What If We Stopped Taking Photos? A Lebanese Wedding Photographer’s Existential Crisis
Alright folks, prepare for a mind-blowing revelation: I, Abdallah Banna, the guy who gets paid to preserve memories with a fancy camera, have started to think deeply about what the world would be like without photos. No more beautifully posed brides, no blurry dance floor shenanigans, and — gasp! — no epic food flatlays. Imagine the horror!
Selfie Apocalypse Averted & History Gets Fuzzy
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: selfies. Imagine a world where no one could meticulously curate their best angles, duck lips, and strategically placed brunch plates. The bathroom mirror industry would collapse overnight! We might actually start talking to each other instead of silently judging everyone’s avocado toast.
Speaking of things we don’t think about enough, how would anyone remember what they looked like 20 years ago? Sure, great-grandma insists she was a total bombshell back in the day, but without photographic evidence, who are we to believe her? History would get seriously fuzzy too. That massive protest in downtown Beirut? More like the legend of the kinda-sorta-peaceful gathering with maybe a dozen mildly annoyed citizens.
But Wait, Could We Actually Focus?
Imagine going to a wedding as a guest and — brace yourself — actually being present in the moment. No fighting for the best angle of the cake cutting, no awkwardly asking the couple to re-do their first kiss because your phone wasn’t ready. Radical, I know. Maybe we’d even have genuine conversations instead of comparing our camera rolls later.
Of course, this whole “no more photos” thing throws a major wrench in my job description as a wedding photographer. Brides might stop caring about professionally airbrushed portraits, and my collection of blurry-yet-hilarious dance floor shots would be worthless. On the plus side, I could finally sleep in on weekends. And maybe take up painting?
The Influencer Implosion & Awkward Charades
Let’s move on to the glorious chaos that would unfold. Without a steady stream of selfies and meticulously staged “candid” moments, what would become of our social media overlords? The influencers, the lifestyle gurus…poof! Panic in the streets as they scramble to find real jobs. On the other hand, maybe we’d stop comparing our messy, real lives to their filtered fantasies
But how would you share your epic vacation? Standing on a street corner, miming your snorkeling adventure with a snorkel mask you brought from home? (Seriously, don’t do this). Busting out interpretive dance moves to convey the majesty of the Grand Canyon? (Even worse idea). The art of storytelling would become…interesting. Book sales would skyrocket!
Privacy Paradise…Or a Stalker’s Dream?
No more accidental photobombs, no embarrassing party pics resurfacing years later. Sounds glorious, right? But wait, without photos, how do you prove you were somewhere? Alibi for a crime? “Nah, officer, I was totally at home…just, uh, trust me.” Or imagine stalkers free to roam without fear of being caught on camera. Creepy factor just went through the roof.
The Bottom Line (And My Backup Plan)
Would the world end without photos? Of course not. Humans are adaptable creatures. We’d gripe, find workarounds, probably invent some bizarre new way to document everything, and then complain about that too. Me? I might open a portrait studio…you know, specializing in charcoal sketches. Turns out art school wasn’t a complete waste after all!
