If you’ve needed to have a passport photo taken in recent years, you’ll know how difficult it is – for good reason – to get it right.
There are now more than 20 different rules surrounding passport photographs – but this has not always been the case.
Photographs on passports were introduced 100 years ago this year, when pretty much any family snap would do. The rest of the family could be in the picture with you, you could be wearing a hat and you were even allowed to smile!
In fact, the rule about smiling was only introduced in 2004, along with a ban on long fringes (your eyebrows must now be visible).
Other rules nowadays include not tilting your head to one side, not blinking obviously and holding a ‘neutral’ expression with your mouth closed.
We all joke about looking like a ‘criminal’ in our passport photos, but having had mine taken recently I realised why. Concentrating so hard on all of the above whilst having my picture taken gave me what can only be described as a maniacal expression!
It is of course extremely important and acceptable to have these rules in place, but, as Michael Pritchard of the Royal Photographic Society told the BBC: “No smiling, straight-on and white backgrounds don’t provide the flattering images of the traditional High Street photographer and we’ve probably lost something, which is a shame, especially as we all have to live with that image for 10 years.”
Still, what would we do for hours in the airport if we didn’t have the entertainment of laughing at the passport photos of all our travelling companions?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30988833