In between visas, residence permits, and student IDs, I’ve gone through a lot of passport photos over the past few years. And since I never remember to order 20 prints at a time, I end up getting new pictures taken every few months. And yet, they are never quite alike.
L to R: Normal, Crazy-eyed, Trying-not-to-smile
In the United States, your passport photo is a record of what you looked like when it was taken — maybe your hair looks bad, maybe you look a little sleepy (as in photo #1), but that’s fine. It’s not meant to be flattering. But when I went to get passport photos taken on Monday in Beijing, my actual appearance was just the starting point. The technician pulled it up on her computer and proceeded to airbrush me, wildly. Most notably, my eyes were enlarged way beyond their normal size. In the charitable view, I look really, really awake. Or, you know, manic.
In Russia, on the other hand, the central rule is that you MUST NOT SMILE. Seriously — it’s part of the visa application instructions. So hours before Dan was supposed to leave to get our visas, we had to run to the nearest photo store for emergency, non-smiling photos. Have you ever had someone take a photo of you in which you are strictly enjoined from smiling? It turns out it’s basically impossible. Hence the look of repressed laughter/constipation in photo #3.
Can the difference in passport photo-regulations tell us anything about the cultures? Perhaps only a little. But on the streets of Russia, no one was smiling.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have never really thought about the connection with Visa/passport photos and a culture, but your photos make for a compelling case. Love the photo of trying not to laugh.
Maybe it is actually EU law, but the Germans love their pictures. There are the Biometric ones with tons of rules and graphs on how big the head/eyes/nose must appear in the picture. The non-smiling comes out there too.