36 Pictures !! That's what Vanity Fair uses to describe the entire year of 2007. Magazines like Vanity Fair know that visual stimulation catches the immediate attention of the masses as opposed to a mere article of text. Photographs are assumed to hold the entire truth of a situation, a moment captured in time - photographic realism. Somehow, photographs appear to be more authentic than language.
"The Medium is the Message", one of the philosophies which Marshall McLuhan believed in, is the main theme of the pictures used in the article - "2007: The Year in Photos". An important point to note is that out of the thirty-six photographs assembled in this pictographic article, 20 of them feature celebebraties…that’s about 56%! Does that mean that the year 2007 was just about the celebs ? Definately not !! 2007 was filled with events that shook the world and which etched their names in the annals of history but who cares about them, people only want to see the glamorous aspect of the year and who better than the celebs can portray the epitome of glamour.
Vanity Fair was very well aware of this fact and knew that their sales would sky-rocket if they could take advantage of this weakness of the people. The pictures though are intertwined amongst themselves. They could be classified into a couple of categories namely - The rise of the African-Americans, sexuality and nature, to name a few. Natalie Portman,Amy Adams, Eva Green, Gisele Bundchen and the other gorgeous women depicted in these pictures are a living example of the famous slogan - " Sex sells".
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lX-8GYcZpFg Now, why would someone have a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio and Gisele Bundchen in the same pictorial. The reason is simple, everyone knows that they both were romantically involved for 5 years.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Hnp1S-Z-3A. Magazines like Vanity Fair bank on celebrity make-up and break-ups. They know that most of the girls are crazy behind DiCaprio and would buy the magazine just to have a glimpse of one of his pictures while on the other hand the guys are captivated by Gisele's radiating beauty. People feel the need to buy the tabloids, watch the entertainment television shows, and search the Internet for the latest gossip on those in the spotlight. This is what they find interesting rather than reading or watching about the poor on the streets or how we are sabotaging the environment.
The picture to the left touches on world resources and how mankind is devouring them. Just by looking at the photo the viewer gets the impression that the person is aggressively ripping up and eating the trees i.e.deforestation, which symbolize earths energy. The man representing mankind doesn't look very bothered or concerned with the damage he may be causing which represents the real world situation with an unfortunate amount of similarity. The picture effectively tells the story and clearly gives the impression of a gloomy future or present with the fading to black background.
The big question is - "Where is the world heading to ?" Are we going to become scapegoats to the elements of the media and let them dominate our lives or are we going to stop and think for a bit that is it really worth spending so much of our time and effort on such short-lived pleasures. The choice is ours.
Citation
McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium is the Message." Introduction to Communication. Comp. Alexandre Sevigny. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt,2005. 235-241
The picture to the left touches on world resources and how mankind is devouring them. Just by looking at the photo the viewer gets the impression that the person is aggressively ripping up and eating the trees i.e.deforestation, which symbolize earths energy. The man representing mankind doesn't look very bothered or concerned with the damage he may be causing which represents the real world situation with an unfortunate amount of similarity. The picture effectively tells the story and clearly gives the impression of a gloomy future or present with the fading to black background.
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