What’s in a pose?

Mbulelo Mpofu, Showbiz Reporter

A CAMERA is one of the greatest inventions that has ever been made and when it comes to issues of opulence and being photogenic, people do anything possible to look good behind the lens.

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”.

Chronicle Showbiz went on an excursion around the Bulawayo CBD to find out why people do those hand signs when posing for photos and the random survey produced different answers. But most of them bordered around 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).

“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 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 Siziba 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 is 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 is the reason why I do the Westcoast sign. I’m a huge fan of the hip-hop genre as well,” commented Mary.

Whether it’s flair, self-expression or just following media personalities, hand gestures are here and for photogenic purposes, people basically pose anyhow possible. Are you one for hand signs when taking a photo? If so, which one? – @eMKlass_49