Well, the very first photo in that link has four people in the front doing that pose.
Or you’re the guy third from the right, who’s playing grabass with the two in front of him.
In the back, so that no one can see my hands.
Out of 21, and one of those isn’t doing the full fig leaf, and the other 4 in front aren’t doing it at all.
And most of the photos have no one in that pose.
This looks like a typical group photo to me. People clustered close, with their hands and arms in a variety of poses. A few have something close to the fig leaf, but they clearly haven’t been told to do it by the photographer, and the overall look is much less formal.
I’m part of a fairly large run club; we take a picture before we run. Some people are regulars & come all the time, some people come frequently, some occasionally, & some are noobs there for the first time. Likewise, some I’m friends with even doing things outside of just running there with them, I’m acquainted with others, some I only know their face but not even their name & others I may not have ever met. We scooch in tight for the group photo but are not typically arms over/around each other. I frequently don’t have front pockets so I can’t put my hands there & feel droop-shouldered if I just let my arms dangle at my sides so I do that. I’m far from the only one in those photos.
If your arms are crossed & you’re standing at an angle, you’re giving some 'tude but standing head on with crossed arms is giving the impression you’re closed off & don’t want to be there.
Noticed the fig-leafers in this new photo. It must be a stance cops and firefighters are being trained to take now. And it looks soooooo stupid when a group is doing it.
On a similar note, I often see one person either laying down, head propped up by their fist, or kneeling in front of the group. Usually dudes. Who does that?!
I think the fig leaf is a natural pose for when you don’t know what to do with your hands. The first time I heard of it was when taking wedding photos as a best man, the photographer telling us ‘no fig leafs!’ and I haven’t done it since.
It’s a fairly common way to fit more people into the tableau. I’ve often had photographers suggest a row of kneeling people, or sitting people, and a couple of people lying down in front. All you usually care about is the faces, so anything that moves the faces to different heights makes for a more compact photo, which means each face is larger for the same number of people.
There aren’t many options for people who are taught to never put their hands in their pockets. Standing poses for males seem to be either 1) Candid or fake candid; 2) Leaning on something; 3) Hands in pocket(s). Arms crossed is frowned upon. The only thing really left is what you see in the picture.
I’m retired career military, so left to my own devices, I’ll probably take some form of relaxed Parade Rest with my hands behind my back.
Since I’m more than 2 meters tall, I’m in the back row guaranteed, so you wouldn’t see my hands anyway.
FWIW I got the joke immediately and thought it was excellent. This is the sort of dry humor the Dope specializes in.
I’m surprised no one else got it.
Arms hanging down looks way less awkward than the fig leaf pose, imho.
Especially when it is a group of guys where the fig leaf is necessary positioned more mid-belly than in the traditional fig-leaf area.
I think this is a big part of it. All the things people would normally do with their hands and arms in a photo are things that are trained out of military guys. You want to fall back to a parade-rest default, but that also looks stupid if you’re not standing in formation. You might fold your arms in front of you, but you’re probably wearing some type of webgear that makes it difficult. so your only option is pretty much the hands-crossy thing.
It’s interesting looking at the historical cop photos above to notice that they didn’t really do this in the past. That’s because the police weren’t a military-adjacent organization at that point. They were just local friends and neighbors who weren’t normally career military. Contrast to modern times when the full body of first-responders (firemen, EMT, police) have accumulated this kind of military-adjacent us-vs-civilians mindset, with their own little bumper stickers and pride flags and whatnot. I think 9/11 was the genesis of a lot of that.
At least with pix of police, modern cops have far more gear on their bodies than 1920s or even 1960s officers had. Where you put your hands gets harder when all the places your hands easily reach are already full of doodads.
It could be worse. You could be in Asia where everyone needs to give the peace sign.
Your hands clasped in front of you like that offer evidence that you’re not holding a firearm or bladed weapon.
Lol, i did participate in lots of group photos in Japan where people did that.
If you’re standing up in front of a group at a function like this in your official police duty, and trump is bloviating on for a full hour, and you know you’re going to be photographed, you don’t have a lot of options for your hands.
Hope the assholes get fined the full amount.