There aren’t many ways to get intimate access to the behind-the-scenes of government as a photog. Your best option is probably to try and snag a spot as the official White House photographer, but those jobs are hard to come by. A senator from Vermont, however, has found another way: get a day job as a Senator and moonlight as an amateur photographer.
Read more…
In election exit polls, pollsters stand outside polling places and ask voters who they voted for in order to obtain an early indication of what the election results might be. During the 2012 presidential election yesterday, Aymann Ismail and Nate Cepis over at Animal New York decided to put a photographic twist on the concept. They write,
ANIMAL headed to our local polling place at 322 West 48th Street in Hell’s Kitchen today to conduct a completely unscientific, anonymous exit survey–by asking voters to hold up colored pieces of cardboard to show support for their candidate of choice [...] Seriously, who needs cable news–with its endless battery of pundits, bad suits, and holograms–when you’ve got some colored paper and a camera?
It’d be neat if news organizations did this on a large scale and then used the resulting photos as colored pixels in exit poll graphics. The colors in the graphics would be actual photos of the people who cast those votes!
Fair and Square: Animal’s Anonymous Exit Poll [Animal New York]
The 2012 election season is now over, and photojournalists who have been scrambling for many months on the campaign trail can now take a breather and reflect on their experiences. Reuters sent us the video above in which Reuters White House photographer Jason Reed offers a short 2-minute-long behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to photograph Barack Obama as he hustled around the nation, “from riding in motorcades through the streets of Manhattan to flying in Air Force One.”
Read more…
The Associated Press caused a stir this week after publishing the above photograph of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Shot at Fairfield Elementary School in Virginia, the photo had the caption,
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney poses for photographs with students of Fairfield Elementary School, Monday, Oct. 8, 2012, in Fairfield, Va.
The caption was innocent enough, but the fact that the photo looked as though a girl behind Romney was gaping at his rear end instantly drew criticism from across the web, with commentators calling it “unflattering” and “inexcusable“.
Read more…
Official presidential photographers lead exciting lives. President Obama’s photographer Pete Souza attends secret meetings and captures iconic photos. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer was arrested last year after being accused of being a spy for Russia. Now Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s photographer is the latest to do something noteworthy: he defected to the United States.
Read more…
Guess who joined in on the Instagram party? President Obama. While the White House Flickr Photostream publishes a steady stream of official images captured by Pete Souza, the new Instagram stream will be broadcasting casual behind-the-scenes glimpses at Obama’s reelection campaign — with vintage filters, of course. His username is @barackobama.
@barackobama (via TechCrunch via Photojojo)
Last Thursday, three Georgian photographers including Irakli Gedenidze, the personal photographer of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia by taking photos of secret documents. On Saturday, Georgian TV aired a clip of Gedenidze confessing to selling the information to someone he thought was a Russian agent, but claimed to be the victim of blackmail. The Moscow Times suggests that this may simply be an attempt by Georgia to “chill the media”.
The personal photographers of world leaders are sometimes given an extraordinary amount of access — President Obama’s photographer Pete Souza attends and photographs Obama’s meetings, and was present in the Situation Room while the Osama bin Laden raid was unfolding, allowing him to capture his now-iconic photograph.
(via NYTimes)
Here’s a big reason not to use stock images in a political ad campaign – the model’s “loyalty” can be bought.
According to BBC News, a witty public relations battle has sprung up between two opposing political parties in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists (UCU).
A designer for the UCU recognized the image of the woman on the DUP poster from a stock photo agency. He purchased another image of “Kristen” to run in a spoof advertisement, which says she had a change of heart. A UCU spokesperson then challenged the opposite party, asking them to verify which voter constituency in Northern Ireland the woman was from.
In spite of their PR predicament, the DUP responded, saying that the situation has only upped their publicity. There’s always a silver lining.
(via The Online Photographer)
A banner on Andrew Romanoff’s Senate campaign website provoked a bit of an outrage from a minority group when people realized that it was digitally manipulated.
The original photo shows Romanoff, the Democratic candidate from Colorado, at a campaign kickoff.
The photo for the banner was tinted blue, and then had several people from other images spliced into it, presumably in order to make Romanoff look like he was surrounded by more followers. Some of the added people include an African American woman to the right of Romanoff, as well as a Latino American man towards the center of the banner. The photo changes caused some minorities to believe Romanoff was trying to appear like his supporters were more diverse.
The Photoshopped African American woman, Andrea Mosby, told reporters that she has no problem with the photo-tweak, since she supports Romanoff and was at the same rally.
Others disagree on principle. According to the Denver Post, Colorado minority leaders wrote to Romanoff’s campaign, expressing that they were “shocked, disturbed and outraged” that the campaign felt the need to manipulate an image to appear like he had more minority supporters. Some 25 people signed the letter that called the candidate’s integrity into question, saying:
“We are NOT random people to be moved around for aesthetic reasons…We are NOT political pawns to be used when convenient nor do we accept being manipulated and repositioned when it serves one’s political motives…The Photoshopping in of minorities is not acceptable and falls far short of the integrity we expect of candidates running for the US Senate.”
Romanoff’s campaign said that the banner was intended as a photo collage or montage of the event, designed by a volunteer to reflect the overall attendance at the campaign event.
Romanoff later removed the image from the site and issued an apology:
This decision and a description of it have caused offense. I regret that and have removed the montage from our website. I take offense at any suggestion that our campaign attempted to deceive anyone. That’s outrageous and false. I bring a lifetime of commitment to equality and opportunity, and I reject these attacks on my character. I am very proud of the diverse support we’ve already received and continue to earn every day.
(via Denver Post)
