The culture of MySpace Photos

In this post, I would like to talk about the different categories of "the MySpace photograph." Some of these include: the self portrait, the glamour shot, the muscle man, the "I don't know how to use Photoshop" picture . . . and many more.

To start, I must say our world is based on aesthetics. Pop culture is where people look to decide what is beautiful. With that said, people want what they see in pop culture. They want to copy it. Most MySpace photographs are an attempt at being artistic without being obvious about it. Yet a good portion of these are overdone: too much makeup, trying to seem mysterious, too intense of colors, attempting to model (when the person hasn't a clue what they're doing), and a bad use of mirrors.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally bashing on the MySpace genre. It can be fun to be playful and experiment with photos and Photoshop. I am simply explaining the style, and pointing out that it can be a little overdone.

Now, getting into the meat of the subject: the MySpace photograph. MySpace photos have become a genre of their own. Friends of mine have said, and I quote, "That is such a MySpace pic." For myself, that is a generalized term for several categories of the MySpace photograph. I will now explain the styles of MySpace photos (listed at the beginning of this entry) and will go into more detail in upcoming posts.

First is the self-portrait. Usually there is no sign of a tripod, just the use of the left of right hand. Another study of the self-portrait shows that people like to seem mysterious -- that is to say, they like to turn away from the camera.

Second is the glamour shot. The glamour shot can also fall into the modeling category. Either way, it involves putting on pounds of makeup for the camera.

Third, badly photoshopped photos -- I know not everyone is a pro with Photoshop, and many are simply experimenting. Yet they look tacky -- using intense colors, color balance that simply isn't balanced, and high contrast.

Lastly (this is one of my favorites): the muscle man. Almost every guy has one of these on MySpace. The t-shirt is off and he isn't acting like he's in a muscleman competition, flexing everything . . . but he is flexing, and acting like he doesn't notice the camera, when he really does. Oh, it just makes me laugh every time.

These are not all of the styles of MySpace pictures, just the most predominant. As I stated above, I will go into more detail with these categories in my next post. I hope that anyone reading this can get an appreciation for (or simply an understanding of!) the MySpace photograph.