Chatting the Pictures: Australia on Fire; Suleimani Assassination; Church Full of Guns

For “The Look,” we discuss a photo taken by Matthew Abbott for the New York Times. It features a kangaroo rushing past a burning house in Lake Conjola, New South Wales, Australia, on Tuesday December 31, 2019. We talk about how to look at photos of the climate crisis. We also consider how widening climate crisis makes symbols like the kangaroo important, and how the threat to animals meets climate denial.

“The News” photo this week was taken by Ebrahim Noroozi from the Associated Press depicting people in Tehran protesting the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. We analyze how much the targeted assassination of Suleimani has seemingly unified the Iranian public. We also look at the image in the context of Iranian threats of retaliation, the role of martyrdom, and Islamic beliefs about the afterlife.

“The Pick” this week is a photo illustration by The New York Times. This still frame from a surveillance video shows at least seven parishioners appear to be holding handguns seconds after the shooting in the West Freeway Church of Christ near Ft. Worth. We look at how this image reads to people on opposite sides of the gun debate. And we examine the value of the image as a moment in time.

You can find all the Chatting the Pictures replays here.