Behind The Spin

Snap happy or picture perfect

Joseph Sharp says that getting the right photograph needs as much careful planning as other aspects of a PR campaign

Pictures can provoke a number of emotional responses: fear, anger, pity, admiration, lust and desire, to name a few.

For example, readers of magazines filled with images of celebrities see the pictures in differing ways. Some groups will see the polished images as something to aspire to - big houses, fridges and cars represent success and happiness to them. Others feel pity and even frustration after seeing the pictures because they may believe that the over-consuming lifestyles pictured are damaging the world’s physical and social environment.

Some pictures aren’t worth any words at all…

Mike Gilmore, who helped compile two of the most startling collections of images for Borkowski PR (Improperganda and Unseen), wonders if newspapers know how to use photos properly anymore.

Of course, you’re all great students of the work of Kung Fu Tze.  Or maybe Confucius.  Or possibly not.

It was either Tze or Confucius who said “one picture is better than one hundred sayings”.  Either way, both could have saved themselves a lot of time if they’d followed their own advice.  They could have dashed off a few sketches one afternoon and cut out years of sitting around being inscrutable.