THE PORTRAITS

Jeremy: “We had the chance to take a year out of life, music and school a couple of years ago, to travel the world and show our children just how lucky they were to live in the affluent west. We saw some fantastic places and noted that, quite apart from the obvious fact that the vast majority of people we met were totally lovely, one thing that unites today’s humans, from Dublin to Agra, Canada to Singapore, is ‘selfie’ culture. In particular, in key tourist destinations around the world, where once we might have bought a postcard and sent it home, today we spend an inordinate amount of time brushing ourselves up and getting our pout just right while posing in front of the Taj Mahal or Table Mountain. When we spotted others doing it, we’d often have a giggle before jumping on the bandwagon ourselves. But perhaps there’s a dark side to all this. We’re all very much obsessed with the “look at me” culture inflicted on us all by social media, and by airbrushed magazine photo shoots that we try and compete with. We aren’t winning the battle against negative self-image, and in fact many studies into mental health show that we are, if anything, moving backwards.”