Last Sunday's cover of The New York Times Magazine featured a contemplative image of President Obama. We know he is deep in thought because of his posture.

To indicate thought, one must have some part of the hand pressed against the face, or, preferably the head. Think of Rodin's The Thinker.

Think also of Walter Benjamin. No one's author photos are more about thought than his. In fact, in one of the photos, he seems to be in pain he's thinking so hard.












So, the semiotics of this cover place Obama in the line of people who have been known to be driven more by thought than anger, more by reflection than reaction. The Benjamin photo on the right makes him look like he's debating about which wedge of cheese to put on his cracker, whereas the image of Obama creates an aura of deep thought. It takes his entire left hand to hold up his head there are so many ideas in there.

What does this mean? Well, it may tell us more about Obama than the cover itself. That is, it tells us what we think about Obama. We replicate what we already believe.

I believe I like this cover. It wavers between illustration and photorealism. Its color palette is almost washed out, and that flatness contrasts against the depth of Obama's visage. The effect is essentially positive.

Ultimately, this cover evokes a dignified, reflective, intelligent president, who may or may not be thinking about his post move.

The NEW Time Magazine Cover

Thanks to Charles Harris for his good question about the September 1 cover of Time, which features, yet again, Barack Obama. We had a lot to say about the previous Time/Obama covers, and we're pretty intrigued by this one as well. As Harris correctly notes, this cover evokes the disembodied head and racially charged (and now notoriously altered) O. J. Simpson cover, which we also write about. It's an interesting choice here--the return to a genre and design that failed the first time--for yet another heavily racialized African American celebrity.

In this version, Obama comes off as almost godlike, looming over the middle-class readers of Time Magazine. Neither smiling nor frowning, neither arrogant nor obsequious, neither warm nor cold, Mr. Obama appears delicately bathed in angelic light as he pokes his head out from the darkness of eight years of the Bush administration. Halo or heaven's glow? It doesn't seem to matter. Either way, the effect lightens Obama's skin tone, making Harris' comparison to the O. J. version a sort of inverted mirror of the racialized past. If Time tried to make O. J. look more evil, are they now trying to make Sentator Obama look more holy?

The editors pretend to attempt to draw attention away from Obama and put it on the Democrats via the headline. But, when have 18 point letters trumped a big photo?

Ultimately, the question is, does the Obama on this cover look spooky or reassuring? Your reaction to that question may have less to do with the Time cover and more to do with the lens through which you are already looking.

--D.R.