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afrenchaugurey · 1 year

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NEWT SCAMANDER AND (mostly Tina's) PICTURES

Is it me procrastinating about Christmas and not being able to sleep for days ? Probably (and probably why even in French this … thing is almost impossible to understand… Sorry)

(it begins with personal rambling, you can skip and go after the first picture)

(it's only a personal analysis and belief, not at all something studied or anything… Take it as HC)

Excepted for autism, and his work (or maybe because of both), there is another thing (among many others TBH, oupsi) that I love about Newt Scamander and his character's building. That's his fascination for pictures.

Hiding myself behind a camera has been, for a long time, a way to find a place in the world, to cope with social interactions and is how I met the few friends that are still in my life. Through the viewfinder it was easier for me to see people, the world, as I wanted to, as I needed to. I could focus on things that interested me, or just take the time for those which intrigued me or simply were difficult to cope with. Objects, details, colours, noises, … I could build a bubble for myself, a bubble that made me look like as if I was in the present, and really with people that surrounded me.

That said, it took me almost 25 years of photographic practice to dare to make pictures of people. Then, I did it as I wanted to, not with some “bizarre” codes. Eyes, hands, people without faces, a crease on a shirt, hands (yes, hands twice, I find people easier to understand when looking at what their hands are saying than when looking at their eyes)… It was a way to talk where difference didn't equal oddity. I was then able to exist in a group, behind the camera without looking directly at people. Ever. The eye-cup was my mask, among many others, but certainly the most efficient one. I didn't have to really be in the present, the camera covered it up, and the sound and vibration from the Clic of the shutter were my best anxiolytic, as were my books.

Anyway. I don't know why I talk about that. I like the pictures thematic around Newt's character because of how much Photography is also for me the only way to register a face. I need to see the picture of a person for a long while in order to be able to recognize them (thank you social media for that, at least at early rise). I let you imagine how it was for classes pictures… 3 months after the beginning of school I couldn't tell to my mother who was who). Without that time with a picture, I can't relate the face (that can sound familiar) to the person, neither with the context nor the name. If I have a picture to look at, I can memorize the person.

To be honest, if I had been Newt, it's possible (probable) that I wouldn't have been able to recognize Tina in COG if it wasn't in the specific context that we expected her (like in that cave, where he was looking for her specifically).

Fun fact : I was in a relationship with my husband for 4 years when he cut his hair, I didn't recognize him as himself, he was his older brother for me. It took me days to proceed.

The fact that Newt keeps one (or more) picture(s), beyond the romantic symbol linked to his times, resounds really deeply in me. In my interpretation, he carries the pictures of the people he wants to be able to recognize anywhere and anytime, no matter the context, no matter if he is prepared to see them, no matter if it's the wrong place/time/… or if it had been a very long time since he last saw them (Hello, Leta).

That's also what makes the Salamanders metaphor even more beautiful. The Tina in the picture is, to him, even more Tina than the real Tina at this point of the story (he spent more time with the picture than with the real one). This Tina is the one he sees every day, the one he had time to study, without the need to lower his gaze because of the reciprocity (it can be debated with moving wizards pictures and how Tina's pictures interact with him, or we can make other HC about that…

Carrying this picture, studying this picture, talking about this picture is his way to say I love you.

(and no, it's not creepy, it's just, I believe, a proof of commitment).

Another important point (and linked to the previous one) is how he keeps his pictures. The lid of his case is like a scrapbook album (and that has been confirmed by Eddie Redmayne in the SOD Movie Magic Book). This lid is where critical things (like pictures) are mixed with things that are, in appearance, unsignificant. These little souvenirs, however, are telling/keeping a story so much larger in themselves. These little objects and their soul are yelling a tale to us, a lot more than a long story or a video could (thank you, thank you Minalima for the props in the FB serie because it's A LOT about that). The call of the souvenirs to tell memory… My journals and scrapbook albums are telling more about myself than I could be able to verbalize. I believe the case's lid is exactly the same about Newt. If you want to know what is important for him at a particular moment, just look at the lid of his case.

Now… pictures in the pockets… It may be the part that fills my heart the most, probably because it summarizes the others points.

In the first movie, when Newt need to fidget, he lets his hands wander around his pockets (and not always the same side of the coat, if I remember well), and it's mostly around where he keeps his wand.

In the second movie, and even more in the third (where, I don't need to say it again, Tina isn't here at all during the plot), Newt's hands are always wandering around the same pocket, as soon as something is bothering him/if there is an anxiety trigger. This pocket is the one where he'll take Tina's newspaper picture in the Archive room, and the very same (from a different coat) he'll take his passport with Tina's ID picture in it.

That ID picture that is worn by time and use because I strongly believe that Newt uses this picture as an anxiety relief. If you look at it, the folding is in the same place as the lock of hair he put behind Tina's hair on the dock scene in FBAWTFT. Yes, I'm pretty sure that the pictures in his pockets are grounding objects, weapons against anxiety. Touching these, beyond the simple fidgeting (in a sensory meaning, that ALSO counts A LOT) is an anxiety reliever because they are representing Tina (and the memories he associates to her, and what he feels for her).

This choice is telling us about how Newt sees Tina, or, more precisely, what she also (added to the romantic relationship) means to him. It's her picture he uses to be grounded inside the reality, to stay inside the “human world”, to lower his stress level. By extension, I conclude she's the one who fulfill this purpose for him. She's the one who becomes her “human guide” in order for him to be able to navigate without (with less) stress when he has to handle and go through difficult situations for him. Which says a lot about Tina, but it's a story for another day …

Jacob is more the one who helps Newt to really learn/understand some social codes. TBH, that's one of the reasons I love so much their relationship (I also have my Jacob, as I have my Tina and my life is a lot better since then. I wish I had a Queenie…

I believe Leta was more or less doing the job in Hogwarts, far beyond any “lovers metaphor”. But I also believe it was differently, and at a different level. For what we know, her picture wasn't ever in his pocket, just in the shed, so I believe she didn't represent the stress reliever part, and she was, maybe, probably, a stress trigger.

Yes, Newt's relationship with pictures, is one of many reasons why I love this character so deeply. It's one of the reasons why for the first time in my life I feel so deeply connected to a fictional character (aside Bones & Reid, but Newt is such a different representation…).

#newt scamander #fantastic beasts #newtina #tina goldstein #pictures #the girl whose picture you carry #rambling #fantastic beasts and where to find them #probably just me #head canon

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