SEEING YOURSELF IN NATURE

I had a co-worker take this picture of me processing a rattlesnake the other day, but when I got home I was surprised to find myself smiling. I find the photos people take of themselves with animals fascinating, and often disturbing. What does it mean when you have some one take a picture of you with the fish you just caught or the deer you just shot? Pride? Relief? Accomplishment? Dominance? Control? Although I can’t speak to the intent of these kinds of photos, their impression on me as a viewer is usually one of disrespect towards nature, a personal show of power over the world around us.

Partly, I’m smiling in this photo out of fascination for a marvelous creature, and relief over getting it into the tube (not always trivial), but I don’t deny there may be undertones of power and control. And why did I ask to have it taken? Ostensibly to show friends and family (and, uh, the whole internet, I guess) what I do for a living, but am I also showing off? Am I at least a little proud that I can render this dangerous animal completely helpless?

Photos are so strange in this way. They carry such immense credibility, all this documentary weight that we (well, I) so rarely question what we’re seeing. What happened before and after? is this one tiny moment indiciative of the larger event? What are the effects of angle and composition? Maybe someone just handed me this snake and I’m smiling at some joke. I know, this is all Scepticism 101, but, you know, I’m dumb like that.