Your Turn: Second Row Center

I know you are dying to get at this because I’ve never had so much mail about one image before.  What do you pick up from Rove’s expression?  What is your sense of the relationship?  From the standpoint of visual politics (which is the main reason for the BAG’s...

Your Turn: Enigma of Damascus

Whether the subject is Bush or Rummy, Santorum or Abbas, portraits are often the most interesting political images to deconstruct. Because of the conventional wisdom that Bashar al-Assad is a lightweight, I initially took the title of this week’s NYT Magazine cover story ("The Enigma of Damascus" – link)...

More On London : Terror = Family

Is it getting to the point where terror is the one thing that brings people together? The day after the London attacks, a whole menu of images were available to newspapers and other media capturing Londoners bravely returning to the bus.  Initially, I felt both images — by playing...

The Picture From London: Beyond The Mask

  Fear mongers couldn’t have ordered up a better picture. Considering the extent to which our culture is consumed with terrorism these days, it’s remarkable how little examination there is of terror as a psychological phenomenon.  You would think, if we were a little more sophisticated as a culture,...

Uncle Sam George

Two questions:  First, does The New Yorker imitate life or does life imitate The New Yorker?  Second, how much does the personality of a leader come to represent (or supersede) the image of the country he leads? TNY produced a cover — dated July 4th and titled "Party of...

Move Over Zarqawi: The New Iranian President And The 1979 Embassy Take-Over

The Administration would be happy for you to believe that the new president of Iran helped lead the take-over of the U.S. embassy  in ’79.  So would your own eyes. How much does the administration single-handedly create new evil-doers and how much does the press go along? One thing...

Right After The Bombing

These are the two most striking images I found in the immediate aftermath of the bombings in London. I don’t mean to disrespect the shock, loss or gravity of this event by being interpretive.  I do feel, however, that images are presented to us and resonate with us that...

The Situation At Hand

The BAG again falls for another compelling TE cover (and another crack at the maybe not-so-accessible G-8/Africa topic).  As usual, though, I have a few questions: 1. Re: Sex Isn’t TE (at least partly) indulging in titillation?  Is there some suggestion that "these people" can’t keep their hands to...

Taking It To The Blank

What’s your take on the NYT pulling this shot of Gonzales’ AG swearing-in ceremony from the file? Does he ultimately look more credible or incredible next to O’Conner?  (And visually, how much is he "coming up short"  given the fact she’s literally "upstage?")  In putting Gonzales front and center,...

Woe The Bicycle

(If this sounds callous at first, bear with me.)  Perhaps the real obstacle to helping Africa (and the tens of thousands of children like this) is that we can’t take enough interest in the bicycle.  In other words, it’s easy for the West to feel it’s heartstrings for this...

Dressing Up The 4th

A number of you wrote urging me to post this image.  I thought I would, along with this very incisive description from Eric, a BAGreader and professor:    appeared on the NY Times website front page on July 4th.  The most obvious effect is that of Bush...

Independence Day Special: Howard's Rein

In honor of Independence Day (and a more relaxed summer mode), the BAG focuses on an illustration capturing one of today’s most powerful political struggles for liberty.  If you thought freedom of expression was a right you could take for granted in this country, well, you’re not the chairperson...

Shooting Rhinos

(click here for larger version) With the G-8 Summit coming up next week, Tony Blair has expended a lot of energy and political capital to make Africa a major focus of the meeting.  Of course, Bush has cobbled together enough token gestures (including a package of debt relief and...

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Your Turn Again: De Scent of Politics

So, Arianna Huffington got bent out of shape because David Gergen, rather than criticizing Bush’s Fort Bragg speech for exploiting 9/11, instead praised Bush’s political savvy for dusting off the tactic. If Arianna wants to take it on, the issue goes way beyond Gergen.  Because, sad as it might...