25/4/2008

The Mouthpiece

The eyes have it

TECHNOLOGY in the wrong hands can become a dangerous thing. Think of North Korea and the bomb. Cilla Black with a microphone.

The advent of digital photography and manipulation of images has allowed millions of people to get in touch with their inner David Bailey - or at least let themselves think so.

Election coverage exemplifies this situation rather well.

Like a King Canute facing a tide of indifference and apathy, local papers strive to present district and borough council elections in a way that should make them relevant.

After all, if you care about what is happening in your neighbourhood, you ought to buy the local paper to find out what is going on.

Surrey is not that far away from Westminster, but sometimes it feels like its politicians are a world apart.

Candidates are in the habit of sending in a brief statement about themselves and their own picture.

The statement usually goes along the lines of how they have lived in the area for an eternity, are married to a doctor and have a daughter at university. Yes, but will you make sure the bins get emptied?

The pictures seem to be taken from any flattering moment in history - focus and colour optional.

The Surrey Advertiser’s own award-winning press, however, betrays the discrepancies in quality, and so every effort is made to despatch our own photographers to shoot the politicians (with a camera).

But as is sometimes the case, this is not always possible, especially when candidates are out on the campaign trail.

Such was the situation with the Mole Valley Liberal Democrats who were sadly never available at the same time as the Surrey Ad snappers.

The party’s election agent offered his own photograph courtesy of a digital camera. I had to point out that although this was welcome, readers may notice that one of the candidates in the centre of the picture had his eyes closed.

No politician worth his salt is ready to accept defeat this close to polling day. We live in a world of technology, of digital photography and image manipulation.

The next morning, a modified picture arrived...

I decided we were better off with the unadulterated image. The alternative was far too reminiscent of the Conservative Party’s portrayal of Tony Blair in his “demon eyes” campaign.

Such methods are by no means restricted to the Liberal Democrats, although last week we reported on how former Guildford MP Sue Doughty dropped herself into a photo opportunity outside the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Son of Guildford, James Purnell, who had to travel as far north as Stalybridge and Hyde to get himself elected as a Labour MP, made a name for himself by having a photograph doctored so he was standing alongside other people who had actually made it to a photocall on time.

Famously during the 2005 general election, the wording of a sign held up by Ann Widdecombe at a rally in support of a family facing deportation changed curiously from “Let them stay” to “Controlled immigration” and “not chaos and inhumanity”.

In comparison to the master media manipulators of Whitehall, it could be seen as reassuring that the slick finish of Westminster politics has not yet filtered down to the districts and boroughs.

After all, anything that makes a politician look more human has to be welcome.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online