HOW I ACCIDENTALLY BECAME A STOCK PHOTO MODEL
I WAS teaching a course in media studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and sitting in my office one day when someone told me to check my Facebook wall. A small discussion had erupted after my friend Sana in Canada posted an advert she’d found in her local newspaper, The Globe and Mail. “Is this you?” she asked with a picture of an advert encouraging immigrants to Canada. Friends who had already seen the image had started to comment saying that it certainly looked like me. I studied the unclear photo uncertainly and then located the beauty spots on my cheek and chin.
“It is me,” I replied, flabbergasted. “Why am I in an advert in a newspaper in Canada?”
No one had an answer. I was perplexed and outraged. I mean, I thought I could be famous one day but I didn’t know it could happen without me knowing. I considered contacting the newspaper until another friend from university reminded me that the photo looked like one we had taken two years ago at a photoshoot in Durban.
MY NAME, NATIONALITY AND RACE WERE ALTERED
The photoshoot she was talking about was called the “100 Real Faces Project” and was organised by a photographer from Cape Town who was working on a photo project. The event had been promoted on Facebook and called on people of diverse backgrounds to attend and offered a professional portrait in return.
Many students at the university signed
