- Identity and self-acceptance: a face, with all its faults, belongs to its owner and is part of who they are.
- Truth versus artificial beauty: a "perfect" picture that does not resemble the sitter is worthless.
- The arrogance of experts: a professional so absorbed in technique forgets the customer's wishes.
- The purpose of portraits: to keep a true memory of a person for friends and family.
- Dignity of the ordinary person: the timid narrator finally stands up for himself.
7.1 Leacock's techniques of humour
| Technique | Example |
|---|---|
| exaggeration (hyperbole) | waits an hour; photographer "crawled into" the camera; "staggering from the shock" |
| understatement / self-mockery | "I know; I have always known it" |
| comic misunderstanding | "three-quarters full" taken to mean plumper; thinks he will be kissed |
| impossible instructions | "droop them a little more"; "twist the hip up towards the elbow" |
| mock-scientific language | "natural scientist", "scientific pursuits", "superficies", "Delphide", "Sulphide" |
| bathos / anticlimax | "sulphide, bromide, oxide, cowhide"; grand speech ending in tears |
| personification | the camera "staggering from the shock" |
| onomatopoeia | "Snick!" |
| irony | "Is it me?" — "Yes, it is you", when it plainly is not |
7.2 Irony in the story
- The customer pays for a service but is treated like an intruder.
- The photograph is taken at the very moment the narrator protests — and the photographer calls it "a moment of animation".
- The photographer insists the picture "is you", although every feature has been changed.
- The ears — the only true likeness — are the next thing to be removed.
- The narrator wanted a picture for his friends; he tells the photographer to keep it for his friends.
7.3 Significance of the title
"With the Photographer" names the whole experience — the narrator's time in the company of the photographer. It sounds like an ordinary, everyday visit, which makes the absurd events funnier. The title also puts the photographer at the centre: the story is about what happens when an ordinary person falls into the hands of a self-important "expert".
7.4 Then and now
| Then (the story) | Now |
|---|---|
| retouching eyes; removing eyebrows | beauty filters, skin-smoothing apps |
| the "Delphide" and "Sulphide" processes | one-tap face reshaping and editing |
| a picture the narrator cannot recognise | edited selfies that do not look like the person |
| "This face is my face" | movements for natural, unedited images and body positivity |