[HPforGrownups] Re: Wizard Photographs.. more thoughts on this =)

[yr awen]

No: HPFGUIDX 42381

Richelle said:
  What I'd like to know is why is a Muggle camera allowed in Hogwarts?  He can
  bring back proof of the wizard world!  I don't quite understand that,
  considering he's bringing them back to show his Muggle father.<<<<<<<<

  I think Arthur said it best in CoS, when he explains about Muggle-baiting with magically shrinking keys -- a Muggle would never think to attribute vanishing keys to magic and will go out of their way to invent explanations more far-fetched than the truth; we're apparently experts at not seeing what's right under our noses <g>

  If Colin's photographs should 'leak' to the Muggle world, they would probably be treated as something along the lines of the famous photo of the Loch Ness monster, or maybe as an example of modern experimental photography :-)

  Or maybe... I don't think it's ever mentioned, but maybe one needs to be a wizard/witch in order to see photographs move and paintings talk. In PS/SS, Harry has the impression that only he and Hagrid can see the Leaky Cauldron, presumably due to a series of anti-Muggle enchantments, and in GoF there are all sorts of anti-Muggle barriers set up, so we know that the wizarding community is definitely aware of the need for concealment. It makes sense that they'd want to control the distribution of media, so to speak, which might be difficult when dealing with something as pedestrian as photographs. Maybe one property of the developing potion is that its full effects can only be experienced, or appreciated, by a magically-gifted viewer. Or maybe Colin's allowed to have his camera on the condition that he doesn't try to stage an expose of wizard schooling practices.

  For myself, I'd be sort of weirded out if my print of Evard Munch's 'The Scream' started wailing and writhing around in the middle of the night. Scary.

  HF.


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