Is Spider-Man a Good Photographer?

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He seems to keep getting work from the Daily Bugle, for pictures that are usually taken by an automatic camera that one assumes never changes its angle for an entire roll. Is it just that he gets crappy pictures of big fights, or does he actually know what he's doing photography-wise?

And why do people just kind of casually accept that he's got some kind of inside deal with Spider-Man without grilling him about it? In the current Daredevil storyline, he also lets it drop at a Bugle staff meeting that he knows who Daredevil is (and that it isn't Matt Murdock)--you'd think that more people would press him a bit about his connections to the spandex-type world.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 5 March 2005 18:00 (twenty years ago)

i imagine that perhaps what the pictures lack in framing and possibly correct exposure, they make up for with their exclusivity and action-packed nature.

the real question is whether spider-man is acting as a photographer even when he fights baddies--ie does he pose, if unconsciously? does he beat on gobbie in a manner that leads to a better frame? is he PERFORMING?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 5 March 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

I think over time he's probably become a good photographer, because he started young, he has very good eyesight, and unlike Clark Kent and his default financial security, when Parker can't sell a photo, he can't make rent/pay Aunt May's medical bills/make more webbing. Exclusivity probably isn't what it used to be, when everybody's got megapixel camera-phones and can email photos of the fight in progress to spideyactionshots.com, so that everyone's seen it before Peter even gets home. But "new Spidey photos by Peter Parker" might have gathered some brand-name appeal before that was the case -- maybe his particular, uh, technique makes for a distinctive style. People like recognizability.

The performing is a good question, and I'll bet it depends on whether or not he's got the slack to worry about things like that -- stopping one of the ubiquitous New York bank robberies, no problem; dodging the Juggernaut, it's probably the last thing on his mind.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 5 March 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Actually, is he STILL freelancing w/ the Bugle, even w/ his teaching gig? I know MJ's been working the off-Broadway route (though I believe her play involves DeNiro in some directorial / production role), so she's probably not bringing home any bacon. (I don't remember PP at any Bugle staff meeting @ all in the most recent DD storyline, though I recall Spidey & Ben Urich having a one-on-one re: Spidey's secret in the first Pulse arc.)

As for performing while on the job, I swear there are some scenes in books w/ Spidey webbing up a mugger or bank robber to a lightpost, & Spidey's posing on top of the bundle like it's a vacation photo.

&, of course, Jemas & Bendis totally avoided the freelance photog angle (for the reasons Tep mentions, I imagine) by making PP an HTML grunt in the Ultiverse, which some fannies disagreed w/.

― David R. (popshots75`), Saturday, 5 March 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

"exclusive spider-man fansites!"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 5 March 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Like Clark Kent, Parker has a book to his name. I think it's called "Webs", and came out in the 1980s era (somewhere around 300-3005, if I remember right).

Peter must have been a reasonable photographer - The Bugle did send him to Berlin to cover the KGB spy story in Spider-Man/Wolverine #1, after all.

― carson dial (carson dial), Saturday, 5 March 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

Peter is a talented inventor, right? He's clever enough to make those webshooters and homing devices, etc. I'm sure that he's developed some special devices for his cameras too, allowing him greater control that could account for the more improbable photos that he takes of himself in action.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Saturday, 5 March 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

i love this is a thread, it feels like a whispered conversation during a sleepover.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 6 March 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

That book "Webs" was a book made up exclusively of his shots of Spiderman in action. Presumably all taken from the unchanging angle of an automatic camera. With no attention paid to lighting or composition....

But he did get to go on a book tour to support it. So Spiderman had a couple of adventures outside NY, for once...

I always figured he would be a good photographer. Hes good at everything when he properly applies himself, isn't he? A genius with superpowers. Hmmm.

― David N (David N.), Sunday, 6 March 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

(I don't remember PP at any Bugle staff meeting @ all in the most recent DD storyline, though I recall Spidey & Ben Urich having a one-on-one re: Spidey's secret in the first Pulse arc.)

It happened in the "Out" storyline (the second half of the first Bendis hardcover, in my case), shortly after the news about Murdock being Daredevil hits the papers. J. Jonah Jameson is throwing a fit because the Globe scooped the Bugle, and Peter and Ben Urich both stick up/lie for Matt's benefit.

So it's not quite as recent as Douglas implies, unless he just counts all of the Bendis run as one big storyline, which is perfectly valid.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 6 March 2005 04:54 (twenty years ago)

Do we have any evidence in the comics that he has ever taken a photo without Spiderman in it?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 6 March 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm positive he gets sent to cover things. There was an issue where he got sent to Belfast to cover the Troubles, I don't remember whether what he brought back was the same-old wonky angled pictures of Spiderman.

I wonder if not just photography but all art works differently in the Marvel U.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 6 March 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

All I thought from this thread title is that every picture I've ever seen that he has taken is almost implausibly good. I mean, on the evidence of the actual comics and films, he gets some crystal clear shots that baffle me with their goodness!

If anyone else were Spider-Man and set up an automatic camera across the street I have no doubt there'd just be a blurred shot of red and blue or something, rather than his pictures that look somewhat like... comic panels!

― Suedey (John Cei Douglas), Sunday, 6 March 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

There was a mini series sort of about this recently called, I think, Negative Exposure. It's about a fellow photographer for the newspaper who is totally jealous of Pete's photos cause they are so great (I think he goes on about how they just have that intangable "something" that his lack or something vague like that) and Peter's just all "oh, I don't know about art or anything, I just take photos!" which infuriates the dude more. Anywho, he ends up sort of teaming up with Doc Oct and then gets double crossed and then is remorseful, ect. It was pretty decent as I recall.

― Occam, Monday, 7 March 2005 02:03 (twenty years ago)

Brian K. Vaughan was the writer of Negative Exposure; that probably had a wee bit to do w/ its pretty decentness. Of course, it got lost in the Spider-Man II Doc Ock-related deluge (wherein two minis & 1 of the regular series featured stories about Doc Ock right around the time of the movie's release).

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 7 March 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

I've always kind of taken Spidey's freelance status with the Daily Bugle as evidence that somebody (likely Ditko) was ghosting for Stan Lee, as J.J.J. is such an obvious (and unsympathetic) Stan Lee analogue, and the nature of Parker's shitty treatment from the Bugle seems to coincide with a lot of the stories you hear about artists working for Marvel and DC during that era.

― Huk-L, Monday, 7 March 2005 05:39 (twenty years ago)

There's a 1980s Spidey graphic novel by Charles Vess (the oversized pages, glossy paper, handsome hardcover & dustjacket and $25 pricetag don't afford the work enough respect to stop some demented functionary from throwing in asterisks in word balloons leading to in-panel footnotes like [SPIDEY LAST FOUGHT A MAN IN A HAT IN MARVEL TEAM-UP #347 -- SIZZLIN' STEVE] or ["BAIRN" IS A SCOTTISH WORD FOR "CHILD" -- JUMPIN' J.J.] - that last one isn't even a joke, just a paraphrase) where he goes to the Scottish highlands, and brings back wonky-angled pictures of Spider-Man. "You'll never guess who we ran into on our holidays!"

...oh no he doesn't, I just checked. The back of the book is actually filled out with Vess' own photos used for reference. And one of him in a kilt. And Peter & Mary-Jane were there on a second honeymoon, not an assignment.

The point early on in Ditko-era wasn't that Peter's photos were any good, but they were the only ones with decent access, right? So Jonah's probably well within his rights to pay pennies and shout at Peter to try harder next time, really.

― kit brash (kit brash), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

In all the time that Ben Reilly's ex, Jessica, was around stating how she wanted to photo Spidey for the Bugle, Peter's name and job never came up, including when they finally met.

― BARMS, Thursday, 10 March 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

lol @ 'sizzlin steve'

― Hungry4Ass, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 21:16 (thirteen years ago)

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