Obama. Romney.
They each spend a lot of money trying to convince you they are as different as north and south, oil and water, day and night. Their policies and general understanding of the world are quite similar. They both represent large political machines and dance to the music financed by corporate America. Their "stories" are disseminated by journalists who, through documenting the election carnival, confer an air of seriousness to the idea of choice and public empowerment at the ballot box.
What this nicely complied selection of press photos demonstrates is the common visual language journalists use to relate the event to the public. Some of the pictures here may be blatant copies. It's easy to image a photographer seeing an image and thinking he can recreate it on his next shoot. We've all done it, whether we're shooting politicians or landscapes. Other times it's less obvious, perhaps at the level of the subconscious, where you only recognize you've copied something when shown the original. And of course it's hard to be novel when both political parties use the same methods to advertise their candidates. As a photographer, you have to shoot what's presented.
What I'm getting at here is that the similarity of image types is not something preplanned. It's not a cynical conspiracy. It's more like words or phrases that suddenly become popular. We may find ourselves using them initially with some forethought, but eventually they come tumbling out with no thought at all. They become part of the vernacular. And that's what's happening here. This is the vernacular visual language of the American election.
Thanks to the editors at The Atlantic for putting this together.
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