography, macrophotography, underwater photography, or nature photography. All of them serve a similar need, to witness the realities that surround us, yet each is done differently.
In the evolvement of photo-taking styles there was a time when people took pictures of things, later people had pictures taken showing them with things, and today we even take pictures of ourselves with other people and things, what we call ‘selfies.’
Again, in the past pictures were printed on film, later hard paper, then smoother paper, and today, most people will rather have their pictures on their electronic gadgets than print them. Change has been the most enduring component.
Maternity photo shoots
For clarity, maternity photo shoots are done during pregnancy, until the child is born. They are an expression of joy for the new life that is awaited. However, these photoshoots have never ceased to bring surprises. In Africa, as a whole, this idea is imported from the West, with all its good, bad, and ugly faces.
History traces the earliest maternity photography to an American actress, Demi Moore, who had a nude photo of herself taken when she was seven months pregnant and was on Vanity Fair Magazine’s cover in August 1991. Since then, it became popular for expectant mothers on their own, as well as couples to take maternity photos, depicting their affection in different styles.
Over the years, however, clothes have slowly been thrown away from such photoshoots that they have now become a display of gross nudity, with parents, either solo or as couples, being photographed with no single piece of cloth on them. These images are later circulated on social media for public viewing.
Pictures are important, and where possible, they can be done professionally to keep the best memories. However, pictures of completely naked bodies of full-fledged adults just to celebrate the life of a child do not make sense.
In encountering other cultures, especially the popular culture which jumbles together practices from all around, it is important to be critical and thoughtful. We cannot make our life a pile of all the junk the world offers.
If terms are not yet re-defined – a common practice of our time – nudity is not synonymous with anything like style, culture, aesthetics, beauty, class, love, progress, or gratitude. Nudity, being ignominious, provocative, and culturally deviant, makes us raise relevant questions. One of them will be, at what point is a fully nude picture acceptable as not-offensive?
Those who profess various religions speak of child-bearing as a Divine duty. Equally, in the life of society is a crucial, reputable, delicate, and responsible function. This shared source of joy for the society should not be degraded with such things as public nudity. There should be ethical boundaries.
A child is a human person with dignity, being brought into the world by parents with dignity, in a society with dignity. In the future, the child will grow up and see images of his or her parents naked on public platforms on the internet. It will not feel like anything nice. One certain thing we know is that the internet is a jungle, and it does not forget.
In our times it is very easy for good things to be exaggerated, and the freedom that modern life offers overindulged. In the future, this can harm our relationships, tarnish our image, and leave debasing footprints of ourselves for the world to be entertained with. There is life beyond the excitement and trends of the present moment.
