Shooting the Picture by Sally Young

Author:Sally Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522868562
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

CHAPTER 9

‘THE TALENT’: VISUAL NARRATIVES OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND CELEBRITY

FAY ANDERSON

NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDE an illuminating reflection of Australian society and national identity. Many images of women, children and celebrity are considered ‘soft news’, but they are far from frivolous and reveal imagined and tangible societal values as well as important editorial strategies. By tracing these photographs, we better understand entrenched and changing ideas about women, social aspiration, sexuality, female empowerment, childhood and popular culture.

As Anne-Marie Willis argues, the existence of press photography itself generated events to photograph: ribbon-cutting ceremonies, prize and cheque presentations, ‘the grip and grin’, beauty contests and social events. They were sometimes arranged, performed and posed specifically for photographers, and the stories were usually pre-notified assignments from the pictorial editor.1 Many were also set-ups, as several photographers avow. The pre-arranged ‘soft’ photographs were often not actual events but occurred when photographers were sent out on ‘quests’ to take ‘hot and wet weather’ shots, images of children and animals, and the unusual and quirky. It was a skill, and early photographers were valued for ‘thinking outside the box’ and ‘making something out of nothing’. Whether soft news or staged, they offer us a unique insight not only into Australian society and identity, but also into the history of press photography.

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