Visual takeaways from Obama’s new doc

#teamrhetoric  @TPM has a nice piece on the Five Big Takeaways from Obama’s Documentary. I would add this about the visual choices: The framing of Obama as the lone man in the Oval Office, making all the decisions, is the visual touchstone of the narrative. Makes sense when Repubs always want to portray Obama as weak, but it also echoes LBJ’s 1964 “Our President” ad, a much more explicit framing of the president-as-lonely-and-prudent-decider. With heavy reliance on still photographs from Pete Souza, including moments when they drop color to heighten the drama, the film is crammed with shots of Obama worrying, listening, thinking, pondering, all by himself. The loneliest job in America.

2 months ago 

More on Obama and White House art: In July President Obama met Ruby Bridges, who was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in his 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” For some reason the political blogs just popped with this news yesterday — even though the WH Blog posted its video on July 15 and it appears that a still photo of the meeting has been up on the WH Flickr Photostream for weeks. It seems that Obama has chosen to display Rockwell’s painting on a wall outside the Oval Office for the rest of the summer. (Bridges herself had lobbied for this display.) A screen grab from a White House video chonicling the meeting is above. Absent either President Obama or Bridges, this image offers a striking juxtaposition of the painting with an office environment, albeit the most iconic government office in the world. Commentators have especially emphasized the painting’s clear depiction of the “n-word,” but there’s more, such as the red splat of a tomato thrown at a child, punctuating that evil word and pointing to other potential dangers. The ambivalent protectors surrounding her. And of course the girl herself: small, resolute, not hanging back but striding forward. This painting in that space makes for a compelling and complex display. It’s not the first time Obama has “brought race” to the Oval Office. In early 2010 he had the original Emancipation Proclamation installed in the Oval Office on the MLK holiday. Laurie Fendrich has a nice piece in today’s Chronicle where she speculates on various media outlets’ responses to the Rockwell painting’s summer home and argues that such representations are precisely the kinds of things that should hang outside the Oval Office. FYI for rhetoric folks: Victoria Gallagher and Kenneth Zagacki have a nice piece in the May 2005 issue of QJS on Norman Rockwell’s images of civil rights, and in it they offer a fine study of this painting.

More on Obama and White House art: In July President Obama met Ruby Bridges, who was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in his 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” For some reason the political blogs just popped with this news yesterday — even though the WH Blog posted its video on July 15 and it appears that a still photo of the meeting has been up on the WH Flickr Photostream for weeks.

It seems that Obama has chosen to display Rockwell’s painting on a wall outside the Oval Office for the rest of the summer. (Bridges herself had lobbied for this display.) A screen grab from a White House video chonicling the meeting is above. Absent either President Obama or Bridges, this image offers a striking juxtaposition of the painting with an office environment, albeit the most iconic government office in the world. Commentators have especially emphasized the painting’s clear depiction of the “n-word,” but there’s more, such as the red splat of a tomato thrown at a child, punctuating that evil word and pointing to other potential dangers. The ambivalent protectors surrounding her. And of course the girl herself: small, resolute, not hanging back but striding forward. This painting in that space makes for a compelling and complex display.

It’s not the first time Obama has “brought race” to the Oval Office. In early 2010 he had the original Emancipation Proclamation installed in the Oval Office on the MLK holiday. Laurie Fendrich has a nice piece in today’s Chronicle where she speculates on various media outlets’ responses to the Rockwell painting’s summer home and argues that such representations are precisely the kinds of things that should hang outside the Oval Office.

FYI for rhetoric folks: Victoria Gallagher and Kenneth Zagacki have a nice piece in the May 2005 issue of QJS on Norman Rockwell’s images of civil rights, and in it they offer a fine study of this painting.

9 months ago  8 notes View high resolution

THE PHOTO: Everyone’s talking about the White House’s situation room picture. After taking a few days to contemplate things, here’s my take. Over at the BAG, Michael Shaw and a long thread of commenters examine Obama’s body language and the gendered nature of power. At the NYT, David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss emotion and gender. Says Collins, “It would be nice if the definitive photo didn’t show the only woman in the room looking stricken.” And, in a move near and dear to my heart, CNN doesn’t read the photo, it reads the comments about the photo posted to Flickr. I notice that many commentators are emphasizing how “diminuitive” or off to the side Obama appears in this photo. I disagree. He is in fact the singular subject of this photo, despite Hillary Clinton’s emotive gesture. True, the president is not sitting in the big leather chair, which one assumes is his typical seat. But it’s wrong to suggest he’s less visually important simply because he’s not in the “power chair” or because he’s not towering over everybody else. Compositionally, he is the most prominent thing in this photo. Here’s why: (a) Space and bodies. Obama is not one of the crowd here. He’s physically separated from nearly all of the other bodies in the room, even Webb’s right next to him. This gives him prominence. (b) Light. Yes, Obama’s sitting in the corner, but the light coming from above shines down upon him in that corner, further inviting our attention to his body and his focused gaze. (3) Obama is the photo’s vertical “nerve center.” Above, I divided the image into three roughly equal vertical parts (red dots). Notice that when we do this, Obama lines up perfectly with the walls that come together to form the corner. Obama thus lives right along the line that separates the left and center third of the picture; he can’t be shunted off to either side. What else rides along that line? The technology enabling communication of the operation as it unfolds. Note that tangle of yellow and green wires and the laptop right below Obama’s face: nerve center. As for the gender trouble in Hillary’s seemingly emotional state? She spins a more prosaic explanation: allergies.

THE PHOTO: Everyone’s talking about the White House’s situation room picture. After taking a few days to contemplate things, here’s my take.

Over at the BAG, Michael Shaw and a long thread of commenters examine Obama’s body language and the gendered nature of power. At the NYT, David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss emotion and gender. Says Collins, “It would be nice if the definitive photo didn’t show the only woman in the room looking stricken.” And, in a move near and dear to my heart, CNN doesn’t read the photo, it reads the comments about the photo posted to Flickr.

I notice that many commentators are emphasizing how “diminuitive” or off to the side Obama appears in this photo. I disagree. He is in fact the singular subject of this photo, despite Hillary Clinton’s emotive gesture. True, the president is not sitting in the big leather chair, which one assumes is his typical seat. But it’s wrong to suggest he’s less visually important simply because he’s not in the “power chair” or because he’s not towering over everybody else. Compositionally, he is the most prominent thing in this photo. Here’s why:

(a) Space and bodies. Obama is not one of the crowd here. He’s physically separated from nearly all of the other bodies in the room, even Webb’s right next to him. This gives him prominence.

(b) Light. Yes, Obama’s sitting in the corner, but the light coming from above shines down upon him in that corner, further inviting our attention to his body and his focused gaze.

(3) Obama is the photo’s vertical “nerve center.” Above, I divided the image into three roughly equal vertical parts (red dots). Notice that when we do this, Obama lines up perfectly with the walls that come together to form the corner. Obama thus lives right along the line that separates the left and center third of the picture; he can’t be shunted off to either side. What else rides along that line? The technology enabling communication of the operation as it unfolds. Note that tangle of yellow and green wires and the laptop right below Obama’s face: nerve center.

As for the gender trouble in Hillary’s seemingly emotional state? She spins a more prosaic explanation: allergies.

1 year ago  2 notes View high resolution

Egypt and analogues: The BAG’s got a nice read of the top photo of events at Kasr Al Nile bridge in Cairo. A commenter there rightly noted parallels to Birmingham ‘63,  but think also about the Edmund Pettus Bridge; this photo powerfully condenses both. (One expects Obama’s noticed that as well.) Speaking of Obama, the White House wants us to know he’s on the case.

image credits: Kasr Al Nile unattributed (via @BagNewsNotes/ ollywainwright/twitpics); Charles Moore, Birmingham, 1963; marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, 1965 via Library of Congress; Pete Souza, the White House

1 year ago  2 notes

A new look for the Oval Office, one rhetoricians (visual and otherwise) will enjoy picking apart. Details here, but highlights include caramel-colored leather chairs and couches, striped wallpaper (?!), and a giant oval rug featuring quotations from FDR, Lincoln, JFK, TR, and King.

Looks to me as though the art’s remained the same, although the copy of the Emancipation Proclamation which hung for 6 months above the bust of King has now been moved to the Lincoln Bedroom.

1 year ago  1 note

In my Visual Politics class this semester, our first case study will examine the visual politics of the oil spill. In addition to examining pix from earlier in the year, we’ll be studying these more recent ones. At top, President Obama and Sasha cavort in the ocean near Panama City, Florida. At bottom, a fashion spread from Italian Vogue designed to echo/exploit the oil spill. We’ll see what the students make of this.

Photo credits: White House/Pete Souza (top); Refinery29 via BagNews (bottom)

1 year ago  1 note

Obama’s National Park public: What popularity problem? Looks to me like folks still smile like goofy schoolkids when they see the prez. whitehousephotostream: P071710PS-0248: President Barack Obama greets tourists and hikers in Acadia National Park, Maine, July 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Obama’s National Park public: What popularity problem? Looks to me like folks still smile like goofy schoolkids when they see the prez.

whitehousephotostream:

P071710PS-0248:

President Barack Obama greets tourists and hikers in Acadia National Park, Maine, July 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

1 year ago  4 notes

BagNews nails it on TIME's slideshow skewering of Michelle Obama's trip to Spain

1 year ago 

Visual takeaways from Obama’s new doc

#teamrhetoric  @TPM has a nice piece on the Five Big Takeaways from Obama’s Documentary. I would add this about the visual choices: The framing of Obama as the lone man in the Oval Office, making all the decisions, is the visual touchstone of the narrative. Makes sense when Repubs always want to portray Obama as weak, but it also echoes LBJ’s 1964 “Our President” ad, a much more explicit framing of the president-as-lonely-and-prudent-decider. With heavy reliance on still photographs from Pete Souza, including moments when they drop color to heighten the drama, the film is crammed with shots of Obama worrying, listening, thinking, pondering, all by himself. The loneliest job in America.

More on Obama and White House art: In July President Obama met Ruby Bridges, who was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in his 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” For some reason the political blogs just popped with this news yesterday — even though the WH Blog posted its video on July 15 and it appears that a still photo of the meeting has been up on the WH Flickr Photostream for weeks. It seems that Obama has chosen to display Rockwell’s painting on a wall outside the Oval Office for the rest of the summer. (Bridges herself had lobbied for this display.) A screen grab from a White House video chonicling the meeting is above. Absent either President Obama or Bridges, this image offers a striking juxtaposition of the painting with an office environment, albeit the most iconic government office in the world. Commentators have especially emphasized the painting’s clear depiction of the “n-word,” but there’s more, such as the red splat of a tomato thrown at a child, punctuating that evil word and pointing to other potential dangers. The ambivalent protectors surrounding her. And of course the girl herself: small, resolute, not hanging back but striding forward. This painting in that space makes for a compelling and complex display. It’s not the first time Obama has “brought race” to the Oval Office. In early 2010 he had the original Emancipation Proclamation installed in the Oval Office on the MLK holiday. Laurie Fendrich has a nice piece in today’s Chronicle where she speculates on various media outlets’ responses to the Rockwell painting’s summer home and argues that such representations are precisely the kinds of things that should hang outside the Oval Office. FYI for rhetoric folks: Victoria Gallagher and Kenneth Zagacki have a nice piece in the May 2005 issue of QJS on Norman Rockwell’s images of civil rights, and in it they offer a fine study of this painting.

More on Obama and White House art: In July President Obama met Ruby Bridges, who was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in his 1964 painting, “The Problem We All Live With.” For some reason the political blogs just popped with this news yesterday — even though the WH Blog posted its video on July 15 and it appears that a still photo of the meeting has been up on the WH Flickr Photostream for weeks.

It seems that Obama has chosen to display Rockwell’s painting on a wall outside the Oval Office for the rest of the summer. (Bridges herself had lobbied for this display.) A screen grab from a White House video chonicling the meeting is above. Absent either President Obama or Bridges, this image offers a striking juxtaposition of the painting with an office environment, albeit the most iconic government office in the world. Commentators have especially emphasized the painting’s clear depiction of the “n-word,” but there’s more, such as the red splat of a tomato thrown at a child, punctuating that evil word and pointing to other potential dangers. The ambivalent protectors surrounding her. And of course the girl herself: small, resolute, not hanging back but striding forward. This painting in that space makes for a compelling and complex display.

It’s not the first time Obama has “brought race” to the Oval Office. In early 2010 he had the original Emancipation Proclamation installed in the Oval Office on the MLK holiday. Laurie Fendrich has a nice piece in today’s Chronicle where she speculates on various media outlets’ responses to the Rockwell painting’s summer home and argues that such representations are precisely the kinds of things that should hang outside the Oval Office.

FYI for rhetoric folks: Victoria Gallagher and Kenneth Zagacki have a nice piece in the May 2005 issue of QJS on Norman Rockwell’s images of civil rights, and in it they offer a fine study of this painting.

THE PHOTO: Everyone’s talking about the White House’s situation room picture. After taking a few days to contemplate things, here’s my take. Over at the BAG, Michael Shaw and a long thread of commenters examine Obama’s body language and the gendered nature of power. At the NYT, David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss emotion and gender. Says Collins, “It would be nice if the definitive photo didn’t show the only woman in the room looking stricken.” And, in a move near and dear to my heart, CNN doesn’t read the photo, it reads the comments about the photo posted to Flickr. I notice that many commentators are emphasizing how “diminuitive” or off to the side Obama appears in this photo. I disagree. He is in fact the singular subject of this photo, despite Hillary Clinton’s emotive gesture. True, the president is not sitting in the big leather chair, which one assumes is his typical seat. But it’s wrong to suggest he’s less visually important simply because he’s not in the “power chair” or because he’s not towering over everybody else. Compositionally, he is the most prominent thing in this photo. Here’s why: (a) Space and bodies. Obama is not one of the crowd here. He’s physically separated from nearly all of the other bodies in the room, even Webb’s right next to him. This gives him prominence. (b) Light. Yes, Obama’s sitting in the corner, but the light coming from above shines down upon him in that corner, further inviting our attention to his body and his focused gaze. (3) Obama is the photo’s vertical “nerve center.” Above, I divided the image into three roughly equal vertical parts (red dots). Notice that when we do this, Obama lines up perfectly with the walls that come together to form the corner. Obama thus lives right along the line that separates the left and center third of the picture; he can’t be shunted off to either side. What else rides along that line? The technology enabling communication of the operation as it unfolds. Note that tangle of yellow and green wires and the laptop right below Obama’s face: nerve center. As for the gender trouble in Hillary’s seemingly emotional state? She spins a more prosaic explanation: allergies.

THE PHOTO: Everyone’s talking about the White House’s situation room picture. After taking a few days to contemplate things, here’s my take.

Over at the BAG, Michael Shaw and a long thread of commenters examine Obama’s body language and the gendered nature of power. At the NYT, David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss emotion and gender. Says Collins, “It would be nice if the definitive photo didn’t show the only woman in the room looking stricken.” And, in a move near and dear to my heart, CNN doesn’t read the photo, it reads the comments about the photo posted to Flickr.

I notice that many commentators are emphasizing how “diminuitive” or off to the side Obama appears in this photo. I disagree. He is in fact the singular subject of this photo, despite Hillary Clinton’s emotive gesture. True, the president is not sitting in the big leather chair, which one assumes is his typical seat. But it’s wrong to suggest he’s less visually important simply because he’s not in the “power chair” or because he’s not towering over everybody else. Compositionally, he is the most prominent thing in this photo. Here’s why:

(a) Space and bodies. Obama is not one of the crowd here. He’s physically separated from nearly all of the other bodies in the room, even Webb’s right next to him. This gives him prominence.

(b) Light. Yes, Obama’s sitting in the corner, but the light coming from above shines down upon him in that corner, further inviting our attention to his body and his focused gaze.

(3) Obama is the photo’s vertical “nerve center.” Above, I divided the image into three roughly equal vertical parts (red dots). Notice that when we do this, Obama lines up perfectly with the walls that come together to form the corner. Obama thus lives right along the line that separates the left and center third of the picture; he can’t be shunted off to either side. What else rides along that line? The technology enabling communication of the operation as it unfolds. Note that tangle of yellow and green wires and the laptop right below Obama’s face: nerve center.

As for the gender trouble in Hillary’s seemingly emotional state? She spins a more prosaic explanation: allergies.

Egypt and analogues: The BAG’s got a nice read of the top photo of events at Kasr Al Nile bridge in Cairo. A commenter there rightly noted parallels to Birmingham ‘63,  but think also about the Edmund Pettus Bridge; this photo powerfully condenses both. (One expects Obama’s noticed that as well.) Speaking of Obama, the White House wants us to know he’s on the case.

image credits: Kasr Al Nile unattributed (via @BagNewsNotes/ ollywainwright/twitpics); Charles Moore, Birmingham, 1963; marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, 1965 via Library of Congress; Pete Souza, the White House

A new look for the Oval Office, one rhetoricians (visual and otherwise) will enjoy picking apart. Details here, but highlights include caramel-colored leather chairs and couches, striped wallpaper (?!), and a giant oval rug featuring quotations from FDR, Lincoln, JFK, TR, and King.

Looks to me as though the art’s remained the same, although the copy of the Emancipation Proclamation which hung for 6 months above the bust of King has now been moved to the Lincoln Bedroom.

In my Visual Politics class this semester, our first case study will examine the visual politics of the oil spill. In addition to examining pix from earlier in the year, we’ll be studying these more recent ones. At top, President Obama and Sasha cavort in the ocean near Panama City, Florida. At bottom, a fashion spread from Italian Vogue designed to echo/exploit the oil spill. We’ll see what the students make of this.

Photo credits: White House/Pete Souza (top); Refinery29 via BagNews (bottom)

Obama’s National Park public: What popularity problem? Looks to me like folks still smile like goofy schoolkids when they see the prez. whitehousephotostream: P071710PS-0248: President Barack Obama greets tourists and hikers in Acadia National Park, Maine, July 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Obama’s National Park public: What popularity problem? Looks to me like folks still smile like goofy schoolkids when they see the prez.

whitehousephotostream:

P071710PS-0248:

President Barack Obama greets tourists and hikers in Acadia National Park, Maine, July 17, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

BagNews nails it on TIME's slideshow skewering of Michelle Obama's trip to Spain

Visual takeaways from Obama’s new doc
BagNews nails it on TIME's slideshow skewering of Michelle Obama's trip to Spain

About:

Visual Politics: All things visual in public life. Presented by Cara Finnegan, scholar, teacher, rhetoric geek. Lover of photography, art, print culture, politics, and troublemakers.

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