A student’s quest for a more meaningful senior portrait

As senior Jennie Werner was taking her long-awaited senior portrait on July 1 at Now & Forever Studios in Los Gatos, a string of boring, traditional photos of herself were projected onto a screen before her. “Just do a silly one,” her mom suggested, so Werner casually stuck her thumbs up, opened her mouth into a wide smile and the flash went off.

After seeing the result, Werner, who happens also to be one of the three editors-in-chief of the 2014 Talisman yearbook along with seniors Lauren M. Lin and Jason Li, was determined to print her portrait in the yearbook because she was pleased with the way it portrayed her personality. But she was discouraged to hear that it was against the rules to have her hands showing in the portrait. 

“From the get-go I was really driven to fix this because I wanted my senior portrait to reflect who I felt like I am,” Werner said. “[Those] other ones — they’re boring, they’re formal, they’re stiff — that’s not who I am.’”

Werner, unsatisfied with accepting a photo that didn’t illustrate her character, took on a three-month quest to get the photo she wanted.

Determined, Werner asked the front desk worker whom she could speak to about the issue. She was surprised and pleased to hear that she could go to her yearbook adviser, Mike Tyler.

But Werner received yet another no from Tyler.

“The one concern that I had was that it would set a bad precedent,” Tyler said. “Long before I was the adviser, the school has preferred that students look uniform in these photos for the yearbook, putting their best face forward, so to speak.”

Still, Werner believes that the school’s senior portraits are in need of some modification.

“Right now, senior portraits are very limited in their forms of expression. You can choose how to do your hair, makeup and that’s about it,” Werner said. “Senior portraits where students wear their own clothes are much more authentic and personable. The drape and tux are traditional, but they don’t represent students’ personalities.”

The other concern was that printing the photo could be interpreted as Werner giving herself preferential treatment, since she is a yearbook editor. But Werner disagreed, arguing that other students have also made similar requests for special arrangements to their senior portraits.

“We had a student ask if they could have their quote printed upside down. We’re doing that. We had a student ask if she could have music notes next to her quote. We’re doing that,” Werner said. “So if other students ask ‘Hey can I do this?’ we try to accommodate them.”

After a month of listening to Werner’s repetitive asking, Tyler decided to take the issue to the administration. In speaking with Werner, assistant principal Kerry Mohnike raised the same issues of preferential treatment and setting a precedent for future years.

Contemplating these concerns, Werner realized that perhaps students should have more opportunities to express themselves.

“Then I thought, ‘Well, maybe a precedent isn’t always bad,’” Werner said. “What if the precedent is that our senior portraits look more like us and the senior section reflects us instead of being formal drape, cap and gown?”

In the end, Mohnike left the decision up to Werner. Werner                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                was given the night to think about it, and eventually made up her mind to choose the thumbs-up photo.

“[Werner is] a responsible person and she has the right, ultimately, to make the decision herself,” Mohnike said. “It’s not an issue of disruptive behavior, it’s not anything that the administration would typically get involved with. These are style choices for the yearbook.”

After all of Werner’s struggles, Now & Forever Studios finally agreed to send the thumbs-up photo.

“In the end I wanted to use the picture simply because I thought it was a better reflection of who I am,” Werner said.