Picture Perfect: The Art And Artifice Of Public Image Making

by Kiku Adatto

Traces the rise of our "image-conscious" society and offers a fascinating discussion of how this society is moved to buy and vote by images. Based on hundreds of interviews with newscasters, political consultants and others, the text illustrates how images influence our thinking and how that effect is exploited by media, marketers, and politicians. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Nonfiction, Photography

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1993

Reviews

[Kim Lacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several of the chapters were seriously outdated, and isn't applicable to visual rhetorical studies anymore. For example, Adatto talked a lot about the media's role in election cycles pre-1988. It's interesting and provides some good historical background, but it's not too helpful in understanding anything that's happened in the 20+ years since.

This is the second edition, and it reads like Adatto just updated the first and last chapters. If you're looking for a historical perspective, you might find it useful. Some interesting stuff here, but not for studies in contemporary visual arts.

[Kiof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking masterpiece. Not all of it's a revelation, but a large part is. Everyone who ingests media regularly should read this as a much needed breath-mint. Highly recommended not just by me, but Mr. America himself, Walter Cronkite.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

The early chapters were quite focused and relevant to the idea of media manipulation of imagerty. Later chapters meandered into more general ideas - iconic films - without clearly nailing a point.