Reading the Pictures: TIME's Rick Perry "Near-Nomination" Cover

Rockstar photographer, Platon, has done five presidential candidate covers for TIME, three of Obama, one of McCain, and one of Obama and McCain. (You can see them here on Platon's site.) Of those five, two of them employ the distinctive and dramatic style above, the candidate's head seeming to float in space against a mostly black background. I say "distinctive" as much for the effect as the fact these covers are practically iconic by now.

So, you remember my problem with TIME's "death of bin Laden" cover? the one where they "X'd" him out with two red lines across his face. Having used the "cross out" effect three times previously, first on Hitler, then on Saddam Hussein, and then on an al Qaeda bad guy in Iraq the U.S. military had been making a lot of noise about, my argument was that covers "of a type" carry meaning in this hyper-visual, "Google-Imaged" world we're all surfing around in.

Which leads me back to Platon, the latest TIME cover, and the overnight-sensation, Rick Perry. Now, assigning someone the likes of Platon to shoot a Perry cover is going to automatically lend a gravity you would otherwise give to someone "just that far away" from the GOP nomination (as if the media primary was the only one that counts this year anyway).

But then, considering Platon and TIME, up to now, reserved the "big floating head" treatment for shoe-in nominees, Obama and McCain, and their respective Denver and Minneapolis coronation issues, the treatment charges-up the affably-faced newbie (and Beetles fan) with almost an air of inevitability.

...Oh, and here's our Tumble on the other three editions.

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Comments

[Comeplayinmyreality]

11:40 AM on 09/19/2011

Someone help us if this happens. Please lets keep him in Texas where the damage is isolated to one state.

[ESerafina42]

11:40 PM on 09/19/2011

We already begged them to do that in 2000. Misery loves company, I guess.

[datenutloaf]

11:18 AM on 09/18/2011

Mr Shaw, please....

It's 'shoo-in'----not 'shoe-in'

And for those who are interested---- it's 'toe-the-line' , not tow-the line.

[ESerafina42]

11:37 PM on 09/19/2011

Bless you, datenutloaf! You got in ahead of me.

[datenutloaf]

10:13 AM on 09/20/2011

Actually ,Argumentative Patti made an earlier post--- that I read after I posted my comment....

But it's nice to know there people who are paying attention.

F/Fed

[ESerafina42]

11:38 PM on 09/19/2011

Oh, and it's also "free rein," as with a horse, not "free reign."

[DanGreen]

09:25 AM on 09/20/2011

Cultural illiteracy.

[datenutloaf]

10:11 AM on 09/20/2011

Yep---

[GoDems2012]

12:14 PM on 09/17/2011

Still More Perryisms:
"I don't think the federal government has a role in your children's education."
“If you are saying I can be bought for $5,000, I am offended,”
"My hope is that that person will come forward that can win the presidency that we can all get behind."

[GoDems2012]

11:46 AM on 09/17/2011

August 10, 2008 - Perryisms
“If a Christian can only listen to Christian music, I wouldn’t listen to music because most of it is bad.”
“I didn’t need pants. I wanted shirts, but he kept trying to sell me pants.”
“We have to be willing to go to places where ‘good Christians’ aren’t willing to go.”
“An idol is anything we like more than Jesus.”
“There’s some stuff in culture that distresses me.”
“We can’t ignore the world we live in. Jesus did not ignore it. Don’t ignore the people Jesus died for.”
“Instead of fighting them, let’s try to reach them.”
“For far too long, the Church has gotten mad at non-Christians for being non-Christians. I don’t get mad at a duck for quacking. It’s a duck. It quacks.”
“I’ve never found where mankind can schedule a move of God.”
“We can’t engage them with our language.”
“We have to be willing to go to places that make us uncomfortable in order to reach people that no one else is reaching.”
“The heart of Jesus breaks over people that don’t know him.”
“We need to accept people where they are. Meet them where the are. And take them to a place where they can meet Jesus.”

[datenutloaf]

11:17 AM on 09/18/2011

F/F'ed

[GoDems2012]

11:43 AM on 09/17/2011

"I graduated in the top ten of my class---of thirteen."

-Rick Perry

[GoDems2012]

11:38 AM on 09/17/2011

Will Rolling Stones capture the FALL OF RICK PERRY?

[lwaxanatroi]

10:46 AM on 09/17/2011

How can anybody call that face "affable"? My dictionary uses synonyms like "friendly" and "pleasant." This is the face of a pugnacious pit bull.

[Helloise]

11:25 AM on 09/17/2011

without the pit bull's intelligence

[721]

10:33 AM on 09/17/2011

I think Time magazine is getting way ahead of itself. Perry will never be the GOP nominee unless he reincarnates (literally) himself as Ronald Reagan.

[ArgumentativePatti]

09:14 AM on 09/17/2011

It's "shoo-in" not "shoe-in."

[Helloise]

11:26 AM on 09/17/2011

Good point, Patti, although in this case you could make an argument that Time is trying to shoe horn Perry into the nomination.

[datenutloaf]

11:18 AM on 09/18/2011

THANK YOU!

and it's 'toe-the-line' not tow-the-line.......

[Healthwatch2010]

05:25 AM on 09/17/2011

Calm down Perry is NOT going to get the nomination.

Time is just playing up to the "good-looking RASCAL" image.

[Ed and Deb Shapiro]

08:14 AM on 09/17/2011

looks more like a man desperate for attention!

[GoDems2012]

11:38 AM on 09/17/2011

He's younger than Johnny McSame but has waaaay more wrinkles.

[Bucket-Of-Love]

04:02 AM on 09/17/2011

How can anyone take a Time magazine cover seriously these days? Things have changed, and they are no longer relevant as they once might have been. Nothing but style here.

[Ed and Deb Shapiro]

08:16 AM on 09/17/2011

agree is use to be relevant not it's about marketing the magazine!

Time has lost it's respect.

[disgruntledprogressives]

02:44 AM on 09/17/2011

If he will extend the right of States to secede, not just Texas' right, to all States he's got my vote all the way!

[foxisms]

01:11 AM on 09/17/2011

Case in point?
Why is this subject so heavy-handedly moderated?
Is it really a problem if someone should post something less than flattering about Perry?
I guess it is.

[foxisms]

12:38 AM on 09/17/2011

If the right people in smoke filled rooms and the media have already decided that you will be elected president, you are pretty much already president.
Why anyone needs to vote beyond that point is simply a cruel joke best appreciated by the few who selected their next go-to guy.

[adcan49]

12:08 AM on 09/17/2011

People, people, people! This picture alone should scare the crap out of you! Do not be fooled--this man is worse than Bush!! Please, take from me, I have live here the majority of my adult life, and this hombre is NO hombre!