Upside Down Smiles


It’s good that the fauxtog made sure to get the hardwood floor in there so we can really get a feel for how dangerous this is. Plus making the parents kiss to distract them from the baby was a nice way to add a little intensity too!

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57 Comments

  1. So much wrong in this … so much…

    • No, this is actually incredibly good for babies, both physios and osteopths practice hold babies upside down, its good for muscles and joints. Plus babies love it. Of course you have to do it in a safe manner. I think this picture is great.

      • A baby that young should NOT be held upside down like that especially with only one foot/leg… are you crazy??

  2. Christine

    Showing that these two should not be parents?

    • well I would not go that far, maybe “showing that parents should probably take a parenting class”

  3. jentheartist

    OMG – that poor kid! I wonder if the human race will survive!

  4. Omg…. The mom in me wants to grab that poor little baby…. Omg Why???

  5. Someone call CPS

  6. can we call CPS?

  7. It looks like there is someone dressed in black holding the baby up ( and nice job not hiding them properly … ) – so it might not be as precarious as it looks, but still … why … ?

    • kenjonesphoto

      I thought there was someone back there as well, turns out no one was there unless they are behind the curtains but even so they would not be able to help if there was an issue, no one is holding that baby other than the dude in the photo.

    • That’s a curtain, not a person.

  8. This is just so incredibly disturbing. CPS really does need a phone call…

  9. While the fauxtographer should have known better, sometimes it’s the dingbat parents that come up with these stupid ideas.

    • Agreed…but the fauxtog should have the sense to say, “uh, yeah, that’s just too dangerous. Sorry.”

    • Wsroadrunner

      I am a professional photographer and I run my own studio. That said, I have refused to do any shots which could even possibly cause harm to a child.

      It’s part of “Professionalism”

      • I’ve received requests like this, the answer? Absolutely. Not.

  10. Holy Shite!!!
    Someone call DOCS.
    Who in their distorted right mind would do that??!!
    I’m sure ‘Abercomble & Fitch’ (whoever they are) won’t be glad they have been made a part of this.
    …Always love a cut off foot. Ewww…

  11. Wsroadrunner

    Can I hold the “father” by an ankle…. preferably dangling off the edge of a building?

  12. There are tons of guides online on how to safely shoot what can appear to be a dangerous situation. (The baby-in-a-bag is an example.) Those require careful planning, extra assistance and editing skill; I don’t see that here. What I DO see is a child being held by one leg, upside-down, 4 feet in the air. The baby’s wearing baggy thug jeans that can slip off at any moment, and is suspended high over a polished, hardwood floor. Even if they edited out a beanbag or an assistant on standby, it’s a damn long way down to chance a slip-up just for a shot like this.

    This photo is not funny, it’s not witty. Randomly hanging a baby upside down at arm’s length and ignoring it like a piece of hanging meat is not edgy or cool. Even if it was the parents’ ideas, even an amateur like me would have refused to even entertain the idea of shooting this.

    In short, if this were me and I were that baby, if I saw this in the family album, I’d turn around and slap both of my parents.

  13. I’m betting the baby was an accident and unwanted. And the parents decided to capture this moment so that the kid will see it when he’s older. It’s the only explanation, right?
    At least, that’s the message I’m getting from this horrible photo -_- so much fail.

  14. “Kiss me, KISS ME DAMMIT. Or the baby gets it!!! ”
    Funnily enough the baby’s smiling…
    This remind me of Arnie in Commando. “Remember I told you I’ll kill you last?… I lied!”

  15. http://pinterest.com/pin/120400990008160243/
    what do you guys think about this one?

    • equally as dangerous, cute shot but not worth the risk in my opinion.

  16. This was an idea gone wrong and using the wrong age child.
    http://pinterest.com/pin/24629129182016769/ is this picture done correctly.
    No one is holding up that child but the father. It’s just wrong…

  17. This pose is all over pinterest & I have seen several photographers try & recreate it…It’s not cute. Period.

  18. All they need now is a balcony and a blanket and they could be on TMZ.

  19. It truly does look like the baby is unwanted and that he is “casting it aside” as he would a piece of garbage. Well, what can you expect from Maury-guest trash. After all, nothing says klassy like an abercrombie shirt and bare feet.

  20. BurninBiomass

    Looks like he’s going to use that baby as a cudgel.

  21. Elizabeth

    Did anyone else just wake up their kids with an audible gasp when the opened this? WTF?

  22. Looks fine to me. No way is he going to drop that kid. Throwing your kid up and catching them is still allowed isn’t it? I’m guessing most posters above me are from the USA?

    • No; I’m from Australia. That’s besides the point. When you throw your child up you’re watching, waiting and ready to catch them. It’s a game, it’s fun and the kids tend to enjoy it. By the time you can throw them around and roughhouse, they’re old enough to hold their heads up. This kid looks extremely young, the dad is not looking (and mom can’t reach if he does fall) and it may be great editing that’s fooling me, but I don’t see signs of a spotter.

      Regardless of the safety issue, it’s a really badly copied pose taken from Pintrest. At least those in Pintrest looked halfway decent and the kids are involved in the photo, and not just hanging randomly off to the side like an unwanted trophy.

      Anyway, for me personally, I still wouldn’t hold my 4-5-what-have-you year old upside down. It’s stupid looking.

      • Wow. So you’re trying to say that it’s safer to play throw your kid in the air than to firmly hold your kid by one leg. You have a very, very screwed up sense of safety.
        You really must hate finding that you are being wrong, inconsistent or illogical to come up with such nonsense to try to support that obviously idiotic position.

        BY THE WAY, when you’re holding something in your hand, it’s by FEELING IT SLIP that you know that what you’re holding in your hand is slipping, not by looking at it. You wouldn’t even see it in time if you were merely looking at it, while you would feel it in time in your hand. So really. “Dad is not looking”. Bitch please. It doesn’t change a damn thing. It just shows that you really don’t have anything to support that this is more dangerous than throwing your kid in the air.

        I loved when I had uncles or cousins who hung me by the feet as a kid and swung me around. Thats pounds heavier than this baby. OMG SO DANGEROUS!!110N3

        It’s like kids can’t do anything these days because mothers are fucking paranoid.

      • Oh, BY THE WAY, babies spend weeks with their head upside down while in their mother’s womb. In case anyone was thinking about that…

    • I’m just thinking none of them are parents or haven’t spent a lot of time around kids.

      • umm yeah supported by a placenta an amniotic fluid smart one! Bet-ya didn’t think about that!

  23. O___o
    This is child abuse, not photography…

  24. What makes it worse for me is that it looks like they have another one on the way! People should have to pass a test before they can breed!

  25. It probably wouldn’t be quite nearly so disturbing if it was an older child, assuming that the blurred-out mess behind the baby is a spotter helping support the baby. At least a child old enough to have comprehensive language skills could assent or decline to being held upside down and be coached on how to hold that pose safely. A tiny baby like that would likely just be scared as hell and possibly at risk of muscle or joint injury…or barfing up on somebody.

    And if that blurred mess behind the baby ISN’T a spotter supporting him, then A&F boy and his barefoot babymama need to have the ever-lovin’ shit beat out of them.

  26. I think we need a new site: youarenotthatkidsparent.com.

  27. Let’s just say that if I worked in A&F’s marketing department, I’d be on the phone to the lawyers for misrepresentation. Otherwise, horrible shot anyway.

    • From what I understand about A&F’s dodgy hiring and labour practices, I would be quite surprised to find out that they really gave a thin shit about what is going on in this photo…just so long as nobody wearing their gear is overweight, over-old or in any way physically disabled.

  28. there has been SEVERAL times I have told clients NO to this pose. the unprofessional world thinks this is such a funny and cute shot but in all honestly, it only shows the fauxtographer is not an educated human being!

    I am a massive advocate for safety with photography and children including newborns. if there was a name to this photo, CPS would be contacted asap.

    shame on the parents and the faux.

  29. While this photo is in poor taste and it is not my cup of tea. While keeping the concept of this site in mind, even if someone were to convince me to take this shot I would not have my name associated with the photo. I assume it is only here because it has a “Professional Photographer” label associated with it. Had Jane Doe taken the same photo as a snapshot for her crazy drunken redneck brother to update his Facebook profile, the people on YANAP would not give a flying rats arse about it.

    Again getting back to the meat an potatoes of this site, the execution of the image itself isn’t half bad. I have seen much worse – poor lighting, poor / over editing, and incorrect white balance shots than I can shake a stick at. I think the photographer captured an okay image here that probably does not merit being on this site.

    As far as calling CPS or whatever your local calls child protective services, What good would it do? There is only the possibility that harm could happen, bottom line is there is no proof in this photo that mom and dad are hurting or have hurt this child. Others have mentioned joint damage ect. ect. the same can happen tossing your kid in the air or swinging a child by their arms. Something I am sure more than 80% of the people posting above have done. If you own a glass house — Don’t throw stones!

    Just because you see an act that seems wildly unsafe to you doesn’t make it illegal. Poor taste perhaps, but last I looked here in the USA people are free to make their own choices.

    • I don’t think this picture is the result of a professional photographer. It looks like anybody with a point and shoot can do it – it’s not worth paying for. There’s no hair lighting and they just blend into the background. Lots of space at the top but her toes are chopped off and the background feels random – it’s dark but light enough to be distracting with that pattern. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who jostled and jived in their seat to figure out if that was a pattern in the back or something else.

      • What would be the result of a Professional Photographer?

        I dare you to pick up a point an shoot and without the use of any lighting or knowledge of lighting capture a similar shot as the above (by all means leave the kid out). Personally I think your a newb grasping at straws.

        I don’t know if I would say it’s not worth paying for. It would depend on the amount of money I had in my pocket and how bad I wanted photo’s. If this photographer is charging $40 for a shoot and I needed photo’s – I might bite.

        So in your opinion a hair light would make or break this photo? Really?

        The background is dark – REALLY? Isn’t it black? Please point out something I do not know.

        You see it is fairly easy to mention what YOU don’t like in the photo – however it is hard to find the places where this photographer is on a decent track. This photo – while tasteless – does not belong in the same cesspool as images such as the half Grimace half Smurf photo that proceeds it.

      • I also forgot to mention – on my end I can see all of mom’s digits on her foot. Look in the shaded bar, they are CERTAINLY THERE.

        GRANTED the crop is close – VERY CLOSE – but without seeing the original I have not a clue as to how much (if any) of moms foot is lost.

  30. Artie Fufkin

    “kiss me woman!
    OK, now give me a BJ or I drop the baby”

  31. Some of you people are idiots. It’s a poor pose, poor cropping. This pose is better done outside and when the child is other and enjoys being a little hyper thing. “thug jeans” Seriously? I doubt he’s just holding onto the jeans. BUT No excuse, this is a terrible photo.

  32. well, the pose is really not dangerous if you know what you are doing.
    my family has attended baby gym since the kid was 3 months old. the instructor there is an experienced circus artist, who has been tossing babies around for twenty years and has published a book about this kind of exercises (which have been approved by pediatricians and the exercises have been adopted by a lot of other baby gym instructors).
    but the key is you have to know what you are doing and how you should do it 🙂
    so I am no way shocked about the pose.
    but the photo itself is really horrible, I totally agree to that 🙂

    • “circus artists”… you really didn’t even need to continue writing after that

  33. Well I think y’all are overreacting, but what do I know – I’m probably one of those “bad” parents that need CPS called on me, right?! Ugh, get a grip people! There is real child abuse happening out there every day – and this is FAR from the worst I’ve seen!! Aside from that – I don’t think the photo is horrible (not like most of the garbage you see on this site). It’s not great, but doesn’t deserve to be here. Okay – now chew me out for my opinion, I wouldn’t expect anything less!

  34. What happened to the day when babies were treated with respect, poses were simple and sweet, and parents were seen as loving parents in a family portrait??? Oh I forgot, stupid people could afford a camera, use babies as props and get away with calling them professional. Think I might go back to being an enthusiast photographer because right now, crap like this makes me embarrassed to call myself anything else but professional. *sighs

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