De Lincoln a Putin: el motivo visual del líder político caminando en los media españoles

Abstract

How is power represented in politics? From the cinematographic fictions of Abraham Lincoln to photographs of politicians such as Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, or Vladimir Putin that have adorned the covers of national and international newspapers, the image of the walking leader has established itself as one of the most recurrent iconographies in the visual representation of political action. Despite this, the political leader walking has not been an object of analysis in studies on visual communication or political iconography. Starting from the prominent presence of this “visual motif” in the media and public imagination, we postulate that this perpetuation responds to a continuation and recognition of iconographic traditions that, despite their evolution and transformation, remain valid. Within the Movep research project, we developed a hypothesis on the representation of the political leader walking by studying a sample of the covers of the Spanish newspapers with the largest circulation (El país, El mundo, and La vanguardia) from 2011 to 2017. At a theoretical level, we start from the studies of political iconography by Carlo Ginzburg (2011), Horst Bredekamp (2007), and Christian Joschke (2012), all framed under the theses of Aby Warburg (1905) on pathosformel. The methodology used starts from visual semiotics and iconographic historiography to determine the predominant figurative features of the images. Likewise, by linking the analyzed photographs with audiovisual fiction and the plastic arts, we interpret the connoted planes of the image and identify the visual story that emerges from them, which is translatable into an ideology or political position of the actors involved. Thanks to this framework and using an analysis of the composition of the images, the dynamics with the physical environment, and the gestures of the subjects, we establish seven categories that expand the meanings. Resumen ¿Cómo se representa el poder en la política? Desde las ficciones cinematográficas de Abraham Lincoln hasta las fotografías de políticos como Barack Obama, Angela Merkel o Vladimir Putin que han vestido las portadas de los periódicos –nacionales e internacionales–, la imagen del líder caminando se ha consolidado como una de las iconografías más recurrentes en la representación visual de la acción política. Pese a ello, el líder político andando no ha sido objeto de análisis en los estudios de comunicación visual ni de iconografía política. Partiendo de la destacada presencia de este “motivo visual” en los media y el imaginario público, postulamos que dicha perpetuación responde a una pervivencia y a un reconocimiento de tradiciones iconográficas que, a pesar de su evolución y transformación, siguen vigentes. Dentro del proyecto de investigación Movep, desarrollamos la hipótesis sobre la representación del líder político andando mediante el estudio de una muestra de portadas de los diarios españoles de mayor tirada (El país, El mundo y La vanguardia) desde 2011 a 2017. A nivel teórico, partimos de los estudios de iconografía política de Carlo Ginzburg (2011), Horst Bredekamp (2007) y Christian Joschke (2012), todos enmarcados bajo las tesis de Aby Warburg (1905) sobre el pathosformel. La metodología utilizada parte de la semiótica visual y de la historiografía iconográfica para determinar los rasgos figurativos predominantes de las imágenes. Asimismo, mediante la vinculación de las fotografías analizadas con la ficción audiovisual y las artes plásticas, interpretamos los planos connotados de la imagen e identificamos el relato visual que surge de ellos, traducible a una ideología o posicionamiento político de los actores involucrados. Gracias a este marco y valiéndonos del análisis de la composición de las imágenes, la dinámica con el entorno físico y la gestualidad de los sujetos, establecemos siete categorías que amplían las significaciones.

From the handshake to the kiss: Visual motifs of affect in representations of politics in the Spanish press

“…While several authors have taken an interest in applying this method of analysis of political representation in recent years thanks to a "Warburg revival" (Müller, 2011), they have primarily focused on its 'vertical' dimension: representations of terror (Ginzburg, 2015) and dominance and despotic hierarchy (Bredekamp, 2007;see, too, Fleckner, Warnke & Ziegler, 2011). However, this article is interested in how the 'horizontality' between the political figure and the people is expressed through everyday actions (Salvadó-Romero, Fernández-Moreno & Tedesco-Barlocco, 2020) and in terms of affect in a context in which, as we have seen, politicians tend to want to show themselves as "regular folks" (Blumler & Kavanagh, 1999).…”

Images and visual motifs of Spanish economic power: the IBEX court and the banking crisis (2011–2013)

“…Beyond being an audiovisual hypothesis, it is important to note that Graeber (2011) links, morally and procedurally, the logic of indebtedness and delegated violence typical of financial debt with mafia "honour," used as currency for payment in this case. The image that ended the iconographic journey was that of Rato's arrest published on 17 April 2015 in El Mundo, where the hand of a policeman directs the head of the former minister into a car, the last word in the visual motif of the "corridor of shame" (Salvadó, Fernández & Tedesco, 2020), in which the humiliation of the politician is part of the obligatory punitive ordeal (Foucault, 2009). Further reinforcing the gangster imagery and vocabulary, Rato himself considers that the three great bankers and de Guindos "set him up" during those months (Ekaizer, 2018, p. 366), before, during, and after the dinners, with different roles and to different degrees, but with a common denominator: the certainty that being a politician (of the PP) it was he who had to pay the price.…”