The recent advertising campaign, launched by Nikon, “I Am Generation Image,” has attracted a huge amount of media buzz, specifically because two of their featured subjects are a black gay male couple and their kids.
librarisingnsf had a diary about them last week. The Instagram photo they uploaded doing their girl’s hair in the morning, set off a firestorm – some supportive, and some very hateful, but it got them noticed by Nikon.
“Last year, we were surprised when a picture of us doing our daughters’ hair went viral. To us, that’s just part of our morning routine. With our images, we want to share our family’s life – and maybe reveal how much our family is like yours.”
In their press release Nikon talks about the advertising impetus behind the campaign, but not the controversy.
“I AM Generation Image” reminds us that we are all part of this generation, and Nikon will enable our stories to ring loud, true and authentic. The campaign will help to define this generation as the first to overwhelmingly express themselves through images en masse and on a global scale. The successful “I AM” international campaign has acted as a worldwide catalyst for millions of fans to self-identify with the Nikon brand. The new campaign builds upon the “I AM” architecture to make imaging a personal experience for North America.
It made me think about who buys Nikons? Though I love photography as a journalistic art form, and have for years, I would never be able to afford a fancy Nikon. Nor would I need one. But those people dedicated to the field as a craft and a calling do buy Nikons. They are probably one of the least likely groups to embrace bigotry. I started thinking-could I even name a famous right-wing photographer? I couldn’t.
The professional photographers I knew, met or admired growing up were Gordon Parks, Cartier Bresson, Ansel Adams, Pierre Verger, and Dorothea Lange. My dad collected some of the work of photographers who haunted the jazz scene, capturing the artistry of so many of our favorite musicians.
Is there something about viewing the world through a lens that gives the photographer a different way of seeing? Photojournalism for me, seems to be a form of visual anthropology– ethnography via images.
How many of us have had our lives changed, or the way we think changed by a photo?
I’d like to thank the powers that be at Nikon, for doing this. Here’s hoping that more companies will use images that move the hearts and emotions of the viewers to empathize and identify.
I thought about the right wing pout-rage against Coca-Cola for their multicultural American the Beautiful Super Bowl ad last year, and went back to look at it again. Guess it doesn’t match their vision of America, but it is one I embrace.
I don’t usually muse like this here. Bear with me.
We all know the power of advertising and we are often highly critical of ads and the corporations behind them.
Some times they get it right.
We should let them know when they do.
Cross-posted from Black Kos
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