
matthe
im a little pictophobic, but its more of a goofy bashfulness.
im hardcore flashaphobic though. i literally run for my life at the sight of one of those external top of the camera style flashes. and even cellphone flashes drive me nuts.
I WANTED TO KILL THEM

Taking photos of people is hard work, and getting them to sign release forms (if you like taking photos of the public) is a nightmare!) Please - if a pro takes a photo of you.... have pity and remember it's their bread and butter?

There was one 'pro' I'd rather forget - my second son, then aged four, had an attack of croup at my sister's wedding. As we were rushing away from the church to get him to hospital before he stopped breathing altogether, the photographer stood in front of us and tried to insist we stay for the photos!
When we arrived at the hospital an orderly took one look at the poor lad struggling for breath in my arms, picked him up and ran to get help. I love that man. He probably saved my boy's life, but in the confusion I never found out his name.
So, to the huge, white, gay orderly in Farnborough Hospital who saved my son's life in 1986 - thank you! 






And to the photographer... 




Fashion: You are this year's model
By Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Independent on Sunday, 17 February 2008
Fancy yourself as a model, but don't fancy surviving on lettuce leaves? For a fleeting taste of fame, get down to Selfridges where DKNY has teamed up with acclaimed New York photographer Mark van S to beam your image over London's West End via his digital photo booth.
The booth has travelled the world, from Switzerland to Seoul, and now it's hitting our shores. Every day during store hours you can have your picture taken in the booth (located in the DKNY concession on the second floor), from where it is instantly projected in black-and-white into Selfridges' windows overlooking Oxford Street. If you're worried you might not live up to the models who usually feature there, fear not: "Incredibly flattering lighting makes everyone look fabulous," says van S.
It's DIY, too – you pose, you press the button – so no chance of the camera catching pulling that "Are you taking the picture yet?" face. The photos are also added to a slideshow which will run in constant rotation in the store itself until the booth heads off to a new city.
Van S pioneered a new instant-projection technology for the booth (passport snapshots these certainly aren't), which has been used by Vogue Italia, Bloomingdales and Cartier. All that's asked of you to secure your proverbial 15 minutes is a minimum £1 donation to the British Red Cross – cheaper, one would imagine, than asking Mario Testino or Patrick Demarchelier to snap you – and you can take away the instantly printed copies for posterity.
I am sensitive to light too. I wear sunglasses during the day, walk in the shade and so forth.
My Mother used to make me have my picture taken by the school photographer even though I didn't want this and then criticise the resulting photograph at length - so what was the point?
I also have difficulties with lighting - I can't watch the TV or use the computer in the dark as I get headaches and visual disturbances. I also need natural light - I get headaches in places where there is artificial light only and those energy saving lights give me migranes, dizziness and nausea.
Fear of darkness is nyctophobia. If there were such a word as cameraphobia (it would be a Latin+Greek hybrid) it would mean fear of rooms, not specifically dark ones.