Project Posting- Magazine: Taylor Miller

The story I did for my magazine was the article that appeared in Rolling Stone about the comeback of Britney Spears. I remembered reading it when it came out and I loved the article as well as the pictures included. I am a really big fan of hers, and it was great seeing her on the cover again of a reputable magazine, especially since Rolling Stone's February cover of the same year was dedicated to her downfall.

After reading the article, the main point that I got was, Britney is back. She went through a really bad period in her life, but it's done with. That's what gave me inspiration for the "To Hell and Back" theme, which I also carried through with the pictures. I knew a lot of her photo shoots well, but as I was looking through pictures I couldn't really find any that portrayed the idea I had in my head. I wanted pictures that were really warm, and almost hellish looking, representing the Britney of before, and then I wanted some cool temperature pictures contrasting that and showing where she is now. I then stumbled upon some outtakes from her 2003 album cover shoot and found the perfect image: a strong Britney, on top of a mountain, with what looks like hell behind her. It's a very strong visual, and I think it captures exactly I was trying to say. For the cover image, I actually chose an outtake from a 2001 Rolling Stone shoot that wasn't used in the magazine. I really like it for a couple reasons, but the main being that she looks really innocent and raw in it, which I feel like is how she is right now.

The pull quotes I chose were actually quotes from her documentary that she made last year but were included in the article. I found that the one quote where she said that she had been to both sides (happiness and tradgedy) really spoke about the theme I was trying to play, again the heaven and hell thing. That quote really stood out, so I decided to play it up and make it really big so it would catch the readers eye. I also decided to include the quote about shaving her head because even though it was two years ago, people still have this conception of her as being crazy, and I thought it was cool that she owned up to it, admitted she was in a rough time in her life, and that she's moving on with her life.

The sidebar I chose to include was a timeline of the year 2008 for her, since I think it was such a remarkable year. Here you have this fallen popstar in January 2008, she's being put under psychiatric hold, gets her kids taken away, and then 11 months later she has the #1 single in America and the #1 album in America. I felt it was important to include because people still give her a lot of crap for her past, but for me I thought it was a huge accomplishment and that it should be recognized in the magazine.