With all the harsh words leading up to the Bush-Putin face-off, I was just itching for a tension-packed visual to get a handle on. Instead, however, the newswires have been mostly filled with glad handing, the two warheads bending over backward not to make the other look bad. If...
Continue ReadingThis came up on my radar screen as much for the visual effect as for the politics. People are always tossing out a trillion here, or a billion there, but the terms don’t paint any kind of a picture. Even charts and graphs — lately finding a new vitality...
Continue ReadingIf the NYTimes is the official media arm of the Democratic party, why aren’t they acting the part? Facing a week in which Senate Republicans are expected to push the nuclear button and detonate the Senate filibuster, this is the shot the Times selected to showcase the opposition. As...
Continue ReadingOne thing I’ve become more aware of lately is the diminishing difference between political and brand advertising. This is just one example of a noxious player blowing smoke. Before we get to the visual, however, check out the primary directive: "We’re all for reducing emissions." Love the underline! Thanks...
Continue ReadingYesterday morning — with the LATimes and the NYTimes laying side by side on my kitchen table — I saw these two lead photos at the same time. The LA Times story had a local angle. The photo was titled: The Snapppiest Place on Earth. The caption read: Fans...
Continue ReadingI was looking at this cover all day yesterday. Basically, I was trying to understand why it made me feel so good. If you’ve been following the BAG, you know I (along with my readers and co-analysts) have spent a lot of time reading The Economist covers. (Among the...
Continue ReadingNicholas Kristof has a passionate editorial in the NYT on Tuesday on why “W” has sold out Darfur. Rather than confront what they admit is a genocide, the White House is attempting to railroad legislation that would rollback preventative steps by the U.S. to halt the disaster. Why the...
Continue ReadingThree cheers for Michael Crowley’s piece in the NYT Magazine this weekend exposing the pathetic dealings and decrepit character of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay’s high flight bagman. But, how many cheers for the photograph? On one level, the image couldn’t fit the story more closely. His game up,...
Continue ReadingWas Lynndie England framed? Going by the unusual front page photo in today’s NYT, the impression is that she was. This shot practically encourages a bit of visual speculation. Whereas the typical attorney/defendant photo shows the accused flanked by her defenders (example 1, 2), this image has England boxed...
Continue ReadingHere at the BAG, the typical process goes like this: blogger meets image; blogger falls in love with image; blogger writes up image. There are certainly other times, though, when the image takes longer to get to know. I found this first shot in early March. I had...
Continue ReadingApparently, the Administration has lost a bit of visual ground in the effort to sanitize the war. In response to a second Freedom of Information Act request, the Pentagon has been forced to release the military photos of U.S. war dead dating back to 2001. The release — in...
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