"Diamonds are forever," so the saying goes.

I wanted to play around with macro photography using the Fujinon 60mm 2.4R and decided to capture the images below.  But I wonder at times why is it that an engagement ring needs a diamond on it.  Here's an interesting excerpt to read (originally on Huffington Post) on the marketing ploy that changed the way a modern man proposes marriage to a modern woman:

The most common misconception about engagement rings is that they're some kind of ancient tradition that's deeply embedded in human history in societies around the world. This is completely false. The idea of a diamond engagement ring is roughly a century old. Guess who invented the concept? Not surprisingly, it's the same people who mined the diamonds -- the De Beers diamond syndicate.

How far did De Beers go in their quest to create demand for diamonds?

Edward Jay Epstein notes in his famous investigative article:

"In its 1947 strategy plan, the advertising agency strongly emphasized a psychological approach. 'We are dealing with a problem in mass psychology. We seek to ... strengthen the tradition of the diamond engagement ring -- to make it a psychological necessity capable of competing successfully at the retail level with utility goods and services....' It defined as its target audience 'some 70 million people 15 years and over whose opinion we hope to influence in support of our objectives.'  N. W. Ayer outlined a subtle program that included arranging for lecturers to visit high schools across the country. 'All of these lectures revolve around the diamond engagement ring, and are reaching thousands of girls in their assemblies, classes and informal meetings in our leading educational institutions,' the agency explained in a memorandum to De Beers."

Interesting. ;-)

Unfortunately (for the men) or fortunately (for the women) - clever marketing or not - it has been picked up by the western world as the only norm to propose to a woman.  One thing is for sure, though, diamonds sure do look pretty.

Cheers from the Bay!



Diamonds.Are.Forever.I.

Fujifilm X-Pro1 | Fujinon 60mm 2.4R

Fujifilm X-Pro1 | Fujinon 60mm 2.4R