As John posts both here and at BAGnewNotes, I’ll occasionally cite his work there so that folks here can follow it if they wish. A recent post on head, foot, and hand shots of Bill and Hillary can be read here. That story then got picked up by Reuters, which suggests that someone there thought that there might be more general interest. From the comments at BagnewsNotes, its clear that there’s more to feet than meets the eye. In my case, for example, they seem to generate bad metaphors and cliched writing. Comments also demonstrate that there can be a basic split between looking at shot selection and at the content of the photo. The first orientation takes one down the road of media criticism; the second, into the practice of everyday life (e.g., the negotiation between comfort and fashion in selecting shoes, especially for women). Each path can lead back to the other. Both kinds of knowledge are important for participation in democratic politics. And while one may despair that contemporary politics might turn on the nuances of fashion, keep in mind that such attentiveness has been one part of insiders’ knowledge since at least classical Athens, and was made into a virtue in the Roman Republic.
Probing the Body Politic
John started a discussion at BagnewsNotes yesterday about how images of hands can be used to signify political traits. Think of the clenched fist of resolve or the democratic wave of the hand. The images of Obama and Clinton are just a tiny part of the archive, however. John and I have begun collecting images of both hands and feet/shoes/boots, which, it turns out, appear in the news media every day. Why, we don’t know, but we’d like to know, which is one reason we’ll be posting examples here from time to time. One indication that these images are means of persuasion is that they are used by savvy designers. Note, for example, this poster for Michael Moore’s new movie:
It’s a visual joke, of course, and one that depends on the audience both recognizing the gloved hand as part of a specific medical practice (getting a vaginal or rectal exam) and understanding that Moore is going to perform the equivalent examination of his subject, the medical insurance complex. And if he does it with the sensitivity we have come to expect of an HMO, they have little basis for complaint. The idea that he’s going to do to them what they do to us depends on the metaphor of the body politic, which is carried by the metonym of the hand. When you think of it, the relationship between the heavy-handed insurance industry and the people is neatly captured by the visible hand and the invisible body it implies.
Boots and Hands
We are working on a new project that focuses attention on the ubiquity of “boots” and “hands” in photojournalism and visual culture more generally. The first installment is part of a post I just did on images of Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama as a contributing editor at The Bagnews.