entertainment

23 Photographers Share the Most Cringeworthy School Portraits They’ve Taken

9.

I was photographing a 3rd grade class and I got to an adorable little boy and went through my list of instructions; ” now turn your head here, shoulders here, oopsie, your right arm there. Wait. Please move your right arm.” He gave me the saddest little look and showed me the stub on his right shoulder. He had no right arm. I felt like a terrible person.

10.

A preschool kid was particularly difficult to get a good picture out of, really cute kid but just couldn’t get a good smile. After about 20 attempts finally he just kinda relaxes, looks off into the distance behind me with this awesome natural smile. It wasn’t until he got off the stool and walked away that I noticed a stain on the back of his shorts and a terrible smell of feces. Still kept the pic, apparently nothing made this kid smile like a good sh*t.

11.

I worked for a company that did this. Didn’t work there long but the worst thing I encountered was multiple notes on the forms parents sent back to us saying “Don’t make my child smile.” or “They have a bad smile don’t make them smile.” How terrible is it to tell strangers you hate your child’s smile?!

12.

It was for a middle school. There was this young lady having her portraits done. She wasn’t doing anything bad in hindsight. She was just very well developed for her age and the shirt she was wearing had a little cleavage. I’m sure her parents sent her out of the house just fine, and she probably felt very pretty and confident. Young lady, having photos done, no big deal. Class portrait time – out of nowhere this middle aged female school administrator comes up to her. She yanks her out of the photo and chastises her for her outfit. Then she makes her wear this oversized baggy t-shirt and we redo the photo. I can only imagine what this girl was going through.

Written by Irvi Torremoro

Irvi Torremoro is an Austinite by way of Las Vegas. She's worked in various outlets in food & beverage and is now focused on writing, eating all the things, talking about Beyonce, and petting all the puppies. She runs flavorandbounty.com, a lifestyle blog about people in the service industry.