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Vanessa Friedman

ON THE RUNWAY

For anyone who has ever doubted the extent to which politicians consider their image, the official portrait of President Emmanuel Macron of France that was released on Thursday should put any lingering questions permanently to rest.

Or rather, a video taken and posted by one of his communication consultants, Sibeth Ndiaye, should.

Never, it seems, has a global leader been so transparent about the story behind the picture.

The video, effectively a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the photograph (which will hang in every town hall, as well as police station and embassy), shows Mr. Macron facing an empty desk that he then fills, very carefully, with an assortment of objects: two cellphones, three books (a Charles de Gaulle memoir, André Gide’s “Fruits of the Earth” and Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black”), a brass clock and a bronze rooster. He is shown carefully opening the memoir and placing it on the desk as if to create the impression that he has been stopped amid reading, or referencing, his famous forefather’s thoughts.

The final still product, taken by the official photographer Soazig De La Moissonnière, shows Mr. Macron in a perfectly pressed dark suit and skinny navy tie leaning against the front of the desk, said objects peeking out behind him, flanked on either side by a French flag and a European Union flag. In the background, the windows have been flung open to reveal the greenery of the Élysée garden beyond.

The image comes in marked contrast to that of his predecessor, François Hollande, which depicted the then-president in the gardens of the palace — the French and European Union flags blurrily draped over a building in the background — looking as if he wasn’t really sure what to do with his hands.

In fact, the portrait it may most resemble, as many French news outlets have pointed out, is that of Barack Obama in 2012.

Given that each element in the photo was clearly chosen for a symbolic reason, that political reference is probably not an accident:

Modernity and technology — the phones, which according to French television site LCI, have never appeared in a French presidential portrait.

Tradition — the classic books, the Gallic rooster statuette, the rooster being one of the national emblems.

Openness and fresh air — the windows.

Solidarity with Europe — the flags.

Getting to work — the office.

And so on.

On one level, the staged nature of the photo may seem like an example of over-the-top political pageantry. Indeed, it has spawned a host of memes:

Still, that Mr. Macron was so open about his own calculation may be perhaps the most authentically contemporary, and revealing, symbol of all.