August 28, 2009
Your Turn: Platon’s Goodbye to Ted Kennedy
“When he buried his nephew, he echoed Yeats’ words that a man should “live to comb gray hair.”
It’s a peculiar image that seems to pull at many threads at once, including character, health, mortality, dynasty and American politics (and reminds me how much I love what we’re doing here, taking the time to look). Your thoughts?
(slightly revised 8/29 2 am PST)
(photo: Platon. Quote from TIME/The Well. Table of Contents.)
15 Comments Leave a comment
DennisQ said:
Kennedy got very jowly as his cancer progressed. I don’t think he should be remembered as that – any more than other cancer patients should be remembered after radiation treatments. He also has an unsmiling, confrontational look uncharacteristic of a natural politician, and Kennedy certainly was that. The bright light on his face may come from a spotlight or it may come from a lamp above an examination table. I think the lighting is unnatural and harsh.
The talk of the Kennedys losing their “patriarch” makes me uncomfortable. Edward was the last male of his generation – does that in itself make him a patriarch? Senator Kennedy fought against roles arbitrarily assigned by age or gender – both strong components of patriarchy. He was one of our elders, but he was our contemporary. I never met him, but I felt I knew him.
vcInCA said:
this picture makes me nervous, but not in the ‘booga booga’ way. i don’t know what to trust, what is really a part of his actual face, versus what has been taken out (airbrushed) or added in, spotlighted or downplayed by lighting. i’m afraid to say much of anything about the picture, and their choice of it, perhaps b/c of the history of digital alterations, and also perhaps b/c it doesn’t look quite like the ted kennedy that i came to visually know through the media. what does/will this re-presentation of him to people, after his death, come to mean? how will it affect how people think about him, his work, his family?
also, i tried an old trick used on Bush senior, looking at just half his face, then the other half (top to bottom slice). the two halves are very different, but both are colder and/or more solemn than the cumulative effect.
Apple said:
I very much like this cover. Kennedy is looking at each of us (friend and critic) right in the eye. I also like that he is not smiling, after all at his core he dealt with more tragedy than most of us will know. It feels appropriate for the times.
TellMeWhy said:
My first thought was, why did Time use an old photo of a grim and graying Sen. Kennedy, instead of one of the smiling, silver-maned “Lion of the Senate”? My second thought (thanks to a vague memory from an art history class!) was, were they trying to channel the ancient Greek death mask, the mask of “Agamemnon”? (http://odysseus.culture.gr/java/image?foto_id=2242&size=m1)
Apple said:
Wanted to add that I don’t think this his expression is one that is easily dismissed; it almost commands engagement by the viewer. (Hope the sociopaths on the right see this cover everywhere.)
g said:
When I think of Ted Kennedy, I think of him in animation – speaking or with that grin of his, or even scowling. This is an odd image, because I don’t think he was hardly EVER this static.
offblack said:
At first glance, I disliked this image of Kennedy. When I think of him, I have an image of his grinning. But the more I look at it, the more it grabs me. His face holds such weariness and pain, and his eyes seem to gaze down at me, challenging me. Also, the lighting around his head suggests a strong aura.
cgd said:
Not at all a flattering image. Emphasis on the heavy jowls makes him look like a Republican, a southern Republican at that. Could almost be Haley Barbour. Herbert Hoover also comes to mind.
This image is not recent, maybe 15 or more years old (he’s had completely white hair a long time), so the jowls aren’t due to cancer. He had weight problems frequently, which (ironically) Republicans were quick to point out as indicative of “going to seed” and lack of self-discipline, or something like that.
Just another hatchet job by Time.
lq said:
The blue tone makes the portrait cold, to me. There is none of the ‘Teddy energy’ in this image (sparkle in the eye, engaging with the person he’s talking to/looking at, grin lurking, etc.). What it reminds me of is the image of the ’sane, reasonable Bob Collier’ you featured on Aug 25 – Bob, the self-satisfied guy with the face of a defensive Republican. Time did its best to find a picture/image of Teddy that will reinforce their meme of “well, Teddy would have compromised”. Feh. Although Teddy’s face is more open than Mr. Collier’s – good try, Time, but even your best efforts can’t turn Teddy into a fatuous Republican. Double feh.
NinaBerman said:
He looks like an embalmed CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
kickstand said:
It’s standard Platon lighting. See the Time cover of Putin, same basic setup.
kickstand said:
Here’s the Putin cover by Platon:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20071231,00.html
Vulture Breath said:
He does look embalmed, and the cool blue tone doesn’t help. It’s not a familiar look for him – I’m used to seeing him with his white hair bushy around his head rather than slicked down, and either a big jolly grin, or sparks of anger emanating from his eyes.
acm said:
yeah, definitely that strange, dead effect that seems to be created by dual lighting (how else to get shadows on both sides of the face?) — not only lifeless, but pasty, as though a thick layer of make-up had been applied just before the shot. it’s dramatic, but in a strangely distancing way. perhaps Time just can’t resist false drama, or perhaps they wanted to give this sense of a larger-than-life figure being memorialized. but the lack of color seems misguided; he had the bright eyes and rosy cheeks of his heritage, at least in most photos I see, and this definitely has the feel more of grouchy CEO than of dedicated champion of the underclasses.
charlie said:
This cover looks much different in print. The colors (at least on my edition) are much, much warmer. This digital copy looks very blue in comparison and makes the portrait feel colder.