How many times a day do you take out that pocket computer to freeze time immemorial; congealed in casement of pixels saved in photos and wispily condensed in the cumulus of cloud? From lazy hangover tinged brunches to purple eruptive dusky peaks. A graduation of sorts, or friends reunited whilst drowning in the rapids of libations. Arguably, this ritual of capturing time for pocket storage is more common than the average cups of coffee one typically consumes in the daily. I always subscribe that this compulsive habit is a way of convincing the inner existential skeptic that events are indeed happening; a way of confirming reality when the awe or emotion of a particular moment shakes the ever tenuous grip of existence.
Recently, I came across this interesting perspective posited by Rich Cooper in a talk outlining things he wished his dad said to him (highly recommended; see link below). A small part of this talk examined a quirky sexual dimorphism of gender (yep that still exists); citing differences of how men and women generally orient their phone when taking photos. Now as a running caveat, there is no empirical data supporting these habit observations, but let’s dive into the realm of fun pseudo / anecdotal science as i’m sure many can relate with in real life examples. What captured my attention most stickily was the habits of how men and women take photos: men orienting their phones primarily to capture objects external, and conversely women turning their len’s inward with orientation to the self: think Selfie or worse yet a Tik Tok.
Sending the curiosity tendrils probingly into the biological imperatives driving these proclivities; based deeply in evolutionary strategies honed from the veldts of Africa to the ice sheets of the arctic. I often reflect on these more basic drives when attempting to understand feelings, perspectives, and magnetism of the various. Projecting backwards to the most parsimonious and less diluted of epochs, I take solace in the simple instincts and drives instilled to promote life: existence under the premise of collecting resources, passing genes, tending to the progenitor of permuted genes, and cultivating / maintaining social contracts.
Tying back to cameras, I believe our instincts promoting inward and outward orientation of the mobile phone camera is a direct result of these past strategies. Men are group hunters by trade, and hunting requires a certain scanning of the opportunity field; a keen attention to ones environment; perhaps even cultivating a slow slope appreciation of sublime scene scapes through hours of attentive stalking. Stare at anything long enough and attention can transmute to awe, amazement, and reverence for the minute and macro. Attaining game and mates often requires attention to opportunity outside of the self.
Women’s apertures adjust upon the inner as they are the locus of human creation, the kiln of human continuation. All of man’s genesis is thrust into existence from the sacred vessel of the female, and is arguably something deserving of godly appreciation. God created Adam and Eve, and from this source clay we have taken the recipe and commercialized creation. A beautiful flower can catch the attention of a passerby just as the female form can arrest attention and stop conversation dead simply from entering the field of vision. Their analogue strategy of securing the aforementioned resources, passing of genes, cultivating and maintaining social contracts is more heavily weighted on appearance and inherent functions of this veneer. A woman’s ability to mate and align personal and future generations success and safety is predicated on many similar attributes of successful men, but rather with focused perspective on the inner: namely their form. Modern influencers, and the term cult following must assuredly have links to the sexy successful women of the past who virulently captured the lives and attention of our ancestral hunters.
Acknowledging these are flagrant oversimplifications of complex systems and histories that books often are devoted to, I stay in the shallow end skimming warm proximate depths. I find comfort in continuing my outward pocket captures from fishing trips and bike rides in picturesque California back countries. I also enjoy the occasional selfies a lover takes for future revery similarly to my seasonal captures of orange sun burnt California poppies peppering the springy hillsides of single track trails. Men and women are paradoxically the same and different in many ways creating insatiable alchemy binding us intermittent and in perpetuity. Its fun to take pictures both outward and inward for remembering in times of need or indulgence. From scrap booking, posting, sharing, or forgetting, we all capture reality in this magical way of freezing time for the thawings of our choice.
Capture some beauty today.
