Picture Perfect: The Art And Artifice Of Public Image Making

By Kiku Adatto

Book Overview

When the photograph was invented, it was celebrated for its realism. Now we are aware as never before that pictures can deceive. Talk of "photo opportunities," "sound bites," and "spin control" has become standard fare in the media and part of our everyday discourse. But has our growing awareness that pictures can be fabricated enabled us to see through the artifice of professional image makers? In this important book, Kiku Adatto concludes that, in spite of our growing sophistication, we continue to be moved by the pictures we see on television, in movies, and in photographs because they tap into ideals and myths still alive in our culture. Based on hundreds of network newscasts and on interviews with reporters such as Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel, as well as with political consultants such as Roger Ailes and Frank Shakespeare, Picture Perfect shows how the media find themselves in the paradoxical role of getting the best possible picture, even if this makes them accomplices in artifice, and then puncturing the picture to reveal the image as an image. The result is even more exposure for these contrivances. Picture Perfect traces the rise of our image-conscious sensibility beyond politics to art, popular culture, and social criticism, beginning with the invention of the photograph itself. With examples ranging from the Reagan presidency to Andy Warhol's hyperrealistic pop art to Oliver Stone's film JFK , Adatto documents the blurring of the boundaries between event and image, and the consequences for our understanding of ourselves.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465057543
• ISBN13: 9780465057542
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Substantial and timely

Picture Perfect is that rare work that is insightful and informative while at the same time remaining accessible and entertaining. Skillfully building upon a history of the use of visuals to influence taste and choice, Adatto uses very current examples to document the sometimes pernicious influence that visuals have on public opinion and elections. Although a late chapter on heroic images in American film seemed like an add-on that does not flow with the rest of the work, even it was enjoyable and well written enough for me to give this work 5 stars.