Unit 7: Propoganda

In this unit we examined film techniques that create power and cater to political objectives.   We looked at historical and contemporary political propaganda such as documentary, political ads, and educational films.  We watched clips from Leni Reifenstahl's 1935 film Triumph of the Will as well as other clips of Nazi propaganda.  We watched an educational film from the 1950's and early 1960's called "Duck and Cover" that was shown in American public schools. "Duck and Cover" showed the "proper actions to take in the case of a nuclear attack".  Clearly the actions to "duck and cover" are absurd strategies to take if there was a nuclear attack but the films main goal was to persuade child audiences to trust authority.  
We learned which film techniques such as camera angle and editing force a persuasive visual mode.  The goal of studying propoganda and deconstructing propoganda images is so that we can better understand political images and be able to look at them from an objective standpoint.  


Once again I think the artwork of Shepard Fairey really displays contemporary propaganda.  In particular, I want to discuss the Barack Obama "Hope" posters.  In 2008, Fairey created a series of posters supporting Obama's candidacy for President.  The posters were stylized stencil portraits of Obama in red, white, and blue, with words like "progress", "hope", or "change" below the portrait.  The art was initially independent of the Obama campaign but eventually it gained official approval.  The Obama "Hope" posters became widely recognized as a symbol of Obama's campaign message of change and hope.  The Guardian's Laura Barton wrote that the image, "acquired the kind of instant recognized of Jim Fitzpatrick's Che Guevara poster, and is surely set to grace T-shirts, coffee mugs and the walls of student bedrooms in the years to come".  The New Yorker art critic, Peter Schjeldahl called the poster, "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Same Wants You'".

Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster

Jim Fitzpatrick's Che Guevara poster

Fairey's "Hope" posters became synonimous with the Obama campaign, whether or not Fairey or the Obama campaign meant for that to happen.  By making thousands of copies of this image and displaying it around the country, Fairey was successful in getting the attention of American's everywhere.  This poster is not just displayed in America, however.  I remember seeing it last summer when I was in Israel and I've seen pictures of it hanging from street walls in London and Paris.  The mass production of this image in itself makes it a powerful piece of propoganda.  The messages it conveys are spelled at clearly at the bottom of the poster-"hope", "change", "progress".  However, there are other messages that one can derive from the image.  According to Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, the image draws on the "iconographic pose, attire, and framing we associate with portrayals of JFK in the popular media" (228, Practices of Looking). Kennedy is known for his work as a purveyor of visionary progress and democratic social change and President Obama was often compared to him during his campaign.  Just the angle of Obama that the poster shows and the serious and concentrated look on his face can be compared to the iconographic pose and framing that is often associated with JFK.  Sturken and Cartwright write that, "the graphic newsprint-like reproduction gives the work a sense of political urgency" (228, Practices of Looking).  The posters reflect the feeling of an immediate need for change and the hope that Obama could bring about a new era.  

I got this shirt in 2008 outside of Soldiers and Sailors when Michelle Obama came to speak there!