The Bubble Office
a photograph worth a thousand words
AP Photo.
Very rarely does a single image depict so many things in such a powerful, and concise way. Today’s lead image, a photograph of President George Bush and President Elect Barack Obama in the Oval Office is one that should be studied for all its meaning.
For a photographer, the first thing I noticed is the extreme wide angle that creates a super distortion of the horizon lines. The Oval Office in all its “Ovalness”.
Second is the subtle reversal – Bush on the left and Obama on the right. It again makes the outside photographer wonder if that is Bush’s regular spot, or if it just a random asynchronous happening.
Third, and most revealing, is the distorted wide and oval effect give the sense, the visual sense, of being inside a bubble. Now, it’s a new president’s turn to enter the bubble. The old one, beaten down, slips out through a slit in the bubble, and fades to grey. History inside the bubble. Now we start to see what we have from all sides at once.
Category: Culture on the Skids, OFF TOPIC, Photography
new picture that came out today shows both obama and bush sporting blue ties yesterday. hmmm.
Obama sitting on the right doesn’t surprise me, I’ve counted him wearing red ties at least 5 different times!