How we work to illustrate Brexit while avoiding the typical cliche imagery

We try to avoid the usual suspects: pictures of protesters from both sides, pictures of MPs in varying shades of grey and blurry stills of the all-important debates taking place in the House of Commons

For picture editors this has been a challenging week. As we plunge further into Brexit mayhem there is one thing that remains consistent, and that’s the choices of imagery we have coming into newsrooms.

We are tasked with the difficult job of visually representing a story that isn’t particularly visual. The usual suspects will appear all over news stories: pictures of protesters from both sides; pictures of MPs in varying shades of grey; and blurry stills of the all-important debates taking place in the House of Commons.

Dull images of politicians sheepishly smiling toward the cameras permanently posted outside the House of Commons are now a mainstay for publications – and for visitors to our site, we’re aware that this can make stories blur into one.

This leaves us very much at an impasse, and we need to make sure to properly highlight the importance of complex political events in an area that is difficult to photograph in any real depth.

To try and tackle this though, we have a few tricks up our sleeves. As Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by a historic 230 votes on Tuesday evening, we chose not to put one of the many images of May returning to Downing Street, or the Union Jack and EU flags being waved in unison outside parliament.

We commissioned our always-cutting cartoonist Dave Brown for a more tongue-in-cheek representation of the day’s events. On the front page of Wednesday’s Independent Daily Edition was the infamous Brexit bus slipping teetering on the edge of the white cliffs of Dover, with the prime minister hanging on the side, having removed the words “£300m for NHS”, she has spray painted in its place “Plan B?”.

On our online stories, we go through the hundreds of thousands of images submitted to our desk every day to make sure it is only those that are both visually breathtaking and fully portraying the narrative that make the cut. We try to stay away from constant repeats of the Brexit stereotypes and keep content interesting, and also to keep you, the reader, engaged.

For a publication with a long heritage of producing visually stimulating content, we have a central ethos of not only illustrating our news stories, but selecting images that can hold a candle on their own, ensuring it isn’t just our words that stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.

Yours,

Megan Townsend

Production assistant