The main image takes up most of the cover as the text to image ratio is very small. This is a mid close up shot, showing her chest upwards.This could be the intention of the text creator to create a male gaze in order to attract a wider audience.The camera angle of this image was to focus on her body features and gestures, which makes her more sexualised. The woman is portrayed in an old school fashion, as she has her hair held, big earrings, and a pearl necklace. These were very popular beauty conventions in the 20th century. However, some of these conventions such as the bold red lipstick, mascara, and powder have stayed around. The idea behind this might be the infusion of old and new beauty fashion trends. There is the use of light from the right hand side which makes that part of her body more glowing. Even though she has make-up on, some flaws are still visible on the side with less lighting. This could connote that no one is perfect, and as much as you try to hide certain imperfections, they will still show.
Aesthetica magazines always use one or two people on the front cover of their magazine in order to let the audience pay particular attention to the person(s) and easily relate to them. The people one the cover are normally of a certain niche group be it culture, art, fashion etc, and this is done because it has a specific target audience.
The major colour in the image is red. The lipstick of the woman and the polkadots in the background are red, and the editor went on to change the colour of inside the clementine to a shade of red. The colour red could connote the passion, determination and attention seeking of women.
The text creator might have intentionally chosen the background to be instead of fully white, have red polka dots in it, the clementine also has seeds in. This could relate back to the point of everyone having blemishes and imperfections as even these rather irrelevant objects do.
The use of a white woman being represented on the cover of this issue is quite conventional as the text creator wants to portray past trends.
The masthead is written in bold in a bold black Georgia font style. It has a very formal and classy look to it. Aesthetica magazine uses the same format of their masthead on each issue. This makes it familiar anywhere to their readers. The smaller inscriptions under the masthead which show some of the features of the magazine such as minimalist approach, which connotes that they focus on what they really value. Intersecting variety and transforming margins could connote they make a clear distinction of their articles for each specific targeted group. And decisive photography connotes they specifically select images that represent their stories individually.
On the left hand side of this double spread, there is a main image with only little text. It is an image of two women relaxing in the desert with camels.There is what seems to be the silhouette of a man in the background, but has been made rather insignificant. The caption of the image is “A place in photographic history” with credit given to the photographer by his name written in bold. The image brings about a sense of female empowerment, as they are the ones having a good time while there’s a man in the background serving them. It also brings about anti body shaming as the women are feeling comfortable showing parts of their body regardless. This magazine issue is from 2010 where coloured images were dominant. However, the text creator used a black and white image. This was because of the story they were representing, as it was about historical times. This also relates to the ‘decisive photography’ feature of the magazine as seen on the front cover.
On the right hand side of the double spread, is a whole different article altogether.There is an image on the left top corner which is very small taking text to image ratio into consideration.It is an image of a woman wearing a beret with a veil, smoking a cigar. The caption is “Klein’s visual language made an asset out of accident, graininess, blur and distortion.” This could connote that she has jeopardized the positive image she had for herself. The text creators' choice to use such a small image and a lot of text to represent the issue could also connote the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
The purpose of this text is to inform the audience about how photography has advanced over time, and also inform them about a current issue in the country, which would furthermore attract a wider audience.
The text has a historical context as it refers to earlier photography.Photography has come a long way in its relatively short history. In almost 200 years, the camera developed from a plain box that took blurry photos to the high-tech mini computers found in today's DSLRs and smartphones.The basic concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C.E. It wasn't until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura in the 11th century that the art was born. Even then, the camera did not actually record images, it simply projected them onto another surface. The images were also upside down, though they could be traced to create accurate drawings of real objects such as buildings. This notion might be seen by a contemporary audience as fascinating, because nowadays, there are cameras on basically any device.
Each part of the spread is well spaced out and makes it very organised and uniform. This makes the audience able to easily differentiate between each part, and also read the article clearly.
The use of black and white throughout the article emphasises on its historical attributes. The mode of address is indirect. The lexis used is also informal, which helps it broaden its audience reach as even the ‘layman’ could understand it.
On the left page, it has a lifestyle genre, as it's about advancement of photography. However, the genre on the right page is more of reality and drama.w The use of two different genres on one double spread attracts different audiences and makes the magazine more involving.
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