Different Applications of Photography

by Alyx Entwistle

Although almost everyone in the county owns at least one, advertising isn’t just seen when watching the television. The original way of promoting a product was to use photographs. You would see these adverts in the newspaper, magazines and giant billboards. You can also see them at bus stops and train stations. They are used in many different places. By having these photo’s outside for everyone to see, it becomes more likely that the product being advertised will be successful (compared with only having the advert on TV). Also, a lot of people own PVR’s (personal video recorder), like Sky+ and TiVo, meaning they miss out on a lot of live TV, therefore giving them the opportunity to fast forward through the ad breaks. Creating an advert using only a photograph will be much harder than one for the TV or radio. This is because you have to convey a message and meaning through one photo and maybe a piece of text. TV/radio adverts are able to provide a narrative, which makes the photo advertising deserve praise. Ad campaigns are used a lot when it comes to photo advertising. This is because they can show many at one time, having one at the bus stop and another in the newspaper, etc. An example of an ad campaign is the ‘Make Mine Milk’ adverts which were displayed across the UK, using the power of celebrities to encourage children to drink milk for its healthiness. They had photo’s of various celebrities with a ‘milk moustache’. They were successful as the sales of milk increased.

ADVERTISING

FASHIONFashion incorporates photography more than anything else. A big reason for this is because fashion is pretty much every where. You obviously have your photo-shoots and catwalk events, but by watching the TV or looking at billboards you notice that they all involve fashion in some way. You can look at a celebrity on TV who may be wearing clothes that are all from one shop, or another celebrity who have released their own clothes. A fashion model is mostly used in fashion orientated adverts, but a lot are used in unrelated adverts too, which is why you see a lot of them on billboards. Fashion photography is mostly used for one reason though – to encourage people to go out and buy their products. This is helped with the use of a famous model or celebrity; if, for example, you are a fan of somebody featured in a magazine, you will be tempted into going out and spending your money in order to wear those clothes and mimic their style. The same method is used with other things too, such as make-up and hair style. Fashion photography ups the recognition and reputation of the model/celebrity featured, as well as the clothes/make-up/hair companies who supplied the products for the photo’s.

MUSICPhotography used in the music industry are used for a number of reasons, such as; promoting the artist/band, album/single covers, concerts/tours/gigs, merchandise and others. They are also used in order to promote a record company. This can be done from having a poster featuring their roster of stars that are already signed to the label – attracting up and coming artists without a record deal to sign to that label. Modelling photo shoots have become part and parcel of being a modern pop star, requiring big stars (especially manufactured pop bands) to participate in many photo shoots for many magazines in order for their fans to see more of them. Most people who leave pop bands usually state that they were exhausted from everything they had to do – with the majority of their time spent promoting themselves through the medium of photo shoots. It has its advantages though as it builds their fan base, resulting in increased sales of their music therefore making the artist/band more money and the opportunity to make another album and remain signed to their record deal. Being a pop star these days isn’t all about their singing voice – being able to portray yourself with an image, style and personality through the photography used in magazine photo shoots and album/single covers ultimately keeps the pop star recognisable and relevant. This doesn’t just apply to their home country though, a photograph is there for the whole world to see – meaning they can become successful in countries they never even knew existed.

Photography has always been a big part of sport, especially before it became so accessible on the TV. Before Sky began showing almost every game in the Premier League back in 1992, and the subsequent sporting rights being acquired by Sky or other channels, you didn’t get to watch many sporting games – this meant that they main way to see any glimpse's of sport was by looking in newspapers or magazines for the photograph’s and reports. Sport is all over TV these days but this doesn’t mean that sports photography is dead. As well as magazines and newspapers, they are used for many other things. Since the Internet came to prominence, there are many, many sports websites that features thousands of photographs. They can also be used for advertising billboards and posters. Using photography in sport adds a sentimentality value to a photograph more than any other genre – this is because if the sporting event was huge, or it meant a lot to you when it happened, the memories and good feelings come rushing back when you see the photo in the future. You always remember where you were when these things happened. Things such as a gold medal from an Olympic games, or your football club lifting the cup, or a success at Wimbledon alongside many others.The main technique when taking a sports photograph is using slow shutter speed with shots. This helps to keep a sportsperson in focus, giving it the more sharper look compared to the crowd or other sportspersons.

SPORT

PHOTO JOURNALISMPhoto journalism is pretty self explanatory. It is a form of journalism that tells a story through photographs. Sometimes, just by looking a photo, you don’t really need to read a news story because the photo explains it for you from the emotions and feelings captured on camera. Big, well known events will obviously have an article but will always have accompanying images in order to give the reader an insight into what has happened. Usually it is done through tragedies because it provides the reader with a detailed vision of the effects that it has caused. One of the most famous examples of this is the photo below. It catches one of the planes as it is about to hit one of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks.

They are similar to sport photographs in the way that they are unforgettable – making you remember the tragedies whenever the photo’s appear on TV or in a newspaper, magazine, book, etc. Most of these photo’s are still used, especially on their anniversaries, as a way of making people remember that they must never forget.

FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHYFine art photography is a type of photography that is made to look like it is a piece of art, illustrated by someone rather than a image being created with a camera. The purpose of fine art photography is to make the viewer feel a worthwhile emotion when viewing. They are used on many things, mainly postcards, posters, books, calendars and for interior design.

The overall meaning of fine art photography is very ambiguous and is basically opinion based. Some people think that it is something that is experimental, out-there and ‘un-realistic’ – while it is argued that this isnt the case and is actually something that simply looks simple, sophisticated, beautiful and takes your breath away.

I can’t really say for sure what the best definition for it is because I have only just been introduced to it. I will just say that it is basically something that would look nice hanging up on your wall…

Fine art photography will always attract controversy, though. Robert Mapplethorpe, an American photographer who died in 1989, attracted a lot of controversy toward his work (in particular, his 1989 exhibition called ‘The Perfect Moment’ – which featured many elements of homoeroticism).