Black & White(thinking) & Red (causes suffering) all overby
vrphotosComment by BobsterLobster: Critique Club:
A powerful piece of propaganda... although my own take on this picture is one of awareness rather than propaganda! The line is very fine, and maybe depends on whether you believe it or not. Any political advertising you don't believe in can be called propaganda I guess.
Anyway... the idea is a good one. A complex argument is simplified into a hard hitting image. I like the fact that the pro-war sound bites are in black and white, symbolic of the way that the pro-war contingency seemed to perceive the situation. The fragile parcel was a superb idea, a clever way of putting across the fact that the war was not in people's best interests. The 'Handle with care' sticker strongly implies that the opposite was in fact true. The picture really carries across the obsessiveness with looking at the pro-war arguments without considering the whole picture.
As far as the photography goes, the picture doesn't have quite enough attention to detail for my taste. For example, I'd have liked the background a smooth orange with no shadows and distracting detail.
Also, the edges of the paper used for the pro-war slogans seem a little sloppy. The highlights seem a little burnt out at the bottom right of the frame. A point that irks me about the photo is that I can't tell what the pro-war slogans are... are they books? The problem here is that they don't automatically convey weight to me. Could this have been solved by using a cartoon-like weight with the slogans on?
The base that the parcel is resting on also seems out of place. It really needs a smooth, non-distracting texture.
In conclusion, an inspired idea, a great piece of propaganda which just needs a little more polish. I personally wasn't sure about your title which seems rather unwieldy.
Message edited by author 2003-12-01 12:25:30. 
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