The Capa D-Day myth persists, as we can see from recent reiterations thereof. It will take time to dislodge it, and that may never happen completely; it’s become a meme, viral even before the web. But our efforts have borne fruit, as a result of which those who do repeat it from now on will brand themselves as lazy and irresponsible in the minds of more knowledgeable people. […]
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The intrusion of vendors directly into the editorial process under the guise of Day in the Life’s corporate sponsorship signaled the demise of one’s liberty to work outside the boundaries of pre-established, packaged formats, confining experimentation to techniques built into the equipment or provided by software. […] Entrepreneurship undisguised by any pretense to journalism was baked into the Day in the Life paradigm, not only in the superficiality of its origins among San Francisco’s technophiles but, more deeply, in the quest for profits while conceding the rest — esthetics, syntax, semantics, emotions, accuracy — for a piñata stuffed with penny candy and meaningless trinkets. […] No one even attempted to conceal that A Day in the Life of China was a de facto joint venture with the ruling Communist Party. Teaching the young Collins maestros how to fiddle, the apparatchiks crafted A Day in the Life of China as “a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic.” Key partners in executing this lofty theme were to be the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese National Publishing Industry Trading Corporation, and the Great Wall Publishing House. […] “A Day in the Life of America” was a classic bait-and-switch maneuver, directing the public gaze toward nonsense images while the Reagan administration savagely attacked ordinary working people. Lacking spontaneity, decontextualized, and bordering on puffery, the artless Day in the Life of America remains arguably the most embarrassing collection of images in the annals of photography. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014All content of this publication is © copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 by A. D. Coleman unless otherwise noted. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior written permission. All photos copyright by the individual photographers. "Fair use" allows quotation of excerpts of textual material from this site for educational and other noncommercial purposes.
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