political portraits

my friend Fletch sent me this link to an earnest Daily Kos post about the importance of professional photography to political candidates, especially in state and local campaigns. it gives Tester, Webb, and Kleeb as examples of candidates who have done right by prioritizing professional photographs instead of "crappy photos taken by the intern with a consumer digital camera." (of course, the Canon Powershot A590 and the Canon EOS 10D are kind of consumer digital cameras, but point taken...)

i thought it was interesting, first of all just to read about photography qua photography being analyzed in the discourse of a political blog. second, because the particular pictures in question aren't all that great.


but i see what he means. i was intrigued by the Scott Kleeb photo (directly above) because i thought it was so cheesy -- as though it were an HDR ad from some big energy company trying to pretend they were going green and loved ethanol or something. but it inspired me to go to his website and check out his other photos -- and goddamn this man is like a HOT GAY COWBOY. i'm going to move to Nebraska and vote for him. i think Kos might be on to something.

and now back to our regularly scheduled portrait programming. :-)