Environmental Editorial portrait Research.
This task involved looking at editorial magazines to examine their content, specifically in relation to how photographs contribute to the story. The choice of image, style and flow all add something to the piece, in some cases they are the piece. I found myself paying scant attention to the text as I was drawn by what I was seeing and in many cases what may come next.
My personal filter of viewing images for research will apply to many other “readers” for many different reasons. it has been said, more than once by industry professionals that no one actually reads anything anymore. the need for instant gratification and shrinking attention spans mean that the image is king. If you have read this far you are either a tutor or my type of person and we should have a pint when circumstances permit. (leave a comment if you fancy one.)
I started my research by searching for the most memorable magazine covers of all time. An interesting exercise in itself. immediately three main themes began to emerge; politics, race and sex. I’ll bear those in mind for future blog posts.
The “Time” cover above nearly didn’t make the cut for me as it was about someone at the top of his industry saying it was pretty much impossible to get there. It is quite a striking image though and the composition is interesting as he is on the wrong side of the rule of thirds in terms of accepted norms. space behind for text and him looking out of the frame rather than across it. I like to be different myself so I kept it. I was surprised how little variation this piece had in terms of style and composition of the images. I kept scrolling to see what was next rather than being grabbed by the image.
The next image is the polar opposite, a striking well dressed woman in later middle age holding an owl while seated indoors. This for me was full of intrigue and interest and led me to read the headline, then the rest of the article. Perfection. That was the only image I the piece, but also the only one it needed.
A single image was also used for the now deceased “Life” magazine, that had regularly featured in the top 20 covers of all time list. The cinema full of people wearing 3d glasses was titled; ‘The power of Photography”. It turned out to be a very short advertising feature for an exhibition and accompanying book. It made me stop and read it though.
I saved the best till last. “National Geographic” is legendary for top quality photography and this image is a perfect exaple of why that is. Two carers in full bio hazard suits are taking a COVID test sample from an elderly resident of a care home. I found the black and white format particularly striking given the discussion in class. it transpired that there were dozens of black and white images in this piece and clearly not for budgetary reasons given the pedigree of the publication.
The online version of the magazine uses a slideshow format extensively and it is compelling stuff. click after click after click was met with a treat each time. I did note that there was a very strong bias towards black and Muslim subjects. I see two reasons for this, a strong affinity to the Back Lives Matter trend and that BME communities are hardest hit by COVID. It is really no surprise then, that for this piece at least, most of the images were displayed in black and white. Point made.
I contrasted the top flight online magazines with physical publication that I had around the house. They are almost exclusively membership magazines that come free with a subscription to a society or service organisation. The Light Aircraft Association, The British Horse Society and the Federation of Small businesses. They are all, sadly, examples of how not to do it. Often poorly taken photographs or worse still infographics and enthusiastic but generally boring text. I doubt they would survive as independent titles but no doubt do a decent job as supporting advert carriers.
In conclusion, controversial images stick in our psyche. The number of images in a piece is usually proportionate to the length of the text, although there are notable exceptions. “National Geographic” are not shy about having images tell the story backed up with text, the polar opposite of the traditional approach and likely a glimpse of the future of journalism. Images chosen for a piece either compel us to stick around, or move on, either way they can be very useful devices.
