Sorry if you’re a bit “World Cup’ped out” at the moment, but I have a confession to make; as a football fan, I’ve been looking for a way to shoehorn a blog post in about the World Cup for nearly 2 months now. Imagine my delight then, as yesterday whilst listening to the fantastic from the Guardian, that they mentioned photography – I had my opportunity! The point they made (33 mins in) was that the photography being shot and released around the England camp for this tournament is fueling the public goodwill towards the team far more so than it has previously. I found this idea very interesting and thought it deserved further reflection.
For those that don’t know, the England team have, at various points throughout recent history, endured what can only be described as an “up and down” relationship with the public. There are numerous reasons for that which we won’t go into here but the working relationship with the media (photographers and journalists alike) hasn’t always been the most healthy.
That seems to have changed recently though and it’s clear that the social media executives working for the official England channels have been tasked with upping the “likability” factor around the team – and what better way to do that than through imagery. Check out the and you can see exactly what I’m talking about. Smiling faces, inner access and constantly conveying the human touch is making us think better of this group of players – certainly differently from the untouchable, vain and overpaid prima donnas of the past.聽 Of course it helps that the England team are having a better than expected tournament (so far!) but there was a “good” feeling about this campaign before it even started and I’m convinced that the media team can take a good chunk of the credit.
So is it good photography, or just good editing? Of course the two are not mutually exclusive. As pointed out on the podcast I mentioned earlier, the squad probably has the same mix of likable and unlikable people as it has of any other over recent times but it’s certainly not being shown that way.
Of course, this isn’t a new concept – it’s been happening widely since the dawn of photo-journalism itself, particularly around political photojournalism (/propaganda!) – but with people consuming more media and imagery than ever before, as photographers you should always be thinking of the narrative you are trying to create. This is something very important when it comes to some areas of stock photography such as lifestyle shoots. Publishers (editorial and commercial) are often looking for a narrative within the images they licence, so always try to think about how you can maximise your time and potential within a single shoot by offering multiple narratives. Can you make the same location look attractive and exciting in one shot, but undesirable and disappointing in another? (This blog on travel photography lying to us springs to mind).聽 Sometimes it can be a shift in the lighting or an angle that completely changes the feel of a shot and sometimes it’s what you focus on. A lifestyle shoot with a smiling couple working on some DIY at home tells one story, but a photo of the same models from the same shoot arguing tells another. It’s all about considering the narrative that the buyer will want to tap into.
Talking of tapping into things brings us nicely back to the football doesn’t it? Well, we hope. Come on England! (Yes I’ll edit this line out if we fail to get through the next round).
I’d be really interested to read your views on this and please share some links with us below to some examples where you’ve produced multiple narratives within the same shoot.