Advertising and Editorial Photography

Searching and reading about marketing, advertisement, design, and photography led me to read and conduct research about advertising and editorial photography. Advertisements are essentially used to convince people to buy a product or engage in a behavior, and most ads are presented in text form to the audience. The stereotype of photography is that photos are mainly for personal use, such as a picture to hang on the wall, but pictures can be much more than that! Indeed, combining advertisement goals and purpose with photography has had a huge impact on the advertisement and marketing industry over the years.

Ultimately, advertising and editorial photographs are used to illustrate and sell an idea or a product and to enhance a description or story used in the media. Advertising and editorial photography is a dream job for me since it will give me the opportunity to travel around the world and meet new people. Moreover, this profession creates a space to interpret stories and ideas via emotive and original photographic images, just like Lee White and Mario Testino have done to wide acclaim.

Both Lee and Mario are famously known for their professionalism in photography. Mario Testino is a top fashion photographer whose work has been featured in various magazines, including Vanity Fair and Vogue. He started out as a hair and makeup portfolio salesperson, and now he is best known for his extraordinary ad campaigns and exquisite photographs (Hicklin, 5). It is no surprise, then, that the British royal family and other celebrities have employed him several times over the years. For instance, the height of Testino’s career was when he photographed the late Princess Diana of Wales in 1997 for a Vanity Fair cover. He also did photoshoots of Madonna for Versace. Testino’s beautiful photographs sell clothes, which fueled his popularity among fashion editors and designers. Of similar fame, Lee White is a photographer who specializes in corporate, advertising, and editorial clients from all over the world. He has a studio in Los Angeles, California, where—beyond corporate, editorial, and advertising photography—he also has done still life photography, fun portraits, videos, stock photography, and photography education.

Comparing the two photographers, fashion is Testino’s personal brand, while corporate photography is White’s personal brand. In conjunction with the actual photography, White provides digital images, hair and makeup, a location, and the wardrobe. Especially, White is widely known for corporate, advertising, and editorial photography, but Testino is known mainly for fashion photography only. His work is found in galleries and museums all over the world. Both photographers, despite the differences in their work, are successful and established photographers.

To a potential client or employers, the long list of photography done by White and Testino is sufficient proof of their competence. Among other photographs, White’s photographs of advertising and editorial images have been used in the publications of McGraw-Hill textbooks. Testino’s photographs have appeared in various magazine covers—such as on the covers of Vanity Fair, British Vogue, Vogue Japan, and Vogue Australia—and fashion houses such as Burberry, Calvin Klein, Gucci, Michel Kors, Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Dolce & Gabbana (Testino and Thomas, 49). Clearly, then, both photographers have shown through their work how photography can hugely impact the advertisement and marketing industry.

A take-away from this post is to think out of the box, incorporate different elements in a project. Photos can deliver thousands of words, and designers and marketers should take advantage of that.

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Resources

Hicklin, Aaron. Mario Testino interview: the man who makes models super. http://leewhite.com/ (Accessed on 16 December 2014), pp. 5-9, 2012.print

Testino, Mario, Thomas Osterkorn, and Andreas Petzold. Mario Testino. Hamburg: Stern Gruner + Jahr AG & Co, pp. 44-54, 2008. Print.

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