National Geographic’s poster campaign reads, “There are lots of terrible animal pictures out there. The best nature images are here.” It directs people to find the best photos on National Geographic, taken by professional photographers.
You could argue that the best (most arresting, intriguing, interesting, funniest…) nature images are, in fact, by National Geographic – they just happen to be the selfies used ironically in the campaign.
It’s a bit of a confused message. And veiling everything even more is that:
1. These selfies have gone rampantly viral.
2. The campaign’s art director, Silvio Medeiros, has stated, “The whole idea is to show people that even during “selfies” and “Instagram” fever, decent images can still be produced. Now that anybody has access to mobile phones with good cameras, we can all be photographers.”
The images were produced in collaboration with Diomedia Stock Photos Brazil.
