It contains a worn leather football which says, “I too am a finely aged American antique.” The British politician Liam Fox has a hardcover copy of “The Da Vinci Code,” which says, “I have taste” … “Dear God.” … maybe even bad taste. Its tagline is: “What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you.” Take Joe Biden’s bookcase. And an anonymous Twitter account, Bookcase Credibility, emerged in April to track the trend. The bookcase has emerged as the background of choice for politicians, executives, celebrities and anyone else hoping to add a touch of authority to their amateurish video feeds. Enter the credibility bookcase, the background that makes you look like you know what you’re talking about. But now, experts are forced to assemble their own TV-ready backgrounds. TV news programs used to signal a person’s expertise by superimposing a photograph of skyscrapers behind their head or maybe a shot of the world lit up at night. Amanda Hess looks at why scrutinizing a celebrity’s bookcase has become a pandemic parlor game. Transcript Why We’re Obsessed With Celebrities’ Bookcases Now that the expert class is stuck at home, the bookcase has become the preferred background for applying a patina of authority to an amateurish video feed. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki appears before “a standard credibility wallpaper presentation in the unthreatening homely style.” The migrants’ rights activist Minnie Rahman’s Encyclopaedia Britannica collection “is a lazy hand wafted at convention.” And the British politician Liam Fox’s “bold grab at credibility is somewhat undermined by the hardback copy of The Da Vinci Code.” Its tagline is “What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you,” and it offers arch commentary on the rapidly solidifying tropes of the genre as well as genuine respect for a well-executed specimen. In April, an anonymous Twitter account, Bookcase Credibility, emerged to keep an eye on the trend and quickly accumulated more than 30,000 followers. When he finally re-emerged, it was in front of a carefully curated wall-length bookshelf punctuated with patriotic memorabilia like a worn leather football and a triangle-folded American flag. In March, when the coronavirus put the handshaking and baby-kissing mode of presidential campaigning on pause, Joe Biden conspicuously retreated from public view for several long days as his team scrambled to project an air of competence from within Biden’s basement. There’s only one move: You talk in front of a bookcase.Īs the broadcast industry shelters in place, the bookcase has become the background of choice for television hosts, executives, politicians and anyone else keen on applying a patina of authority to their amateurish video feeds. But now the formalities of the broadcast studio are a distant memory, and the only tools to convey that you truly belong on television are the objects within your own home. Under normal circumstances, your expertise might be signaled to the public by a gaudy photograph of skyscrapers superimposed behind your head. We've lined up the best backgrounds we can find to make your Zoom meetings that bit more magical.Imagine that you are a member of the expert class - the kind of person invited to pontificate on television news programs.
ZOOM BACKGROUND IMAGES BOOKSHELVES ARCHIVE
If you're going to change your Zoom background, we say make it aspirational! The magic of virtual reality means you could be anywhere, and the House & Garden archive has all the perfect settings, from a Renaissance château to a Barbados poolhouse. Click on the + symbol to add your own picture, and that's it!
ZOOM BACKGROUND IMAGES BOOKSHELVES DOWNLOAD
One of the joys of video-conferencing, of course, is getting to see inside everyone else's house, but what if you're not so keen for everyone at work to see your overflowing wardrobe/unwashed dishes/partner in his pyjamas in the background? It turns out there is a simple answer - you can change your Zoom background! Simply download an image from the internet, save it, and then, once in Zoom, press the small arrow next to the 'Stop Video' button in the bottom left hand corner. Now that we're all working from home, and it looks like we'll be stuck there for the foreseeable future, the House & Garden team has been keeping in touch via the wonder of Zoom, the video-conferencing app that is suddenly at the centre of everyone's lives.