Comments on: Your Turn: Platon’s Goodbye to Ted Kennedy

By: charlie

charlie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:59:58 +0000

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.

By: acm

acm — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:18:33 +0000

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.

By: Vulture Breath

Vulture Breath — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:16:07 +0000

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.

By: kickstand

kickstand — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:53:48 +0000

Here's the Putin cover by Platon: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20071231,00.html

By: kickstand

kickstand — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:52:43 +0000

It’s standard Platon lighting. See the Time cover of Putin, same basic setup.

By: NinaBerman

NinaBerman — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:16:50 +0000

He looks like an embalmed CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

By: lq

lq — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:42:37 +0000

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.

By: cgd

cgd — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:55:13 +0000

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.

By: offblack

offblack — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:47:03 +0000

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.

By: g

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:52:55 +0000

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.