Portrait Propaganda Posters

I saw Contagion on Friday; the new terrifyingly realistic movie about a spreading illness. In it Jude Law plays a devious blogger that leads those against the government. In the devastated streets there were propaganda posters for him. They were very simple; his face and the word "prophet". I just loved the effect and the movie. 

So after the movie I was sitting at home thinking about the different aspects of it. I couldn't stop thinking about the posters, so I went to my computer to search to see if they were any pictures of them or ones similar. I couldn't find anything online so I just started to work off memory.

I opened up Photo Booth to take some pictures because I planned on being "the Prophet". I couldn't remember if the picture of Jude Law was in color or was black & white though. After pondering upon this for a few minutes, I recalled the poster as being yellow and blue and lacking most other color, so I took my pictures in black & white.

I experimented with different facial expressions (looking at the camera, looking up, smiling, grinning, etc.) until I had taken a picture that satisfied me. Now I need to get the rest of the poster made.

The Contagion poster had a worn look to it. I began by googling "crackle paint" and "old paper". I imported a picture from each search into PhotoShop. A large amount of using PhotoShop is just toying with filters, effects, opacity and layers; What does this filter do? Which layer should be on top? Does changing how much this picture is seen make for a better effect? etc.

I had the background and picture. Now I needed to combine them and find the right text. After playing with a few filters, I was able to make it look like the picture had been printed on the paper. Now I needed to choose the right text to give off the effect I wanted. 

Typography is a science; the history of font is one that is intertwined with that of mankind. Different font types express different emotions and when combined can mean different things entirely. Colleges have semester long classes that are dedicated to Typography. So choosing the right font can be a difficult task, I went through every font I had on my computer before deciding on which to go with.

I was done. I had finished. I had it all together, well not quite. I wanted to experiment further and see how different effects could be produced depending on the background, font, colors and the portrait. I thought of an idea with people raising their hands to a "leader" or "legend".

So I went through the same basic steps as I did for the Prophet poster, but I just felt like "legend"  or "leader" didn't fit. I felt that this was a better propaganda poster for a Prophet and the first poster I had made was better for a Legend. People would be raising their hands to a Prophet and Legends go down in the history books so its fitting for it to look like a page from one.

The posters have an "Andy Worhol"-esk feel; repetition of general form with changed details. I like how the posters looked, so much that I made 3 more. One that makes fun of those who "fear" monger. One that tries to bring attention to stereotyping and grouping of people by showing a bunch of my pictures of pigeons on the streets. Most would say the pigeons all look the same and by doing so each pigeon becomes "anonymous". The last one was just trying to embody the mind set of a "mogul".

By this time it was 1:30 am. But I had the sudden thought why not do a few in honor of 9/11 so I went to work. At around 3:15, I had finished and had 3 more portrait propaganda posters, but these ones had deeper meaning. I tried to make my facial features less noticeable in these ones because these ones aren't about or for me, they about those who lost their life, knew someone who lost their life or risked their life on that day.

This first one is "Patriot". The background is filled with American flags, which represent freedom. The silhouette has part of its face covered to represent that a true patriot doesn't care about the publicity of what they do, they do what they do simply because they know its right and is what needs to be done.

The second one I made is "Hero". The background is filled with firefighters walking towards and away from Ground Zero. There is also a picture of firefighters raising the flag at Ground Zero after the attacks. The face is white and transparent to represent the souls of those who alive and dead that risked their lives on 9/11 helping others.

The last one is "Remember". It meant as a reminder to never forget what on 9/11. In the background there are pictures of the Tribute of Light (annual NYC 9/11 ceremony), the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial and the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The face is a silhouette because a single person wasn't affected by the events of 9/11. The silhouette represents all those affected, all of those impacted.