Of Pictures and Men: Mr. Trump’s Photograph in the News
In a way, I feel bad. I have the nagging suspicion that in repeatingly writing about Donald Trump, I’m being part of the problem of giving a notorious attention seeker even more attention, be it ever so small and humble as this post. But on the other hand, what do I care? He’s already president-elect of the United States; the damage is done, so I might as well contribute my thoughts.
Since Mr. Trump and his image seem to be inescapable these days and I can’t help but read the articles (it’s like a train wreck, I swear, I just can’t look away), I came to wonder how bad he looks in most pictures. No, I’m not bringing up the hair or the skin again. Instead, I noticed that his pictures often seem to be taken mid-sentence, with his mouth open and mimic frozen in a moment that would normally pass by in a millisecond. No one looks good when photographed while talking. Believe me, I know. But here’s proof anyway:
The photos of Donald Trump talking seem to be the most favoured for pieces about him and his latest political shenanigans. However, they are not the only disadvantageous pictures of him out there. Another favourite is the smug smile which to me is always oozing inflated self-confidence and complacency. A third option apparently is the uninvolved stare into the distance, as if he is completely unconcerned with the present.
For orientation, here’s the Google Image Search of “Donald Trump” and, for comparison, one of “Barack Obama”:
In my subjective opinion, the pictures on the right look more fitting for a president than those on the left, but that might just be me and appearances aren’t what really matter anyway, right? Maybe Mr. Trump hasn’t had the opportunities yet to have more stately pictures taken. Yeah, as if. More likely, the results shown by google are just the most popular ones around the web. Oh, by the way, have you noticed the one good photo of Donald Trump google spat out? The close-up on the left? It’s his twitter profile picture and, to me, looks like there has been some image manipulation involved (#nofilter).
So are these photos proof of a biased internet and media against Trump? Why are pictures like this picked for the news? One possible answer would be that most of the news papers I usually read tend to lean to the liberal side (as I recently found out) and they don’t like the conservative Donald Trump very much. If you’re writing a critical piece about a person, you are of course more likely to choose a photo which doesn’t make your audience like the person you want them not to like. Another possibility is that Mr. Trump is simply not photogenic. It happens, what can you do. Or is the selection of photographs by the press nothing special at all? Personally, after looking at several photos of Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama in different newspapers, I think that it’s a bit of all of the above.
The usual suspects like The Guardian, the New York Times, and BBC all feature relatively negative photos of the president-elect, conveying aggression, arrogance, or inaptitude.
But so do USA TODAY…
…and even Fox News!
Additionally, when comparing photos of Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama used in the news articles, the difference is not as striking as in the Google Image Searches. In fact, Barack Obama receives much the same treatment when it comes to the photos alone: pictures taken while speaking, gestures negating a stately posture, a stare into the distance. And yet, there’s a difference. Albeit one that is not easily described or imitated. It may be a bit lazy to just attribute Mr. Obama more charisma than his successor, but for me, that’s what it comes down to.
Although pictures, like all forms of expression, are never completely neutral and the articles tend to favour Barack Obama over Donald Trump, the news suppliers I have visited for my research simply seem to enjoy publishing unfavourable pictures of politicians. Which is a good thing. It reminds us that they are not elevated, essentially different beings, but people like us. For better — or worse.
