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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Stock images’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

Jan. 27: Why God made stock art (1)

The student newspaper at Ronald Reagan High School in Doral, Fla. — in the western suburbs of Miami — ran a story last February about sexually transmitted diseases. A little more provocative than what you’d typically see in a school newspaper. But that’s good. Teens need more information about topics like that. What’s not so good, however: The Reagan Advocate [...]

Jan. 11: Phun with photos on news web sites

Jim Romenesko today tells the story of the Connecticut Post, which posted an article about a 14-year-old boy killed while walking home from a party last weekend. The odd part? Jim reports: The Hearst-owned Connecticut Post used a cropped image of the boy standing in front of a backdrop of $100 bills and giving the photographer the finger. (A reader [...]

Dec. 7, 2011: Today’s ten most interesting Pearl Harbor anniversary front pages

Many, many papers observed the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on their front pages today. Here’s a look at ten of the best. — VICTORIA ADVOCATE Victoria, Texas Circulation: 28,900 One of my favorite small-town papers — the Victoria Advocate — cleared everything off A1 today and ran a poster-like photoillustration of a local man who was [...]

Nov. 23, 2011: The Muppets take Manhattan… and Boston… and Dubuque and Elyria and Crystal Lake

Unless you’ve been hiding behind a plate of fried frog legs today, you probably know that the next blockbuster movie opened today: The Muppets. Now, this one I’d like to see. Last week’s Twilight movie? Not so damned much. I already showed you a cool Muppets treatment from last Sunday’s Boston Globe and I asked you to send me more. [...]

Nov. 18, 2011: Features treatments for the new Twilight movie (3)

As I write this, my daughter is at the early morning showing of Breaking Dawn, Part One, the new — and penultimate — movie in the Twilight series. I managed to talk her out of the midnight showing last night but couldn’t keep her away any longer. What did stay away were features treatments of this movie. Even after a [...]

Sept. 8, 2011: The best economy centerpiece illustration yet (2)

Everyone is trying to find a way to illustrate the sputtering U.S. economy. I’ve seen bar charts and fever charts. I’ve seen pages built around photos of folks lining up for unemployment. I’ve seen just about everything. Until today. Today was the first time I’ve seen an image like this to illustrate the economy. That, of course, is the Observer [...]

July 17, 2011: What a horrible — offensive, even — use of stock art

I don’t like using stock art with hard news stories. Use it all you want with features stories. But on breaking news — especially crime stories; especially stories with fatalities — and it can look trite as hell. Granted, I don’t see it a lot in print. But you do see it all the time on TV news. But this [...]

July 3, 2011: Paying tribute to the last space shuttle flight (1)

A number of newspapers used page one real estate today to take note of the final space shuttle flight, scheduled to launch Friday. — HUNTSVILLE TIMES Huntsville, Ala. Circulation: 47,306 For some reason, the front page of the Huntsville Times didn’t quite make it to the Newseum today. Luckily for us, design director Paul Wallen was kind enough to slip [...]

June 24, 2011: Today’s notable front-page packages (3)

My daily sweep through the archive at the Newseum resulted in a number of notable page-one packages that jumped out at me Let’s see if you agree.. — DAILY HERALD Everett, Wash. Circulation: 48,458 Every time I see a word cloud, I think: Well, I hope that’s the last time we’ll see one of those. Word clouds have gone past [...]

June 1, 2011: Watch a features cover come to life via time-lapse video

Adam Walker is a features designer for Media Wales in Cardiff, Wales, in the U.K. He describes his career: I landed a job as a reporter on the local paper. After one too many golden wedding stories I moved over to the subs desk and eventually onto design. So I’m one of the rare breed of designers that can actually [...]

April 16, 2011: Why the U.S. Postal Service needs a copy editor

The U.S. Postal Service needs a copy editor — or, at the very least, an art director or photo editor — to keep it from making blunders like this one, on a brand-new stamp issued earlier this month. See the problem? Well, neither do I, to be honest. But according to a story in Thursday’s New York Times, that’s not [...]

April 14, 2011: This vegetarian magazine is so ethically challenged, even a meat-eater can hate it (3)

Ever heard of VegNews magazine? Me neither, but it’s apparently a popular print and online source of news and recipes for vegetarians. Vegetarian blogger Quarrygirl has accused VegNews of misidentifying some of the yummy-looking dishes shown in the magazine as vegetarian meals when they, in fact, are not. For example, this “vegetarian” hamburger… …is actually a beef hamburger. The art [...]

April 10, 2011: A look at page one Civil War anniversary treatments

Even with a huge golf tournament this weekend and lots of follow-up angles on the near-shutdown of the Federal government, many newspapers led page one today with stories about the Civil War. Tuesday marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, you see: The first shots were fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Here’s how [...]

April 8, 2011: A couple of extraordinarily fun features fronts from Boston (1)

Check out this very cool, very fun features front from the Wednesday Boston Globe: The topic: Restaurant coupons. Good or bad; friend or foe? The two faces of the topic are represented by a reversible — or, rather, a flippable — cover motif. The Globe‘s features design supervisor, Martin Gee, tells us: It was designed by Greg Klee with mostly [...]

Oct. 4, 2010: Lament of the hand model (3)

Do you ever think about the models used in publicity and stock art? I don’t think about them often enough. Although stories like this one might change that. See the pretty lady? Her name is Kimbra Hickey. She’s a hand model. And, according to a story in the Sunday New York Post, she’s profoundly unhappy that she’s not world famous [...]

Aug. 28, 2010: Better not to use a stock photo at all if you’re going to use it like this (3)

Isn’t this horrible? If this is the only way you can think to illustrate your story, then don’t use art at all. It’s as simple as that. That’s the web site of the Daily Express tabloid, based in London. Shameful. Just shameful. Find the Daily Express site here. Find this actual story here. I found this posted at Fark today.

July 15, 2010: Best. Photoblog. Ever. (5)

It’s called Awkward Stock Photos. And it consists of just that: Truly cringe-worthy stock art, culled from various stock sites. A quick sampling: Wow. Great stuff! Find Awkward Stock Photos here. Thanks to Tyson Evans of the New York Times for tweeting this today.