There is a subtle seduction in old pictures of yourself, an attraction that leaves you lost in rosy memories of your own youth. Hard for all, it must be nearly impossible to resist for actors. And I imagine it is doubly so for women due to the cultural pressures that exploit our natural human tendencies. Or so I thought, smugly, to myself.

I decided to write this article when I noticed my own unconscious attraction to a 30-year-old picture of myself. And there I am, waiting for the Staten Island ferry in the glory of youth and wispy man-boy chest hair. If you don’t have an old picture from your misspent youth, photo filters are ready to step up. With the click of a mouse, you can shed 30 years of life and experience in an instant.

I just took a new photo. And rather than filtering it within an inch of its life, I just shifted it over a bit to make it look “edgy”. It doesn’t have that youthful confidence from the old picture. But. It does show more respectable facial hair, and (I like to think) a subtle intensity born of experience. Maybe, if I really work at it, my internal image can shift closer to who I am now, gray hair and all.

After writing this article, I discovered the fabulous featured image of the classical painting of Narcissus, but staring into Instagram rather than a pond. I found it attached to an even better article on this subject.