Analysis of photography - Codes and Conventions

Front cover

The front cover of this magazine displays an image of the band Muse, along side with many other images such as the logo, articles featured inside and the background. The main focus is on the close up of the band. All three members of the band are looking in different directions, the ones on the right and left looking away from the one in the middle who seems to be looking straight ahead almost into the readers eyes. I think this is photographed this way to make the reader feel closer to the magazine by looking straight at them as if it were personal to them. The person in the middle is brought forward whilst the other two remain behind him with their shoulders covered by the person in front of them. This makes the person in the centre the main focus of the magazine suggesting he is more powerful than the other two, it could also be suggesting that there is only room for one, also referring the same for the reader again making that one person relate to the magazine. 

All three people have relaxed facial expressions but they also look quite serious as to say that what is inside the magazine is very important and serious. Also this photo of them seems to be quite edited as they have flawless skin and a certain glow to them which would be the work of many different lightings. Their hair seems to be gelled perfectly with no random hairs facing in different directions. To maintain their 'rock band' image they are all wearing plain and simple black. The background which looks to be space makes them seem quite dark and mysterious again relating to their genre of music, rock. The images of the three people and the background  are all layered starting with the space right at the back then bringing two people forward and then the third person right at the front. The logo seems to be covered up a tiny bit by one of the people, almost as if it is not important. This could also mean that this magazine is already so well known that their daring enough to do this.

Contents

There are a variety of photos in this contents. Each photo seems to go with an article although not every article has an photo on the contents section. The photos seem to go with the popular articles such as the cover story, other big artists and the review section. All the photos are different and not related to each other in any way. They are quite spread out and the sizes and shapes vary. Most of the photos seem to be distance shots to show what is going on all around rather than just one particular area. This gives the readers more insight as to what they will be seeing further on inside the magazine as opposed the the cover which is a close up. These photos also show the people that are in the magazine in action, in one of the photos you can see a man on staging rocking out on his guitar and in another you can see a man and women performing on stage.

The colours used are very bold and simple. Not to many different varieties which stops it from looking over the top. It seems almost as if they haven't even tried at all, this helps them seem more free and fun and less needy. There is a colour theme going on with blacks, reds and a lot of white. The black is used in any photos representing rock as well as the occasional red. Red is known to receiving a lot of attention and is a colour of warning and danger. Overall the whole contents page has a large amount of white, this could suggest simplicity and innocence but as there is also red present it could suggest that they aren't afraid to be a bit rebellious. The fonts are bold and simple enabling readers to take it in much quicker and easily.

Double Page Spread (DPS)

This photo take up one full page of the double page spread. It is related to the article on the page  next to this. This photo is very creative and artistic. It looks quite elegant and simple yet has a fun quirky side to it. The background looks very antique and classy with the picture frames and chandelier. The main focus of this photo is the man sitting at the table looking scruffy and pulling a face. He also seems to be looking straight at the camera and into the readers eyes engaging them and making them feel like a part of this situation. The food at the table looks very posh and traditional but then alongside that there is what seems like beer in a wine glass suggesting that he is trying to disguise this and pass it off as wine since beer may not be suitable at this particular luncheon. There is a British flag stuck in a tea pot which shows that this is a very British event. 

He also seems to be mocking this luncheon by drinking beer in a wine class and eating a whole tart with a spoon in an almost aggressive manner. Also the photo is edited and looks quite vintage which represents the British culture which is quite old and historical. Lots of retouching and editing has been done on this photo to make it look right and send that message across. A slight change in colour may even result in a whole change of message received with the photo.           
                           

                                                                           
This is the second half of the double page spread and also the article related to the picture above. Now it seems very different compared to the previous photo, as if it is a completely different article.

There are only two separate small photos on this page as the rest is filled with columns of writing. These two pictures are very different from each other. One of the photo is of him a specific time of his life, this is captioned in the corner of the photo and the other photo is related to whatever is being spoken about in the article to represent that. The photo is him looks like a live shot, it isn't a studio photographed picture. This makes it more relate able to the reader as their photos are more likely to look like this rather than professional studio ones.