Photographic Evidence

Oh my God, I used to be so fat.

I know that should be a “Well, duh” statement by now, but it really hit home when I was organizing my data CDs the other day. I ran across an old video project I did senior year of college. It was a funny little video about what my cat does when I’m away, so I was in a couple shots leaving and entering my apartment. It’s one thing to see pictures of me at my old weight, but seeing footage of the way I moved and carried myself was shocking. There’s also footage of my cat raiding the refrigerator which features, horror of horrors, non-diet soda! Man, I was addicted to the liquid candy back then.

My brother appears in the video too as a delivery man because my cat orders catnip off the Internet. (He also watches Catwoman scenes from Batman Returns and scans his butt on my scanner, all to the tune of “Cat Scratch Fever.” The cat, not my brother.) Boy, my brother was fat too! We were both so fat! I showed him the video and both of our jaws hit the keyboard. Ow! I still have keyboard marks on my chin.

Which begs the question, did people know how much they had physically changed before photographs and videos? I can only think that no, they didn’t. Family photos have only really been mainstream for about 100 years or so. I suppose people could have had drawings made or portraits painted, but would that be within the budget of the average person? And how much of the difference in your looks would you attribute to actual change and not just the artist’s interpretation?

I feel pretty lucky to have my fat pictures and fat videos because otherwise I just might not believe how much I’ve physically changed.