“You know, every other photo is of you kissing and hugging,” she tells her. While Jennifer laughs about it, the entire interaction feels very self-conscious for someone of her fame.
Axelle/Bauer Griffin
However, in the same documentary, Jennifer shares her private love letters from Ben with a “group of musicians” to inspire them. Jennifer is obviously aware that we think she's revealing too much about her relationship, and that's why she won't be sharing the letters with us directly. But our collective skepticism about their relationship is enough to make us want to confirm its existence, make us want more, and thus push the boundaries of their private and public lives once again.
For us normal people, the point of the “photo dump” is to still post on social media, but give the impression that you're too cool for it. Benny Blanco grabbing Selena Gomez's breast in every picture is the equivalent of a photo dump for him.
While I think Jennifer's motivation is of course to make headlines, I also believe that this new era of celebrity attention is an attempt at true openness. At least I think that's what Masterchef's Greg Wallace had in mind when he shared his meme-worthy day in the life with The Telegraph. Why else would you mention that you didn't want another child at your age but did it for your wife? There was literally no need to air your son out like that. All they had to say was that the Duplo and Brio trains were leaving at 1:30 p.m.
The problem with these celebrities is that in order to stay relevant these days and compete with the influencers who are taking more and more out of their salary, they have to engage with them. They have to share their real lives. However, her real life is still full of smoke and mirrors. In fact, this current wave of celebrity over-sharing reminds me of our obsession with the Instagram photo “dump.”
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