Boo!

I have recently succumbed to Photobooth self portraiture,

a terrible and flattering indulgence. The Photobooth camera

replicates the effect of having your picture taken in a mirror,

but with fewer MySpace connotations; you get the same impression

of symmetry without the smudge-highlighting flash and foreshortened

neck.

The symmetry thing – the reason everyone thinks they look so much better

in reverse – was really thrilling to figure out. Because you become so

accustomed to seeing your necessarily asymmetrical face in the

mirror every day, it comes to appear “normal”; the nose unbreaks itself,

a wonky eye shrinks to match the other. If you were to suddenly become perfectly

symmetrical (or just eff around on Photoshop to see what it would

look like), you would perceive the effect as crooked. So a normal photograph

magnifies facial asymmetry twice over.

The less you are photographed, the harder it is to reconcile the

two opposing asymmetries, and the more you appreciate Photobooth

for dignifying, if only slightly, the process of figuring out what you

look like to everyone else.

Hot or not?