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Camera Shy

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This person really hates having their picture taken. (Sometimes this also extends to hating being filmed on video.) They might be shy, reclusive, insecure about their appearance, or hate having to get dressed up in formal clothes for fancy photos. This frequently puts them at odds with someone who wants to take a picture of them, often their parents. Hilarity ensues when this person will do anything to avoid showing up on camera: running away, covering their face, making a bizarre or ugly facial expression to ruin the picture, getting into a fight with the photographer, or anything else they can think of.

If they're camera-shy for no apparent reason, they might be in Witness Protection, doing something shady, or trying to stay off the grid.

A specific variation of this is the old-fashioned superstition that cameras steal your soul, which is typically associated with "primitive" people unaccustomed to technology.

Truth in Television, as some people just do not like being photographed. In particular, many parents will attest to how hard it can be to get small children to stand still for photos.

Related:

Contrast:

  • Attention Whore: Someone who adores the limelight and would probably love having their picture taken.

Not to be confused with the Worm fanfic Camera Shy.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • The Black Knight: Arpin Lusène refuses to be photographed, and when reporters try to take photos of him, he demonstrates his Impossible Theft skills by stealing their film rolls and the filament from one reporter's camera.
  • The DCU: In the DCU, characters with Super-Speed such as the Golden Age Flash and Superman will vibrate their faces just enough to prevent people from trying to piece together their secret identities.

    Comic Strips 
  • Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin hates getting his picture taken, despite being an Attention Whore most of the time. Whenever his parents try to take a photo of him, he always makes an ugly face at the last second to mess it up.
    • In the December 14, 1988 arc, Calvin is in a bad mood because he has to wear a suit and tie (which he thinks are "dorky clothes") and get his hair combed for Christmas card photos. His dad keeps trying to take his picture, but he repeatedly makes ugly faces to ruin them.
      Dad: (later, looking at a series of ruined photos) We can't send these in our Christmas cards. People will think it's sacrilegious.
      Mom: Well, these do look like Calvin...except for the combed hair.
    • The November 11, 1990, Sunday strip is just a long series of Calvin making goofy faces, with only the last panel revealing that they're photos.
      Dad: That's our son! (sigh)
      Mom: These pictures will remind us of more than we want to remember.
    • Yet another example: in the October 12, 1990 strip, Calvin's dad is taking a picture of him, and Calvin holds his smile for a few seconds before making a disgusted face just before the camera goes off.

    Fan Works 
  • One Shot to Keep: As Twilight is setting up the camera to take a photo of her friends, Rainbow Dash is dragging Fluttershy into frame while the yellow pegasus is protesting, "N-n-no, I don't want my picture taken!" and covering her face with her hooves.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Lawrence of Arabia: Auda objects to Bentley photographing him, and Lawrence explains that Auda is "a bit old-fashioned. He thinks these things will steal his virtue. He thinks you're a kind of thief."
  • In Phantom of the Paradise, Swan hates photographers and refuses to let them photograph him. Everyone assumes it's some sort of eccentricity, but the truth is more sinister: He's actually Older Than They Look but has been kept young by a Dorian Grey-type Deal with the Devil, and he fears photographs might reveal his true face.
  • Running on Empty: Danny's parents have been on the run from the FBI for years. Every so often they have to pack up and move away, establishing new identities. Danny casually mentions that he skipped school on picture day, which his parents tacitly approve.

    Literature 
  • The Cat Club: One of the books contains an illustration of photos of all the cats, except for Sinbad, whose frame has the words "He refused to get his picture taken" written in it.
  • The Father Hunt: Amy hires Nero Wolfe to find her father, whom she never knew. The job is made more difficult by the fact that Amy had no photographs of her recently deceased mother, Elinor. When Archie talks to Elinor's former boss, Thorne, he learns that Elinor always avoided having her photograph taken. Thorne, however, did manage to have two photos of Elinor taken when she wasn't aware.
  • Going Postal: Moist von Lipwig tries to avoid having his picture taken; he was a conman with forgettable features before becoming Ankh Morpork's Post Master, and fears that photographic evidence will cause more people to be able to recognize (or remember) him.
  • Ripper (2014): Indiana is at a cafe with Carol Drinkwater when a local photographer tries to take a picture of them. The usually mild-mannered Carol reacts with fury and even attempts to rip the camera out of the other woman's hands. She has a good reason: "she" is really Indiana's male Stalker with a Crush, who is pretending to be a female cancer patient to get close to Indiana.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Incredible Hulk (1977): Because he's a fugitive of sorts, David Banner tries to avoid ever being photographed. If necessary, he'll either hold something in front of his face or hide behind others in group shots. In "Stop the Presses", a shady news photographer bursts into the restaurant where David is employed as a dishwasher and starts snapping pictures. The shot that gets published the next day is of David's hand thrust palm outward toward the camera completely blocking his face.
  • Odd Squad: According to "O is For Opposite", Oprah isn't all too fond of getting her picture taken, as every time Olympia tries to take a selfie with her, she shields her face in some manner.

    Web Original 
  • SCP Foundation: SCP-096/The Shy Guy will go completely bananas if anyone looks at its face and kill them without leaving a trace of their body behind. If someone looks at a photograph of its face (even a photograph where the only visible part of its face is 4 pixels), it will somehow instantly know and will kill them.

    Video Games 
  • Portal: In both Portal video games, there are cameras mounted on walls that are mostly used for monitoring your progress, however, once you acquire the Portal Gun, you are able to shoot the cameras off the walls, which results in GLaDOS scolding you for destroying "Vital Testing Apparatus". There is an unlockable achievement for destroying all the cameras on portal-able surfaces.
  • Yandere Simulator: Students with the Loner personality type will cover their faces if the player tries to take a picture of them.

    Western Animation 
  • In BoJack Horseman, Sarah Lynn has a violent hatred of photographers, stemming from her trauma of being sexually exploited by her photographer stepfather.
  • Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot: Beastly approaches Harmony to try to steal her camera, but then she tells him to say hello to the camera. He freezes up and starts whimpering, allowing her to get past him.
    Beastly: Camera shy, me? Never! Okay, maybe just a little bit, heh, but I still want that camera!
  • Doug: In "Doug's Big Nose", Doug doesn't want to get his photo taken at school because he's embarrassed about the size of his nose.
  • Hazbin Hotel:
    • Alastor is a 1930s radio host who hates all forms of modern technology and believes that radio is "the proper medium to express oneself." He uses his powers to prevent his face from showing up properly on any kind of recording device like a camera or smartphone. Curiously, his Arch-Enemy Vox owns half of a torn photo of himself and Alastor where the radio demon's face is unobscured, suggesting that they once had a good relationship.
    • Niffty seems camera-shy as well. In "Overture", when Vaggie attempts to film her for a commercial, she instantly freezes up into a Thousand-Yard Stare. This happens again at the end of "The Show Must Go On" while being filmed by a news crew after killing Adam.
  • Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Blythe Baxter is shown to be extremely camera shy in the episode "So You Skink You Can Dance," hiding her face whenever her dad tries to film her. When she and her dad travel to Hollywood to see a live taping of Vinnie's favorite show "Shake a Leg," Blythe's forced to dance on live TV by a producer who needs a quick replacement for a dancer that called in sick that evening, despite Blythe protesting that she's not a dancer and has a fear of cameras.
  • Rugrats (1991): Discussed in "America's Wackiest Home Movies". Stu wants to catch Tommy doing something funny on camera, but Tommy does nothing (as he was told by Angelica that if he stays quiet, he'll get a quarter). Didi wonders if this is because he's camera-shy and notes that Dr. Lipschitz claims infants can have this problem.
  • We Bare Bears: Charlie the sasquatch has a fear of cameras because he's been stalked by the paparazzi for a long time. Whenever he sees a camera, his first instinct is to yelp and knock it down.

    Real Life 
  • The Other Wiki has an article about it.
  • Irish mobster Martin Cahill hated being photographed; when he went outside, he would often do things like wear a coat with the hood raised, or cover his face with his hand.
  • J. P. Morgan, founder of the namesake financial institution, had a deformed nose due to rosacea-induced rhinophyma and was very sensitive about it. As such, he hated being photographed without his express permission, and those photos and portraits he did allow were always touched up to remove the deformity. One fairly famous photo that wasn't done with his consent shows him trying to angrily swat the photographer away with his walking stick.

 
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Am I in This?

Auda objects to being photographed because he thinks cameras will "steal his virtue."

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