Bush's victory plan speech photos: how to spin an image

i posted the picture below on thursday following bush's victory in iraq speech... the title of the post was "a grand photo of a small man with a small plan..."



today, in the wapo, i happened across an article by phillip kennicott with the title, "finding an angle in every shot," that uses the following photo of the same man in the same setting with a very, very different message...

The letters fit perfectly within the borders of the picture, and the composition of this and similar images was a study in strong horizontals and verticals. The president's head was a column of strength, holding up, like Atlas bearing the Earth, the horizon created by the lower border of the banner. In an image by Paul J. Richards of Agence France-Presse, the "o" in victory was even positioned just above the president's head, glowing like a halo, while the president gazed slightly up and past the camera. A beatific moment and an image that White House media planners couldn't have bested if they took the shot themselves.

But there's also complexity here: Was "Victory" blurred because the photographers intended to subvert the administration's efforts to craft a message? Did the blurring of the letters actually strengthen the connection between the president and success in Iraq, like soft music in the background or the hazy sfumato of the smile on Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"?

imho, it would have been MUCH more interesting and more fitting to the article's title to juxtapose the two photos with comments for each... with the photo they chose to use and the accompanying text, it comes across primarily as a paean to bush...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet