They Say Image is Everything

If you were to look at Vogue's online magazine and solely look at the pictures, it seems as though they are promoting a high end lifestyle. The digital pages are filled with beautiful faces, some you may recognize as famous actors, artists or models. The images all seem to have a similar feel to them. Beautiful people, nicely done makeup, expensive clothing, perfectly decorated houses, story book weddings. After flipping through several articles I noticed that most of the people who appeared in the photographs were white, and every now and then I saw an African American or Asian model. I think the way Vogue makes the pictures for their publication works for them and the clientele they're trying to reach (although there could be more diversity) but it would not work for a more journalistic magazine such as National Geographic. Vogue promotes an expensive lifestyle and that is communicated quite well through their photographs. It wasn't until I actually read some of the articles that I realized that there was a bit of reporting that represented real people as well. They recently featured a story on a woman who fled Iran with her family and also a story of two woman who are standing up against sexual harassment on their college campus. But even the photos for these more serious articles are definitely stylized for Vogue. I think this loses a certain audience that they're on the verge of being able to connect with. The problem may be the image that people commonly associate with the magazine. If they're like me, they had no idea that Vogue publishes more journalistic stories and not just fashion advertisements and stories about celebrities.