Friday, May 25, 2018

A modest proposal about yearbook group pictures

I would just like to suggest that group photos, generically, may be more trouble than they are worth. They are rarely accurate (some kids are missing and some sneak in, if you are not careful), they are static (and we already have static portraits of every individual elsewhere), and they often end up running so small that you can measure face size in pixels (rather than the once-hallowed rule that faces should run the size of a dime).

What's wrong with an accurate list of club members, accompanied by actual accomplishments and projects, fleshed out by excellent photography and some behind-the-scenes anecdotes?

Every veteran yearbook adviser I know has at least a few stories about group photo day weirdness. I do too. But after an editor of mine simply dropped group photos (in favor of expanded actual coverage)... no more disaster stories. Plenty of other disasters, of course, but they don't involve group photos.

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