Photo Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (R) listens in front of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as U.S. President George W. Bush delivers his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol.
One of the greatest challenges photojournalists must master is the ability to tap into the emotions of others. The process in which ideas and feelings becomes news images begins with an individual's capacity to understand and anticipate emotions. Every viewer brings a different reading to an image, but it is the emotional intensity and intimacy that ultimately attracts us to the picture in the first place.
The image above, made by award-winning photojournalist Larry Downing of Reuters, serves as an example of a photographer's greatest challenge -- telling the story within a story by finding seldom noticed moments. In the old days, we used to call this process "making something out of nothing."
It is hard to guess exactly what Downing was thinking about before he snapped the shutter, but I am pretty sure he was focused on making an image that would tell a "back story" -- a story that links to President Bush's State of the Union address in some way. In this case, we are looking at the sidebar story illustrating the ongoing race between Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Il) for Democratic nominee for the presidency.
Not only does Downing tap into the emotions of Sen. Clinton's wide-eyed excitement, but he does so by placing her in a way that makes her peer over the shoulder of Sen. Obama. The political implications of such a juxtaposition, with Clinton in sharp focus in the background, seems to reflect the current "Beltway" buzz about the race between the two politicos. In other words, the picture suggests that Obama is leading Clinton in the race to the White House. Moreover, the image casts Clinton in the role of underdog.
Does this mean that the image is a biased representation of the relationship between Clinton and Obama?
Can a news image construct a less than fair-minded "picture" of reality?
It would be wrong to suggest that photojournalists go out of their way to deliberately mislead viewers by making images that have ideological underpinning. In fact, photojournalists such as Downing seek out pictures that will capture a viewer's attention.
I do not believe in those BIG Media conspiracy theories that many bloggers and pundits seem to subscribe to ad nauseam. I believe, however, that the competition for interesting and compelling images is extremely intense. Out of this intensity and competition, therefore, emerge images like the Clinton-Obama picture.
It may appear on the surface that speculation as to how such a picture can carry such a strong political and ideological bias goes far afield of our discussion of photojournalistic practice.
On one hand, Downing's vision is prescient or forward looking. He is seeing ahead of the action that is going on the main stage. On the other hand, the picture may go beyond just reporting the news by promulgating an opinion. Many photojournalists may argue with this interpretation, but it is important to analyze and critically think through the images we consume as news.