Like the now infamous time magazine cover of Ann Coulter (spider legs) or even the Newsweek ( i think it was Newsweek) cover of OJ Simpson.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20050425,00.html
No, I haven’t. I hate when "ethics" runs wild and stops good photos from being made but that’s something I really hate. When they freeze frame Obama in the middle of saying "Minnesota" so it looks like he’s snarling then put up the text comparing health care to terrorism.
If anything I have a problem overly choosing good sides. I live in a small rural city and sometimes do work for the public affairs office of the university. The last job i got one of the prompts was "Diversity," underlined three times. As horrible as it might sound I’ve calculated the demographics that are likely to come to the college and pretty, thin, white, blond, girls or large muscular, confident men are who I focus on when making a brochure. My job is to get people here and if the rural people have a inherent racial bias I can’t put ethnic people in the brochure. That’s just the way it is. (I’m SE Asian myself).
However, that being said I think I would put people in the light that I need to in order to do my job. If I did Ann Coulter I would have done the low, dramatic pose to make her look menacing. I like the darkness, It looks like they lit her to make her less attractive, I might not have gone that far. I think there’s a fine line between telling your story and making one up. In this case making her more physically ugly crossed that line. She is mean and menacing, that’s what needs to come out in the photos. Weather that is because she’s a strong competitor for the right wing or just a bit– is something for the audience to decide, not the photographer.
2 Responses to “Have you used your skills in editorial photography to put a bad light on your subject?”
No, I haven’t. I hate when "ethics" runs wild and stops good photos from being made but that’s something I really hate. When they freeze frame Obama in the middle of saying "Minnesota" so it looks like he’s snarling then put up the text comparing health care to terrorism.
If anything I have a problem overly choosing good sides. I live in a small rural city and sometimes do work for the public affairs office of the university. The last job i got one of the prompts was "Diversity," underlined three times. As horrible as it might sound I’ve calculated the demographics that are likely to come to the college and pretty, thin, white, blond, girls or large muscular, confident men are who I focus on when making a brochure. My job is to get people here and if the rural people have a inherent racial bias I can’t put ethnic people in the brochure. That’s just the way it is. (I’m SE Asian myself).
However, that being said I think I would put people in the light that I need to in order to do my job. If I did Ann Coulter I would have done the low, dramatic pose to make her look menacing. I like the darkness, It looks like they lit her to make her less attractive, I might not have gone that far. I think there’s a fine line between telling your story and making one up. In this case making her more physically ugly crossed that line. She is mean and menacing, that’s what needs to come out in the photos. Weather that is because she’s a strong competitor for the right wing or just a bit– is something for the audience to decide, not the photographer.
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No. I have photographed Ann Coulter, and the Time cover is a flattering photo.
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