Peter Beattie pictured in today's Sunday Mail.
Taking photos is fun. I've recently bought a new mobile and being a nice boy, unlike some Coogee beach regulars, am avidly asking friends if I can have permission to take their photo.
Being a newspaper photographer or an editor must be fun as well. You get to illustrate your negative stories on pollies with very unfortunate photos (as with the pic above of Premier Pete). Incidentally, despite recent suggestions that PP is Canberra bound, it looks like he plans to stay put.
Has anyone else noticed that since the election the photos of Latho are looking worse and worse and worse? And does anyone else think he looks increasingly like Doc Evatt?
ELSEWHERE: Saint has noticed too.
Test .. this is all very strange.
Yes, you can do amazing things with film.
Yeah I've noticed: http://dogfightatbankstown.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/no_way.html . But then, I have always been conscious of the sorts of images presented to us in the press, in advertising, etc and how they are used to influence of us.
Mind you, seeing a photo of pre-pancreatis Latham coming off the cricket field recently (another negative image) also reminded me how much healthier he now looks (as we all do) minus a few kilos and plus a bit of exercise.
Amongst other things, I've also been keeping a mental note of the daily hatchet jobs on Latham in the press. If the constant drip, drip, drip continues along with the murmuring within the Labor camp, I don't think he will last the length of 2005.
Hey Scott - I get a 'forbidden' message if I click on the comments link. I can only access the comments if I click on a 'Recent Entry' or 'Recently commented' link. Strange indeed.
Linked to your post, Saint...
I'm with you on the death of a thousand cuts thing for Latho. I was doing a google news search for him and it's instructive to see how negative almost every recent article has been.
Is it malice, I wonder, or simply a bit of fun for those who select the photographs to use from the numerous that are presumably taken at press conferences and the like?
A photo showing someone in public life with a "unique expression" is always likely to grab more attention than one which is pretty ho-hum by comparison...
Maybe we should pack Latho off to the UN to implement Gareth's report.
It's common practise for newspapers to keep libraries of photos. Often there will be around three or four photos that get used and reused for the same individuals.
Photos of smiling folk are saved for good news, photos of the same folk frowning are saved for bad news.
An unfriendly editor can really make life uncomfortable for a politician by only choosing unflattering photos. For about three years here in Darwin the NT News used to publish any story about the Lord Mayor with a horrible photo. In it the mayor had his eyes shut and his mouth open, in a very unflattering expression. It didn't matter if the news was good, bad or indifferent, it always got the same photo.
The photo at thegreen man is very *very* old.
Thanks, Nic - limitations of a google search, I guess. The one at saint's place is recent, I think.
I must proffer a word of warning here to all budding photographers. It is the appalling ethics of the paparrazi to photograph a Labor man, immediately after you've told him the only way to further the 'cause', is for him to lead Federal Labor.
We may not have newspaper archives but we do have google image. Such fun can be had!
What is more, we can be cavalier about copyright, while editors can only publish that which is rightfully theirs.
Yeah Mark I hadnt seen Saint's one before.