Photography in Advertising and Propaganda

Photography in Advertising

Cigarette cards were some of the first printed advertisements to use photography, picturing everything from sports stars to historical figures.
Due to the limited technologies of the era, photography in advertising was mainly printed in black and white and used primarily in newspapers and posters.
Notable early advertising photographers include Charles Gilbert Sowerby, who used heavily staged pictures to depict idyllic scenes of products in use.

The Leica, introduced in the 1920s, allowed more spontaneous and dynamic photographs to be taken, changing the look of advertising photography.
In the 1930s and 1940s, large corporations began employing photographers like Edward Steichen and Paul Outerbridge to make sophisticated advertising images.
During this era, advertising images became more artistically composed and conceptual, using visual metaphors and storytelling techniques to sell products.

The post-war boom brought prosperity and a new consumer culture, leading to a golden age of advertising - the Mad Men Era.
Photography became a key component of advertising campaigns, with agencies employing in-house photographers to create eye-catching images.
Consumerism and lifestyle advertising became predominant themes, with photographers tasked to capture the idealised life consumers could attain by purchasing the product.

With the advent of digital technologies, more realistic and manipulated images became possible, leading to hyper-realistic and fantastical portrayals of products.
Photoshop and other image-editing software opened up endless possibilities for manipulating advertising images, including compositing multiple images, changing colours, and retouching models.
Stock photography websites like Getty Images have grown in popularity, providing a vast collection of pre-shot, royalty-free images for advertising use.

Photography has been used as a powerful tool in propaganda since its invention, due to its ability to manufacture realities and steer public opinion.
During wartime, governments commonly used photos to promote patriotic sentiments and depict enemy forces negatively. Notable examples include images used during the World Wars and the Vietnam War.

Leni Riefenstahl’s work for the Nazi regime, including her film Triumph of the Will, showcases the potent use of photography in propaganda.
American photographer Dorothea Lange’s image, Migrant Mother (1936), though not intended as propaganda, was used to promote the government’s efforts to aid the impoverished during the Great Depression.

With the rise of the internet and social media, the use of images for propaganda has only grown. These platforms allow for quick, wide-spread dispersion of carefully curated and manipulated images.
Today propaganda images are often used in political campaigns, disinformation spread through social media, and also in the promotion of various social and cultural ideologies.