Friday, December 19, 2008

The Worst Photograph Ever Made?

Mike Johnston is entertaining when he goes on a tear. (He has a good target here, I must admit.)

In another post today, he coins the excellent term "safely edgy" about what galleries usually put on their walls. That is so precise.

9 comments:

Alex said...

These images the really bad one and the Leibowizt schlocky(?) coffee calendar remind me, kinda, of Pirelli calendars.

Pirelli calendars always seem like they are trying too hard, sometimes the images are good, othertimes it's a simple case of WTF.

Anyway, it's that time of year when you probably want to discuss calendars.

Anonymous said...

I like that wolf-woman staff. It seems to me totally ironic, as other Lavazza-pictures. The wolf-looking supermodel is funny to me, with her long supermodel legs counterbalanced by the ridiculous wolf-fur and the wolfness in the facial expression, also quite ridiculous... Well, I have not spent a long time thinking of it. I found it relatively ugly but quite funny.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, I'm wondering if it's supposed to be funny. Doesn't seem all that likely, though. Advertising is usually as subtle as a sledge hammer.

Anonymous said...

"Eolake said...
Advertising is usually as subtle as a sledge hammer."

Right! Perhaps they just needed to supply a bigger cup...to distract us from the other and reel us back to what's really being advertised, here?! lol! I was sure looking for...a cup?! in that shot! lol! ;-)

I haven't crawled around on all 4's w/a cup 'o joe in one hand for a LONG time, either! lmao!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah, you just need a pelt on your back and it'll seem very natural.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm wondering if it's supposed to be funny. Doesn't seem all that likely, though. Advertising is usually as subtle as a sledge hammer.

Usually yeah... But for Lavazza, I would defend them. I like their advertisements because it obviously has nothing to do with coffee. Usually they look better than this one, but yeah... maybe it is my east-european natural predisposition for irony... but I do think it is meant to be funny.

Thinking it again, now there is a whole trend of advertisement when they create a funny story that has obviously nothing to do with the product, but you enjoy the story. Like a wash-machine ad where the woman puts her skinny clumsy boyfriend in the machine, presses the "on" button, and gets at the end a handsome boyfriend full of muscles out of the wash-machine. I saw some of this kind of ad on french television (seldom because I don't have that TV-machine at home). I like this trend, and for me, Lavazza is something similar. But maybe it is only a french national trend ?

Anonymous said...

I actually really like that image, I perhaps am tasteless and predisposed towards pretentious kitsch but I think its great

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Good for you. I can live with that. :-)

Anonymous said...

I find I'm in total agreement with Mike here. Pretentious and vulgar sums it up for me.