In politics today, it's hard to underestimate
the power of image-making.
During campaigns, we're deluged with photographs
of candidates, carefully chosen to shape public opinion.
We might think of this as a new phenomenon - but far
from it.
Take this portrait of Abraham Lincoln from 1860.
It looks like a straightforward image of
one of America's greatest presidents.
But as we'll discover, this portrait is a turning
point in the history of campaign photography.
It suggests that the use of photographs by
political candidates is about as old as
photography itself.
THE BIGGER PICTURE WITH VINCENT BROWN In 1860,
America was heading towards a pivotal
presidential election.
The future of slavery would be on the ballot and
it threatened to tear the country apart.
Among the candidates for the Republican nomination
was a self-taught lawyer from Illinois, named
Abraham Lincoln.
It's hard to imagine now, but back then, his success
was far from guaranteed.
In a crowded field of candidates, few people
knew who Lincoln was...
and those who did saw him as an uncouth frontiersman
from the West.
VINCENT BROWN: Did Abraham Lincoln have an
image problem?
HAROLD HOLZER: Yeah.
I think he had an image problem...
People in the East thought of him as sort of a
slam-bang rustic orator, who spit in a spitoon,
took off his jacket while he spoke...
They had misapprehensions about whether he was
dignified enough to be a national candidate.
To confront these concerns, Lincoln accepted
an invitation to deliver a "political lecture" in
New York City - at an event that took place here...
at a private college known as the Cooper Union.
VINCENT BROWN: So what was Lincoln trying to achieve
with this address?
HAROLD HOLZER: So this is the place where Lincoln
gave the most important speech of his career - the
make-or-break moment of his political career, his
national aspirations.
On February 27, 1860, Lincoln stood at this very
podium, shuffled his notes...
and addressed the crowd.
HAROLD HOLZER: He starts out with his Western
accent, and his voice pitched a little too high,
and not carrying well.
And there is a journalist in the front row here, who
makes a note: "Old man, this will never do.
This is New York."
VINCENT BROWN: Hm.
HAROLD HOLZER: And then by the time he finishes, he
writes a second notation: "I think he's the greatest
man since St. Paul." Lincoln's speech may have
won the audience over that night - but he still had a
problem.
VINCENT BROWN: Did his looks have anything to do
with that problem?
HAROLD HOLZER: Oh yeah.
I mean, he was an ungainly-looking fellow
and photographs don't tell the half of it.
He had acne scars from his childhood, he had moles
all over his face.
He had weird features, you know - giant ears,
a big blunt nose, kind of a Jay Leno jaw.
His hair stood up in all directions.
So he's kind of a mess.
And he joked about his appearance, publicly.
Famously, during the Lincoln-Douglas debates,
Douglas accused him of being two-faced and
Lincoln said, "If I had another face, do you think
I'd be wearing this one?"
VINCENT BROWN: (laughs)
Fortunately, Lincoln was
about to get some help.
Hours before he gave his speech, his supporters had
booked time with one of the best-known
photographers in New York City - Mathew Brady.
ANN M. SHUMARD: Matthew Brady was a well-established,
in fact internationally-known,
portrait photographer at the time...
that he photographed Abraham Lincoln.
In other words, this would have been like having your
portrait taken by someone like Annie Liebowitz today.
ANN M. SHUMARD: Brady courted the famous, encouraged them to
come.
He was very aware of the camera's ability as a
tool of history.
And he basically cast himself, in a sense, as-
as a historian...
with a camera.
He felt that preserving the faces of the- of the
individuals who were impacting the nation's
direction in history was an important role to play.
In this awkward Illinois attorney, Brady faced one
of his greatest artistic challenges.
VINCENT BROWN: How did Brady actually compose
this photograph to address Lincoln's image problem?
ANN M. SHUMARD: First of all, the pose is important.
He's standing, looking in the direction of the
camera, but not straight into it - sort of eye on
the horizon, but looking off a little bit.
It almost gives you that sense of Lincoln thinking
deeper thoughts, or looking toward the future.
That also implies something about a
thoughtful person.
HAROLD HOLZER: And Brady decides, brilliantly, I'm
gonna put a background...
of a pillar of state, and some books to suggest
metaphorically that this is a learned man.
And then, he moves the camera back.
He's not gonna focus on that craggy, scarred,
mole-filled face.
He's gonna pull back - and got his massive frame and,
you know, emphasized that this is a really big,
strong man.
And then at the last minute...
Brady says to Lincoln, "Will you pull your collar up?"
And Lincoln looks at him and says, "Oh, I see you
want to shorten my neck."
VINCENT BROWN: (laughs)
HAROLD HOLZER: And- and Brady says,
"That's it exactly."
So Lincoln pulls his collar up,
they take the picture - and here is, for
the first time, a dignified, imposing
Abraham Lincoln.
Taking this photograph was just the first step in
making Lincoln appear electable.
The next step was to make sure people saw it.
ANN M. SHUMARD: It wasn't
technologically possible...
at this point to reproduce an image photographically
in the popular press.
So an artist working from a photograph would be the
way that you would produce an image in a popular
publication such as Harper's Weekly.
Harper's Weekly was one of America's most widely read
and influential political magazines.
ANN M. SHUMARD: If we compare this photographic image of
Lincoln to the artist's rendering of the same
image, you can see what it looked like when a
subscriber or purchaser on the street bought Harper's
Weekly - this is how they would've encountered
Abraham Lincoln.
You can see, also, that it does say...
"photographed by Brady."
Harper's Weekly played an important role in getting
Brady's image in front of the public - but it wasn't
the only way it circulated.
Technological advances were opening up other
opportunities...
Among them - a new format known as the carte de visite -
the first mass-produced photographs
to become widely available.
VINCENT BROWN: It's beautiful.
It reminds me of the baseball cards I had when
I was a kid.
ANN M. SHUMARD: This particular format was introduced in
the United States in 1859.
These could be very easily produced and they were
inexpensive.
This is what really is the, sort of-
the democratization, I think, of photography - is this
ability, for a very low price, to not only have
your own portrait, and portraits of your friends
and family made - but also to be able to collect
images of the people who are leading the nation.
It makes them real as people, in a sense.
Most Americans were never going to see Abraham
Lincoln in person.
But now they could actually own a photograph
of him that was the closest they were going to
get to having that in-person experience.
By the time of the election, Brady's image of
Lincoln had been widely circulated.
VINCENT BROWN: So the photograph did its job?
HAROLD HOLZER: The photograph did its job
amazingly.
Because in the 1860 "campaign" -
he did no campaigning.
He didn't appear anywhere.
The Cooper Union image appeared everywhere.
Without the photograph...
and the appearance at Cooper Union,
he might not have been elected.
Today, the impact of this photograph on
U.S. history is clear - and not just because it helped get
Lincoln elected.
VINCENT BROWN: How do you describe the role this
photo plays in the history of campaign photography?
Does it set a precedent?
CARA A. FINNEGAN: It's definitely the most significant.
This photograph serves as a kind of launching point
for the idea that presidents not only can,
but should, take some control of their
political image.
And that control has to start in the process of
the campaigns.
Among the presidents who applied this lesson -
just a few decades after Lincoln -
was Teddy Roosevelt.
CARA A. FINNEGAN: Roosevelt, as a political figure...
campaigning or not, is a really interesting, kinda,
hinge guy.
Here, he's not running for anything.
But, he is building his political image.
So, this is a photograph where Roosevelt - rich guy
from the East Coast - is trying to show us he is
something else.
-- Right.
So that when he begins his political career -
everyone has this image of this guy in mind.
VINCENT BROWN: "Ooh, he's such a tough guy."
CARA A. FINNEGAN: Yeah.
And then, later in his life, what candidates
benefit from, by the time we've moved into the early
20th century, is the way that photography can be
more candid.
So, you feel like you're at the event with
Roosevelt in this photo,
because he is reacting in a really natural way.
So...
he brings us from, you know, "I'm going to pose
myself formally as I want you to see me..."
VINCENT BROWN: Right.
CARA A. FINNEGAN: ...to, "Any picture you take of me
will be fantastic, because it will echo everything
you think I'm about."
VINCETN BROWN: Fast forward a hundred years,
when the latest technological revolution
created opportunities for another little-known
candidate from Illinois...
Barack Obama.
CARA A. FINNEGAN: The campaigns that understand...
those moments when technology is changing are
the ones that often do better and are more
successful.
In 2008, the Obama campaign took great
advantage of the rise of social media, the rise of
mobile photography, digital photography, and
they integrated it ...
into a really successful campaign.
So that by the time Obama becomes president, right,
he is the selfie president.
VINCENT BROWN: Mm.
FINNEGAN: He is not only a person to photograph - but
a person to be photographed with.
VINCENT BROWN: So, obviously there are major
differences between these two photos - but do you
think that there are similarities in the
strategies that these men were using to campaign for
president?
CARA A. FINNEGAN: Photographically, these
images couldn't be more different, as you say.
But at their core, they're really very, very similar.
Lincoln is trying to show us who he is and who he
wants to be.
And Obama is also giving us the version of himself
that works photographically.
VINCENT BROWN: Right.
FINNEGAN: Whether it's Lincoln in 1860, or Obama.
FINNEGAN: ...it's essentially the same set
of questions that we should be asking
ourselves: Why was this picture made?
Why am I seeing it?
Who wants me to see it?
And for what reasons?
It's too easy to think of photography as just the
mere transmission of transparent information,
or emotion or experience.
Photographs are made, and the more that we can
understand how they're made and why they're made,
I think we understand, not only more about what's in
the picture itself, but also the world around the
picture, which is really important to know.
The more some things change, the more others
stay the same.
This portrait of Lincoln reminds us how campaign
photographs are strategic and highly intentional -
designed to connect with the public, and to make us
feel that connection without thinking about it.
But when we need to consider our political
candidates very carefully, that may only be possible
if we pull away from them...
as we step back to see THE BIGGER PICTURE.