Chronicle Editor
Mbulelo Mpofu, Showbiz Reporter
A CAMERA is one of the greatest inventions ever made.
These are the very gadgets that have kept our smiles, sorrows and joy alive. They immortalise whatever memory we treasure most.
The most beautiful scenery, people and props have all been shot by this wonderful invention.
Be it still or motion pictures, people have a different way of expressing themselves in front of the camera.
You might be the serious-faced or smiling one, but one thing is for sure, you become unglued when it’s light, camera and action time.
When it comes to issues of opulence and being photogenic, people do anything possible to look good behind the lens.
Posing is never an easy endeavour though. Some just cut out straight faces while others pout their lips, flaunt their figure and exhibit creative poses.
The “selfie gang” is the one prone to pouting when shooting snaps.
Some of the popular poses include looking up to the sky, squatting, raising one leg (mostly women) and some even lie on the turf.
To some, taking snaps has become a somewhat way of life and daily, thousands of pictures are shared on social media.
When it comes to posing, the hands have their work cut out as people just flick their fingers in any direction just to look cool and make a statement in front of the camera.
Lately, there has been a trend of poses that many of us have been exposed to. Most of these constitute hand gestures and these range from “the Devil’s horns” “Peace sign” “Two-finger salute” “Heart sign” ”I love you sign” and the
“Middle finger sign”. One can only wonder what some (if not all) hand gestures mean.
Saturday Leisure went around the Bulawayo Central Business District (CBD) to find out why people do those hand signs and the random survey produced different answers. However, most of them bordered on the influence that media personalities have on ordinary people.
Tanyaradzwa Chivhenge, an avid World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) fan attested to using the “Devil’s horns sign” so as to pay homage to his favourite wrestler, Edge (real name Adam Joseph Copeland). This is whereby one raises the pinky and index fingers on one hand.
“I’m a huge fan of the Rated-R superstar and every time, when he sets foot on the squared circle, I feel the adrenalin rush and I mimic the Devil’s horns hand gesture that he does when he steps on the ropes. Many people attribute it to devil worshipping but for me, it’s just the love for Edge,” said Chivhenge.
Thulani Siziba, conceded ignorance of the origins of the hand gesture that he uses.
Showing us the “peace sign” the lad had a confused look on his face as he confessed ignorance.
“To be honest, I don’t even know what this means, but it just looks cool. I see a lot of people doing it and for some reason, I just find myself following suit,” said the 19-year-old Thulani from Cowdray Park.
One of the most-used hand gestures is the “heart sign” where one uses both hands to simulate the shape of the heart using her fingers.
Chief among the answers that were given pertaining to that particular hand gesture was general self-expression.
Sibonokuhle Kyle Ndlovu from Sizinda said she rarely takes a photo without doing the heart sign gesture.
“For me, it’s self-expression in the sense that I’m a loving person and I believe in the power of love. That’s the reason why I do the heart and peace sign when I pose for my Instagram photos,” she said.
Mary Ncube, also a fan of Instagram alluded to what she does as a way of “swaying away from the norm”.
“I just cannot stand over there without posing like one on a passport or driver’s licence photo. I have to somewhat flex my creative side and that’s the reason why I do the West Coast sign. I’m a huge fan of the hip-hop genre as well,” commented Mary.
Whatever the West Coast is, but surely Mary is a devout follower of it.
One of the most popular hand gestures that youths do nowadays is what they call the “call me sign”. This is for the flirty ones.
You usually see them doing this in the club and it’s a pose whereby the thumb is held near the ear and the little finger pointed at the mouth to resemble some sort of handheld telephone.
“Place your thumb and forefinger together (as if holding a joint), with your other three fingers up in the air. When you bring your two fingers ‘holding the joint’ to your mouth and pretend to take a hit, this is a sign of wanting to smoke weed,” were sentiments of a dreadlocked man who preferred anonymity.
“That’s my favourite pose because I get to stay in touch with my Rastafarian side. Even without the ganja (marijuana) itself, I pose in that type of way and it’s very cool actually,” added the Rastafarian rolling a joint.
John Cena does it, but in a different way. Celebrities are the pacesetters of these types of poses, aren’t they?
One interesting interviewee told Saturday Leisure that she “doesn’t pose when taking a picture.”
Kimberly Ngwenya of Fourwinds alluded to her just standing lifelessly in front of the camera as nothing one can call a pose.
“You can’t seriously call this a pose. I just stand there because I don’t know how to pose,” the shy teenager concluded. — @eMKlass_49
Online Reporter