Pictures of the week
Hello,
and welcome to this edition of pictures of the week.
Today I want to talk about a specific picture that
came to prominence after the awful fire
at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
I am sure most of us remember the images coming
from Paris on the day of the fire.
The media gave it extensive coverage and it really did seem
that the cathedral would be destroyed.
However by the following day, the story had changed from
the destruction of the cathedral, to large parts of it having been saved
This remarkable picture by AFP photographer
Christophe PETIT TESSON,
showing the golden cross on the alter surrounded by the charred
remains of the roof featured in newspapers
and other media around the world,
almost instantly giving it an iconic status.
I thought today we might take a look at this
image and explore the concept of an iconic image.
so, what is an iconic image?
An iconic Image is one that gets an emotional response
from the viewer, in fact more -
it draws the same emotional response from many, many viewers.
It has a common interpretation which goes far beyond
the simple visual components of the image.
The word icon was originally Greek meaning ‘image’
and first comes into western usage in connection
with religious iconography.
These icons were images or statues
that had religious meaning or represented
a religious story .
Remember, we are talking about pre literate times,
when these images were essentially all that
most people would recognise from the bible.
These icons encapsulated and reinforced a story,
whether it was the creation of mankind,
The madonna and child ,
or the crucifixion
They were never intended to show a single moment,
but to be touchstones for the wider story.
As such they have an intellectual and
emotional resonance with the viewer.
In fact, they would have had the same
meaning for nearly every viewer.
It is easy to see how a religious artwork
can resonate with the faithful,
but how can a modern image become iconic
amongst people from all around the world?
well, of course this image entered the public
conscience at a specific moment
in the story of the Notre Dame fire,
the moment when it seemed that the cathedral
might be saved.
As we can see, it was used prominently
across the world and the message
accompanying it was similar, and hopeful.
The mechanics of the distribution of this
picture helped too.
Christophe is an Agence France Presse (AFP) photographer
and all the newspapers in France would have
had access to this on their electronic picture feeds.
AFP also supply many of the major news
organisations across the globe,
so they would have had instant access to it too.
It was also shot by AFP as a pool picture.
The photographic pool system operates
when many news organisations
essentially want the same picture,
and is used when access is limited.
So here, AFP shot the picture and distributed it
by agreement to other news agencies around the world.
So, for example, it would have been given
to reuters and associated press to distribute to their customers -
covering the United states,, Africa and Asia.
So this picture - one of the few
professional photographs
available from inside at the time -
was widely distributed to all major news
organisations at the same time,
and - importantly - at the time it was
announced that damage to Notre Dame
was not as severe as previously thought.
Finally, the international agent for AFP is Getty Images -
one of the largest independent news and picture
agencies in the world.
Those news organisations who didn’t receive the
image on their picture feeds, would have access to the
Getty website and be able to download the
image from there.
If we look on the Getty site and search for
Notre Dame fire, we see that there are
over 3.000 images on there.
Fortunately Getty offer search filters
and if we choose ‘most popular’ - the most downloaded
images in this search - then versions of picture pop up
very close to the top of the results.
Being easy to find is useful because every
picture editor will want to have this
picture to hand,
because their editors will have seen it in other
media and because other newspapers and
magazines have used it, they will want to use it as well.
And so this further usage will extend the life of the image in
the public memory.
Of course the religious imagery in this picture
helps too.
Despite France being officially a
secular country, it is still -
like most of Europe - culturally Christian.
And the symbolism of the golden cross
in the wreckage of the altar is simple and powerful.
If there had been a painting from the life and times of christ
or a picture of the saints here, then the simple message
might have been muddled.
But to christians, the cross represents both
death and renewal.
This is not the first time a religious building has stood
against the flames.
In London in 1940, St Pauls cathedral
was photographed by Herbert Mason of the Daily Mail
during a bombing raid by the Luftwaffe.
With the surrounding streets ablaze, the
dome of St Paul’s stood out against the smoke
and darkness.
Interestingly the picture wasn’t published immediately.
Britain was at its lowest ebb - 1940 had seen the
retreat at Dunkirk and a number of other
military setbacks.
British censors were not sure if this picture -
representing a series of bombing raids in which
thousands of people had been killed -
would inspire Londoners or not.
Finally two days later, the Daily Mail ran it on their front page.
The iconic image of the Dome, standing above the
swirling smoke of destruction instantly came to
represent the courage and defiance of Londoners and
the country as a whole.
But lets go back to this picture by Christophe PETIT TESSON,
of the altar in Notre Dame.
Does it meet the requirements of an iconic image?
well it has been ubiquitous over the last few weeks
and is instantly recognisable -
It is visual confirmation of the limited damage
of the fire and no doubt
will be in the public mind for some time -
after all it will take at least 5 yrs for the
cathedral to be fully repaired.
The picture will no doubt feature in pictures
of the year articles in newspapers and
magazines this year,
and is one of the news images of the decade.
and it does have the advantage over video footage
in that it can be examined and analysed more closely,
by readers, allowing them to see for themselves that
the cathedral is safe.
But perhaps more importantly, this picture came to the
world with a collective sigh of relief -
with news that the cathedral would survive and
could be rebuilt -
and so it triggers similar memories and
emotions for nearly everyone around the world
who witnessed the fire.
Notre dame itself is an icon of secular France
in its own right, and visited by millions every year.
This image will always be associated with
hope and renewal - and not just with the faithful.