Scary, Scary!
No matter how much you love clowns, you have to admit: a huge portion of our population is terrified of them. And it’s not because of Stephen King, either. Clowns have been terrorizing people for millennia.
Clowns have throughout time and different cultures had the lofted honor of playing the fool. This means that they were able to break social customs that the rest of us are bound by. That could be as simple as a flub in manners or it can be as outrageous as causing a raucous with someone’s embarrassment. Clowns are unpredictable – and unpredictable is scary. In fact, a lot of times in tribal cultures, it was the job of the clown to do the unexpected in order to “wake up” the tribe members and to get them thinking outside the box for creative solutions – or to simply break up the monotony of long, arduous chores or bleak and dismal winters.
And then there’s the whole face paint thing. Humans are naturally wary of anyone in a mask. If you can’t see a face, how can you know if you can trust someone? Even with strangers, if you see them later, you can recognize them. But with face paint or masks, you would never know who that person is or if you met them in plain clothes on the street. Exaggerated facial features are even enough to terrorize small children who have yet to see many horror movies.
Of course, the horror movies don’t help – they amplify the problem. When I was first starting out in Photography, I was shocked when I entered a contest on a site that usually had about 1k entries and there were only 5 TOTAL in the clown contest. I never knew clowns were THAT scary – and my love for them grew exponentially.
I love clowns because of all they represent – chaos, unfamiliarity, unlimited possibilities, and a break from business as usual. A little thrill doesn’t hurt, either.