Political Photography: The Illusionists
By Ryan • Feb 18th, 2008 • Category: News for Creatives (archives), Photography“What is the power of images? Take this one. It shows Tony Blair, in shirt and tie, facing more or less front, and grinning hard, as he takes his own photo. But behind him the scene is entirely filled with the smoke and fire of a massive explosion, blowing the desert apart. Its detonation seems to be simultaneous with Blair’s snap.
Obviously it’s a composite image. It’s entitled Photo-Op and it was made a couple of years ago by our leading exponent of photomontage, Peter Kennard. The figure of a self-snapping Blair was extracted from a news photo (originally, what he had behind him was a group of children and naval cadets). It’s then been superimposed on a bit of shock-and-awe from Iraq.
The picture is a great coup. It catches Blair at his most Blairite – the casually contemporary guy, the publicity narcissist, in full grimace. And the whole scene is very nearly believable. It’s the kind of thing that Blair, in his boyish gung-ho silliness, could almost have done – gleefully snap himself, with his own war as a souvenir-backdrop. The composite is so seamlessly realistic that the eye can’t unpick it. This is no cut-and-paste collage. Photo-Op is made on Photoshop.“
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