The Power of Photography: From Artifice to Reality

The importance of photography in advertising

It’s true that in advertising there has always been a fight between text and image, but in the visual world in which we live today, and in the advertising messages that we receive, photography is key. 

Even so, making people stop when they see an image is ever more difficult. We are so used to seeing impactful images in all media that getting the attention of people is quite a task. This is why the visual impact needs to be as direct and honest as possible.

Above: &Rosas ECD, Isahac Oliver

The changing use of photography

We come from a time when brands had to generate a campaign image: the ‘photo’. And to achieve this they had to rely on an excessive amount of production work, artifice and fiction. It was the marvellous advertising world where everything was beautifully perfect: bodies, moments, sizes, colours... Brands and photographers would sell an aspirational fiction.

Today the world has changed. Technology (and Apple) has transformed everything. Today, anybody can get a good photo. Nowadays, there are professional photographers who base their strength on a more amateurish style. And there are millions of photography fans who, every other second, upload a good photograph to the internet. Advertising is no longer a monologue. There is no longer a unique campaign photo. Now, to create a brand universe, we need new codes and many images.

Best examples of 'new' photography

I have concentrated on examples that are using the ‘new’ photography in a brilliant way. We can see the bad examples in the streets.

Apple iPhone Shot On iPhone

Photographer: Users

This is an example of how to find the new frontiers of photography based on campaigns made by internet users and centred on the exaltation of the amateur spirit.

Mercedes Benz Grow Up

Photographer: Alice Moitie

An example of new talents that change the paradigm of luxury cars photographs, getting away from the classic model centred on the product, to using contemporary codes that achieve the effect of making the brand much closer to people.

Calvin Klein My Calvins 

Photographer: Tyron Lebon

An obscene campaign (because of the abundance of celebrities) that bring the brand ambassadors closer to people by showing how they are and how they feel without a profusion of images.

HSBC Points of View

Photography: Getty images

I finish with a campaign that uses images from an image library but in a 'trendy', not very conventional way, that achieves the objective of making them memorable.

How photography in advertising might evolve

Today, relevant brands must share points of view with the people. And they must do so from a position of honesty, closeness and reality. And to do this, it is necessary that the brand finds a unique visual language, related to its values. And to create such visual world I believe that the 'new' photography is, and will continue to be, key.