Project Reflection

When I first started this project, I had no idea where to begin. I thought about using pictures that I had taken from the train on my trips out West, my mission trip pictures or pictures Erin and my friendship since a young age. I had my mom send a handful of photo packets in order to decide which direction I would take, and I realized that none of them were very appealing to me. I just did not have all of the pictures that I needed in order to highlight any of those ideas. I also really wanted to do something that was new, not just using photos from the past. As I went to go check out a movie at one of the dorms, I saw all of the free magazines that they offer in the dorm library just sitting there, waiting to be picked through. The range of demographics that the magazines appealed to sort of drew me in, so I grabbed a couple to look through. That was when I noticed that not only how much the subject matter of each magazine was completely different depending on the target audience, but advertising changes significantly as well. The “look” of the models in the ads and of the ads themselves that are in the magazines is completely different. The ads reflect what the readership perceives as beautiful and ideal, and the general tone of the magazine. The models appeal to the target audience of the magazine, and in doing so, are completely different. The magazine OUT uses overtly sexual models, almost completely male, or gay couples predominantly in their advertising, while Sport Illustrated shows manly men, doing manly things and only had advertising for DirectTv. Then, when I looked at the ads for TIME compared to the magazine VIBE, I thought the ad contrast was really interesting. TIME used ads that focused on technology, like cell phones and computers, cars and energy, like BP, while the other used ads revolving around looks, such as hair products, clothes, etc., music, and incredibly celebrity focused.. I was going to try to use more magazines to highlight the differences between models and ads in magazines targeted towards different races, age groups and interests, but between races, the ads were pretty much the same, just the race of the model changed, which I think should be expected. The differences between Ebony and Glamour was not very significant to me and Entertainment Weekly was sort of an in between for those types of magazines and TIME. It had “look” ads, as well as technology and car ads. The four that I ended up picking just really caught my attention. I loved how completely different the ads were in each. I also had trouble getting the pictures just right. I have never owned a digital camera, so I took all of them from my phone, which made getting the proportions right and getting the ad info as well as the picture into the phone frame. I also wanted to make sure that the sun didn’t reflect badly on the pictures and give off too much of a glare. I was also really drawn to the idea of taking pictures of a picture that has been mass produced. Berger talks about how mass production of paintings allows the viewer to see the painting in a new setting, that each person takes into accounting while they look at it. The same can be said about my pictures. When you look at them, not only is your computer screen being added to the image, but so is how I took the image. You only see what I want you to see; you see from my point-of-view, to show how different magazines use different models and ads, as opposed to the original photographer intention, which would presumably be to make the model appealing in order to “sell” the product.