Where and When Did MA’s Begin to Pose

I can only guess that when martial arts started to be vilified in magazines on the subject then the defacto photo processes began, i.e., in order to sell we need the photo’s to look this way. Now, more than ever before and due, I believe, solely to the advent and rocketing of social media I see more and more personal photo’s of martial artists that are, “Staged, posed.” 

I have read articles on how framing, as I explain in the cell phone video productions that end up on the web and go viral, of photos when publishing books to best display how a technique should look is just that, framing and not reality. It is a bit like making movies where actions are staged to best display the drama and action on the “Big Screen.” 

The trouble with all of this is that it has skewed how martial arts are perceived and as many of the self-defense articles have presented, it skews how the legal professions perceive things toward self-defense. 

What to do, what to do? We are not going to get rid of what sells unless we reduce or stop the “Supply and Demand” of such things and that will only come from the education of the public to the reality of conflict and violence. 

I don’t think I am going to hold my breathe on that one!