rodeo_joe1 Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 .. ordinary people are hanging on by their fingernails and our leaders are all idiots. How best to illustrate that visually? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_hoffman Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 I've had thoughts along similar lines. I look back at significant photography during social unrest in the recent past, the photography associated with WWII, Vietnam and the impact of industrial pollution from W. Eugene Smith. Something seems different now, and I don't know if it's harder to come up with good images, or if we're so inundated with images that they have less value. Curious what others think, though hopefully we can concentrate on photography and not the merits of people, leaders and idiots! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Gents, though I can't disagree in principle, and fully support free speech, this is a photography site and we are moving into political screeds. If we can't redirect the conversation to photography and / or post appropriate photos, let's drop it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karim Ghantous Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 This photo project might be of interest, showing the cruel effects of lockdowns on the elderly: Leica Camera Ltd on LinkedIn: #MyLeicaBlog #Lockdown #LeicaM4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Street Protest 1969 NYC. Nikon F Photomic Tn, probably 50 1.4 Tri X .Titles, Drafted, and then... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don_essedi Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 .. ordinary people are hanging on by their fingernails and our leaders are all idiots. How best to illustrate that visually? In the early Renaissance painters found the "The Ship of Fools" useful for expressing the theme. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 .. ordinary people are hanging on by their fingernails and our leaders are all idiots. How best to illustrate that visually? Cartoons! Or photomontage? I think expressing opinion in an unstaged photograph is intrinsically hard. Interesting that cartoons have always been with us, and flourish when politics is at its worst (think of Steve Bell during Margaret Thatcher's years), but if you look for photomontage, you still don't find much other than Heartfield. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Javkin Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Steve Bell cartoons, or the paintings of Francisco Goya, or Sebastiao Salgado's photographs, express some of what Rodeo Joe describes. Here is my humble example of official idiocy, which I have posted before: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Health and Safety is so important, now that common sense has been eliminated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Just ten years ago, quaint by today's standards. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrell Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Good question (re the US I'm apolitical). Thousands of cartoons on 'leadership' (good and bad) can be found via Google. Some of these might provide inspiration. @sandy, as a European, I deliberately do not express any political opinions on the US. I leave US politics entirely to US citizens. But the general topic of how someone might express an opinion visually - especially via photography - interests me. Here are just a few ways in which I see political opinions expressed visually via photos: - photos that visually support an accompanying article or 'opinion piece'; the photos in themselves aren't necessarily 'political' the combination with text might well be - photos (or scans) of illustrations (often cartoons) that express a political viewpoint - composite images (multiple photos or a photo with text) that together express a political opinion To [uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER], I would just say: let your creative juices flow! I(t's unlikely that other members could come up with a visual image that matches yours. So just experiment with photos, illustrations, and composite images that best express your viewpoint. Don't forget short videos that can often be a powerful way of getting your message across.. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Smith Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Re road closed. People are amazingly stupid, so someone in an SUV might try and cross it, because they think they can. Another explanation is that it was closed earlier, and is now flooded so it only now looks like a statement of the obvious. We also cannot wholly blame the leaders, we get what we deserve. An important issue is that the system forces people to make binary choices, and why should that be? Things are not black and white. Why don’t we make the system better? I assume it is because until things get really bad, no one cares enough. Not sure photography can help here. 1 Robin Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_hoffman Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Forgot about cartoons. IMO, some of those have been extremely effective over the years. I'm thinking back to WWII (no, I wasn't born yet) but a lot of that really fell into the category of propaganda. OTOH, they come and go so fast on social media now that they make no difference. Hmmm.... one may make no difference but when you get pummeled by sheer number, it can't help but sway opinion. Photography? I'm still at a loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 (edited) All you have to think of are the great wartime photographers, Brady, Steichen (WWI and WWII), Capa, Kerlee, Bourke White, Nick Ut and countless others. Photography has always had the ability to influence people and effect change. Edited November 26, 2021 by Sandy Vongries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samstevens Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Wartime photography is complex. It brought some vile images home from Vietnam which may have motivated people to be against that war. It's also lionized war and warriors in many instances. Some of the more contemporary photojournalists, those embedded with troops in Iraq, for example, helped sell war for our so-called leaders. Photography can be politically and socially effective, in good ways and bad. "You talkin' to me?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted November 26, 2021 Share Posted November 26, 2021 Occupy Chicago 2011 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tholte Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 The powerful photo images of the past that conveyed the human condition are being replaced by video clips from cell phones, most often on social media sites and TV. Newspapers are unfortunately dwindling in the US and economic factors are limiting staff photographers and space for important images. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Helmke Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 tholte I can’t argue with that. I gave up photojournalism on a daily basis because the daily newspapers hardly exist any longer and the websites ‘replacing’ them spend more time being an extension of social media. News outlets were supposed to be neutral but have never been so. Most of what I see now is there to promote political and social agendas. God forbid something as inconsequential as news be published. That would be politically incorrect and we simply can’t tolerate such madness. Rick H. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmac Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 Seen at swap meet cum markets. I grabbed this shot because it says more about the exodus of manufacturing from Australia to foreign nations than it said about the homemade jam and cupcakes for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Seaman Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 Don't worry, it's only a game ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodeo_joe1 Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 (edited) In the distant past I've taken pictures like this as a metaphor for how post-war government forced an ill-considered and cheaply-built bleak modernity onto those with little political voice. But that picture doesn't have sufficient power. As evidenced by that same depressing view still being virtually unchanged today. Just add a few dozen vehicles speeding past. Satirical cartoons? Satire has lost its ability to embarrass the thick-skinned asses that its aimed at IMO. Plus I'm not much good with a pencil or paintbrush, which is why I'd rather use a camera instead. Edited November 27, 2021 by rodeo_joe|1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 Now you're moving the goalposts. You only asked how to illustrate our poor leaders, not change their minds. Politicians would never have got where they are if they were sensitive to criticism. They don't look at the cartoons, unless it's to enjoy being famous (they probably buy the original for their office wall). Sometimes, the rest of us have the opportunity to get rid of one set of egotists in exchange for another; it's only us you can hope to influence. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodeo_joe1 Posted November 27, 2021 Author Share Posted November 27, 2021 Now you're moving the goalposts. You only asked how to illustrate our poor leaders, not change their minds. Politicians would never have got where they are if they were sensitive to criticism. They don't look at the cartoons, unless it's to enjoy being famous (they probably buy the original for their office wall). Sometimes, the rest of us have the opportunity to get rid of one set of egotists in exchange for another; it's only us you can hope to influence. Sorry Dustin. I didn't realise I'd set any goalposts. No, I agree that those thick-skinned asses are beyond influence, and all that can be hoped is to reveal their shortcomings to others - as if those defects weren't blatantly obvious enough. Or to show the consequences of their poor governance. The saying goes that "a picture is worth a thousand words", but sadly, I think that social media are proving that wrong. With a picture of a cat doing something 'cute' getting more likes than, say, a picture of a Prime-minister acting like an utter dork. Maybe the saying ought to be changed to "a thousand idiots uttering the same words are worth more than any picture" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invisibleflash Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 .. ordinary people are hanging on by their fingernails and our leaders are all idiots. How best to illustrate that visually? Lots of creative memes online OP. I collect them for posterity ... Internet Archive Search: memes teoli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmac Posted November 27, 2021 Share Posted November 27, 2021 (edited) Speaking of Prime Ministers, a close up and personal shot of the late Malcolm Fraser and his wife Tammy (on left). The days of lax security ... I felt a little nervous still, getting in that close. 35mm camera - 50mm lens Edited November 27, 2021 by kmac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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