Many of you recently saw on my Facebook page this horror-show stock photo of an archer doing at least six things wrong, wrong, wrong. He even lends his friend the same bow. Urgh.
It’s clear from the sheer number of stock images of archers that it’s a popular enough trope amongst stock photo archives, of which Getty Images is probably the biggest worldwide.
I’ve written about nightmaare stock photos before, e.g. here. Basically, I believe people tend to recognise authenticity when it is put in front of them. When something technical is presented you can always tell when you are seeing an expert doing something rather than just a model, and with archery-based ads that little gleam of reality is only going to enhance the image of rugged individualism / ‘aiming high’ / ‘hitting the target’ etc. that they are trying to project with the product. I mean, some of these things have real archers in them, and they look a lot better. Right? Anyway…
Businessman-in-a-field is pretty popular. I mean…
This guy, handed a bow at least strung the right way round, just looks awkward, like he’s never picked up a bow before. A long way from the chisel-jawed thrusting target-smasher they’re presumably wanting the image to sell to you. See also this.
This futuristic lady, who is apparently a ‘Pacific Islander’ is so far into the future, she’s managed to string the bow backwards. Whooo.
Absolutely no idea what this guy is up to. Maybe he’s trying to work his biceps or something.
If you can understand what’s going on here, please send me a postcard.
Plenty more of this stuff out there with a bit of searching. There’s even video of this kind of thing too. If you can bear it.
You want more? I suggest you follow the Back To Front Archery Club on Facebook.
Those are hardcore :] I actually like the Indian guy photo – after the initial mistake of turning the bow upside down, the rest seems kind of logical 😉 Besides, if a Korean tv documentary on bows can let backward strung bows slip through, how can we blame those people? 🙂