Less Teflon, More Substance: Our Visual Roundup of the Week

Nostalgically named, the Caravan was a yearly, largely symbolic event before Fox & Friends, then DJT, reframed this year’s as an invasion. The attention makes quiet images more poignant. @bloombergimages Central American asylum-seekers on road in Oaxaca. https://t.co/kE4JJzZXvt pic.twitter.com/TR0OeRuTkj

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

This was an odd visual week for a couple of reasons. It seemed Donald Trump’s political actions and the fallout of those actions seemed more the object of focus than the man himself. (That’s quite a shift, and a potentially healthy one.) Also, the way news events were treated this week seemed more complex and less stereotyped or sensationalized than usual. We think that trend ran through most of the visual news, spanning the “red state” teacher strikes, the 50th anniversary of the King assassination, the immigration/border debate, the police shooting in Brooklyn, the brewing trade war, as well as the latest Israel/Gaza standoff. And yes, even the White House Easter egg roll coverage on a chilly day seemed to reflect more reality.

For the many Crown Heights residents who knew #SaheedVassell, the melodramatic body language, as he brandished what looked like a shower head, accorded with his bipolar disorder. @dstfelix on community, NYPD & another slain black man: https://t.co/hSaTbHCxyN #RIP pic.twitter.com/FukNfkb95x

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 6, 2018

If the only tool you have is a hammer…. 📷@alamy @gettyimages @BW #TradeWar pic.twitter.com/sPddgGMDPa

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 6, 2018

One more movement gaining traction: the #teachersstrike. Another day, another state capitol protest, this from #OklahomaCity. Respectful of teaching, these rotunda shots are like eyeballs, this a starry one. 📷@NickOxfordPhoto @reuterspictures pic.twitter.com/rqObMOqgWr

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

Teachers in multiple states have walked off the job after a strike in West Virginia yielded a pay raise and significant public support. Here’s the latest on the protests. https://t.co/NewbkeImix

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 4, 2018

Not a huge show of strength anywhere else. But Kentucky is hardly a hotbed of activism. https://t.co/NHID0S5Xnr

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 5, 2018

50th in Funding is NOT OK. #okleg #OKwalk4kids #OklaEd #oklahomateacherwalkout pic.twitter.com/Y9KzYhzSTl

— OK Teacher Walk (@Ginnnae) April 2, 2018

A scene of violence and loss as great as any intruder. https://t.co/5BbzOZQ4zh

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 3, 2018

Visuals from #Gaza and #Sacramento draw their own parallels. #tires #cellphones 📷 Mahmoud Abu Salama, #SacramentoPD pic.twitter.com/vypHL9Ur0w

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

Gender neutral. 📷 @b_smialowski#MLK50 pic.twitter.com/gSGf9vJorx

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 6, 2018

On #MLK50, #LaToyaRubyFrazier‘s aerial “Geography of Oppression” provides what the times demand—a larger perspective of the racial landscape. Here, the #LorraineMotel, including that Dodge and Cadillac, in situ. @TheAtlantic https://t.co/eiKvcsNUX1 pic.twitter.com/95NhOFfrDn

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

Nice piece by @MauriceBerger for @nytimesphoto on “Dr. King’s Complex Relationship With the Camera.” Media rendered him enigmatic. But, in pic famed as first father-daughter segregation convo, it’s consciousness vs cookies. https://t.co/uKv4TeRvMn 📷James Karales/@HGreenbergGllry pic.twitter.com/uaVCsu6l3E

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

Sarah Sanders, Kirstjen Nielsen today.

(Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) pic.twitter.com/VRIFyTZVbk

— Colin Campbell (@colincampbell) April 4, 2018

File under: fraying at the seams. @WhiteHouse https://t.co/aN3HV0W8Nh

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 4, 2018

Can’t access the mind of the photo editors. Still, imagine the particular frame partly resonant with WH hiring woes. @reuterspictures https://t.co/9IrREyI9kb pic.twitter.com/T8sqGqI1Qs

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 3, 2018

Another @Reuters shot from the Easter egg roll, John Kelly holding a child. Can’t tell how earnest or ironic this photograph is entertaining a @WhiteHouse softer side. https://t.co/9IrREyI9kb pic.twitter.com/xFirEIHXiq

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 3, 2018

As we said last year, the @WhiteHouse Easter egg event is one of the rare chances to observe the Trumps socially. This year was chillier–and it wasn’t just the weather. Case in point, #Melania in the colonnade before she saw the cameras. …Or, maybe she had. @somogettynews pic.twitter.com/8W4Ad35SCj

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 2, 2018

More cleverness from the WH press corps. @AP‘s @CKaster snapped this shadow from #AirForce1 as it passed over Andrews golf course. The plane was on approach to the famed Maryland Air Force base after Trump’s DC return from Palm Beach. Make of it what you will. @TheAtlPhoto pic.twitter.com/EyOByMe5v5

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) March 31, 2018

One more from @TheAtlPhoto‘s of the week. Norwegian scientists play soccer in Greenland, armed guards protecting them from polar bears. Somewhat less amusing climate-wise though, seeing sheets turn to ice cubes. 📷 Norsk Telegrambyra AS @reuterspictures pic.twitter.com/aYybMPkfLP

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) March 31, 2018

Olympic splash. Now South’s K-pop hoopla. Seems #KimJongUn and newly visible wife have studied Obama popular culture playbook. #KCNA via @reuterspictures
https://t.co/vXuOcpklmO pic.twitter.com/JBIUr5KtqL

— Reading The Pictures (@ReadingThePix) April 2, 2018

(Photo: Jordi Ruiz Cirera/Bloomberg Caption: Central American asylum-seekers walk along a road in Santiago Niltepec. April 1, 2018. Schoolbook photo: Heavener, Oklahoma. Sarah Jane Scarberry.)