School photos – the same but different

Monday, July 7, 2014 Permalink

I’m not sure what was in the water, but yesterday my Facebook feed included old school photographs shared by three (separate / unrelated) friends.

I appeared in only one of these batches of photographs but seeing the others reminded me of something I always find quite strange…

I can look at any school photograph from ‘around’ my era – even up to a dozen or more years either side – and they all bloody look the same.

Even though the school uniform may be quite different I always take a second glance cos the photo in question looks like it ‘could’ be one of mine.

Not me. (Source: Facebook)

Not mine. (Source: Facebook)

You have the ubiquitous setting: in the school grounds in front of some greenery; in a classroom; or up against an external brick wall or similar.

And then there are the rows of kids – standing and sitting, depending on one’s height. Everyone’s donned their best school uniform, except for one or two kids whose parents didn’t get the memo (literally) who have the wrong socks or shoes. Rarely-worn ribbons adorn the hair of tomboys and the worst-behaved kids look almost angelic.

Of course there are also those refusing to smile or whose “CHEESE” is caught at the wrong moment.

I’m actually a good ‘smiler-on-cue’ if I do say so myself, but several of my primary school photographs involve me wide-eyed and still on the “CH” as if horribly shocked. And then of course there’s the year I had braces… which shall never be mentioned again!)

Source: blutmuth.net Also not mine.

Source: blutmuth.net
Also not mine.

The photographer (at least in small towns) was someone who often did the circuit – the quality akin to the ridiculously-expensive pixie photos you once got in shopping centres.

I’m fairly sure nowadays procurement procedures would require tenders or quotes for comparison purposes, and anyone with a camera and darkroom (or memory stick and computer!) who wanted to hang around children, would require extensive police checks!

My school reunion is coming up later this year (and I’ve definitely decided not to go, in case you were wondering!) so I’m seeing more school pics than ever. However, like I said, it really doesn’t matter if the uniforms aren’t the blue and white checks of my primary school or purple of my high school… I always feel compelled to have a closer look to find my chubby face smiling back at me.

Do you get a sense of déjà vu every time you see an (older) school photograph? (Or is it just me?)
Are class photos any different nowadays?

Connecting with LaughLinkUp today.

24 Comments
  • Pinky Poinker
    July 7, 2014

    Where’s the one with you Deb? My school photos are so faded and old it’s not funny. BTW, I tagged you in my post 🙂

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      Oh thanks… I didn’t share one of me. School friend (and blogger extraordinaire) Nikki Parkinson shared one on FB of our Yr 12 – was tempted to include that one cos I like it! (Vain much?!)

  • Nikki @ Styling You
    July 7, 2014

    I’m sad you’re not going Deb! Can I talk you out of it at all? I may have a book event at Hervey Bay – will you come to that?

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      Oh definitely Nik – will review it and everything (although I never read non-fiction!) 😉

      Happy to help promote it locally etc.

      PS. Got your email and it’s fine re the photo. Don’t know if anyone else could see it and besides…. I like that photo of me! 😉 (It’s the primary school ones I find scary!)

  • Nikki @ Styling You
    July 7, 2014

    PS. I was the one never in uniform up until Y5 in primary school because my parents didn’t believe in them. Not because I didn’t want to wear one (I did!).

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      I was actually surprised in some of the pics you shared to see you and Michele W at West so early on. For some reason I thought you both arrived later…

  • Surely Sarah
    July 7, 2014

    I completely agree – primary school photos in particular tend to look that same from my era. I don’t think there was much diversity in uniforms across Qld in that time period! I think kids tended to have the same type of haircuts for many years there too. I was always at the back, being tall, grinning like a cat.

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      Me too (being tall) though sometimes it meant I was sitting – holding the class sign!

  • Lee-Anne
    July 7, 2014

    Agree there is something so generic about school photos – the uniforms, the way everyone sits up straight and the slightly bland, self-conscious expressions. (Except for Year 12 muck-up day pics…now they’re a bit wild!)

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      I don’t think we had those…. Oh no, a missed rite of passage!?!?

  • Mark @ fullhalfglass.com
    July 7, 2014

    You have absolutely nailed this one. Looking at those photos I swear I could see myself in them – as for school reunions… never been to one and probably never will

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      I didn’t think it was just me – those bloody photos are all very déjà-vu-ish!

  • Vanessa
    July 7, 2014

    I hated school photography when I was at school!! And don’t get me started on those shopping centre photographers, I worked for one for an ever so brief time when I was at uni.

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      As I was writing the post I wondered if the shopping centre photographers still existed. I can’t remember the last time I saw one. It’s usually only the Santa thing… And everyone has smart phones & a selfie-taking gene nowadays!

  • Susan Lattwein
    July 7, 2014

    Even the teacher’s dress is right for the time in the first shot, I’m sure my mother had one.
    There’s usually some poor kid with an eye-patch (masking tape) in my infants school photos.

    • Debbish
      July 7, 2014

      Oh yes there’s always one picking their nose or looking in the wrong direction! Which is what makes them so adorable. (In retrospect, of course!)

  • Emily @ Have A Laugh On Me
    July 8, 2014

    Spot on, they all look the same! Well except mine, because we always had our school photos outside, in the paddock, a rural school I went to! And interesting to see you aren’t going to reunion, I wouldn’t go to mine either, too many fakeness to deal with! Thanks for linking x

    • Debbish
      July 8, 2014

      Ahh yes, a paddock would make things look a bit different. Of course sheep and cows and the like would set the photos apart as well! 😉

  • Char
    July 8, 2014

    I looked at those photos and did a double-take. Some of the kids in your classes looked remarkably like my class mates. The hair cuts. The skirt lengths. There’s definitely a ‘look’ to them.

  • Jess
    July 8, 2014

    Mine all looked exactly the same too! I always looked awful in mine! I didn’t go to my reunion a few years ago. I always thought that I would when I was in school but now I just don’t feel the need!

    • Debbish
      July 8, 2014

      Yes… it all seems so long ago (and irrelevant) doesn’t it?

  • @Kanga_Rue
    July 10, 2014

    I’ll show you Pickle’s playcare photos… Still the same, albeit no uniforms at this stage! Inevitably I’m the mother who forgets to put him in “good” clothes that day.

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