Last year I worked on a photo shoot out here in the Pyrenees – a clothing brand so nothing to do with property; I was simply scouting locations. However it did make me realize that there are many parallels with photos for advertising fashion and photos for advertising property, namely that most of them are not real. By that, I don’t mean that they don’t exist but that they are created and curated images; much work goes on behind the scenes to present a photo that represents a covetable lifestyle to which we aspire.
With a clothing shoot, the company is trying to make us believe that, by buying their clothes we will look like that model, traversing the mountain stream without a care in the world. What the photo doesn’t show is the effort that has gone into finding the perfect location, the hours of makeup, the hairstyling, the hundreds of poses in different light to get the perfect one, the clever camera lenses, the large team of people working behind each shot and then the touching up of photos afterwards to get rid of every flaw and blemish. In other words, nobody in real-life can look like that model, not even the model. We are being sold a dream.
Which is exactly what an estate agent selling a house is trying to sell you when they advertise a property on a website, particularly a property in the south of France. So just be prepared that the gorgeous photo of a honey-coloured stone house with roses around the door and wisteria dangling over the pool may not be quite as good in reality as it looks in the photos.
If, for your property search, you don’t have time to view 100 frogs before finding your princess, get in touch and I will do the groundwork for you and make sure you know the reality behind the photos before you view: nadia@foothillsoffrance.com
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