Sunday, May 11, 2008

The picture in the picture

Below is a link to a NY Times photo slideshow of the campaign - what I found interesting is that most of these pics show the candidates being photographed. There's few pictures that don't have people in the photos taking pictures of the candidates, or booms from video cameras hanging in view, etc. It's an interesting if unintended comment on the continually blurring line between politics and performance - the meta or self-referential nature of campaigning - that the voters in the pictures seem to take themselves out of the moment of meeting with or talking to the candidate in order to hold their camera up in front of their face - creating a barrier. The Times photographer, unable to capture the candidates alone, winds up photographing photo ops- photos of people taking photos.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/05/us/politics/0505-CAMPAIGN_11.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/05/05/us/politics/0505-CAMPAIGN_6.html