To a Louse

It’s Robbie Burns Day today, and it got me thinking about Archie.

Archie Comics, yes.

What does Archie have to do with Robbie Burns? And what does Robbie Burns have to do with intimate photography? Read on, dear reader, read on.

A long, long time ago, when I was maybe ten, I read an Archie Comic. I read lots of them, but this one has stuck with me ever since, as it didn’t deal with the whole “will Archie fall for Betty or Veronica?” (Note that I was always on team Betty. Veronica was way too entitled, and was just using Archie to piss of her dad. I haven’t watched Riverdale, sorry.)

It stuck with me for a few reasons. One, because it quotes a Robbie Burns poem, and two, because it broke the fourth wall.

In the opening scenes of the comic, Archie is reading the last line from the poem “To a Louse”. I don’t remember if he reads it in the original or in the English translation, so I’ve included both here for reference:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

Or, in Standard English:

Oh, would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!

Then Archie looks at the reader and says something to the effect of “That’s Robbie Burns. His point is that only other people see us as we really are. I don’t agree.”

He then goes and shows us how the Riverdale gang views him. To Jughead, he is a foodie friend, scarfing burgers and drinking the shakes. To Moose, he is just this tiny, insignificant person (if I recall, he might even be a baby). He goes through a bunch more people, though I can’t remember how they see him. (I think for Dilton, he is wearing a dunce cap).

At the end, he restates his original argument: No, others don’t see who I truly am. Only I can see who I truly am. He then looks at himself in the mirror, where he is a handsome muscleman.

I’ve always loved that because it both subverts Burns and Archie’s own argument.

But I’ve been thinking about that for the last little while, because there is a degree of truth to the Burns poem. That to see ourselves as others see us would free us from many a blunder.

Of course, in Burn’s view, we too often puff ourselves up and try and act important. But the opposite is often more the case, especially for females. We don’t see ourselves through rose coloured glasses. We see ourselves through the lens of our own insecurities. We look in the mirror and see that we haven’t put on make-up, and that there’s a new zit coming in on our forehead and is that a new wrinkle forming and I’ve gained weight and need to work out and is that a grey hair?

Basically we laser focus on our faults. We don’t see ourselves at our best, only at our worst. Indeed, we only see the worst.

Which brings us (as you might have guessed), to intimate photography. Because the goal of intimate photography—or at least my goal with intimate photography—is to show you at your best. To capture the things that are most excellent and worthy of praise, from physical traits to emotional ones. Oh would some Power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us? That’s what I do for a living.

So I know you’ve heard this before, but if you’re wanting to see yourself the way others see you, the way I will see you, feel free to contact me. I know it might be a scary step, but once you take that first step, I’ll be here to help guide you. There’s no pressure, no obligation to book. But if you want to talk, tell me your dreams, I would love to hear from you.