François Hollande and His Watch Worn Backwards

The snapshot went viral. The new President of the French Republic trying to tell the time on a watch whose dial was on the opposite side of his wrist became a source of mockery.

As we know, the first days of a presidency are the most important, and François Hollande could certainly have done without this photo that made the front page of Le Point, at a time when his detractors were casting doubt on his ability to hold the highest office—just as the President‘s watch can sometimes spark debate.

Henri Cartier-Bresson said, « To criticise is to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and try to understand what they wanted to do. »

So let’s look at the circumstances behind this rather amusing shot. And yes, like it or not, a blog isn’t just an Instagram feed of raw, uncaptioned images optimised for SEO, copy-and-pasted brand press releases, or 140-character posts sprinkled with hashtags …

 Photographer Goffredo di Crollalanza looks back on his photo:

« It was last week; his partner was waiting for him at the restaurant, he stopped by his place, so I followed him. » I was quite far away because the street was blocked by the police. Two other photographers were with me, but they didn’t have long enough lenses; they couldn’t see that from that distance. Today, with the number of pixels, you can crop a lot; the photo on the cover of Point is actually a quarter of the original shot.

He realised it was upside down; it was pretty funny. I didn’t think it would cause such a stir.

My boss was very happy. Journalists mentioned that photo to me again today because it’s making the rounds on Facebook ».

A lot of fuss over not very much …