The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament
How photographers are documenting the Trump administration's campaign of terror against immigrant communities.
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Willful Blindness: How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis
From systematic climate erasure to 'thoughts and prayers,’ the deadly cost of choosing not to see.
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The Only Shot That Matters: How One Mother’s Photo Exposes the Truth of an Unfolding Measles Epidemic
As the measles spread, a family’s hospital image lays bare the unheeded crisis—and the acute need for pictures of cause and consequences.
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Essential Images: 13 Scenes of Democracy Under Siege
From militarized raids to detention camps, these visuals expose and interrogate the country's slide into authoritarianism.
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What If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?
How LA residents refused Trump's invitation to violence—and why the most essential protest images tell a different story.
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What Now? Audacious Imagery Outside Immigration Court, Calling BS on the Trump-Musk “Melee,” and Researchers’ Fury
We sift the latest visual barrage to spotlight images at the heart of Trump’s war on democracy.
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Weapons as Props, Warriors as Roadies: Brandon Bell’s Deadpan Photos Call Out Massive Effort Behind Trump’s Military Parade
Behind the spectacle, a hollow ritual orchestrated at staggering public cost.
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The Oval Office as Demon’s Lair
What's in a photo op? Trump's psychopathic corruption of American power.
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Double Takes: Healthy, Wealthy…And Lies
In our new "Double Take" feature, we freeze-frame the images officials hope you'll miss—from detention SOS signals to political theater disguised as health policy.
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Vatican Celebration Photos Spotlight Pope Leo’s Challenge to Trump’s America
As American flags wave in St. Peter's Square, a humble pontiff elevates a competing vision of patriotism and national identity.
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Trump’s Visual Legacy at 100 Days: Not Normal Pictures for Not Normal Times
I'm proud to share these 15 images, which the media's hundred-day photo reviews will likely ignore. Call it a democracy stress test.
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Signaling Strangelove: The New Yorker Cover’s Brilliant Take on SignalGate
Barry Blitt’s masterpiece perfectly captures the essence of the Trump administration. It’s a visual terror warning worthy of Kubrick himself. By Michael Shaw Barry Blitt’s latest New Yorker cover masterfully captures the essence of the SignalGate scandal. The illustration, depicting administration officials gleefully riding a missile downward like deranged...
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The State of Disunion
I’m breaking down key images from Trump’s 2025 State of the Union—moments capturing a chamber in splinters, where resistance took many forms and silence would have meant complicity. By Michael Shaw “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicare!” Pundits blamed Democrats for losing their cool. But incitement...
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Trump’s Village People Takeover – Why This Matters Now
Is Trump’s MAGA theater still hypnotizing America—or is it finally awakening the resistance? By Michael Shaw One plays a cowboy, one plays a construction worker, and another plays a president. What’s genuinely unsettling isn’t the spectacle itself—it’s how quickly we’ve normalized it. Trump dancing with the Village People at...
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The Visual Politics of the LA Fires
From a man rescuing Old Glory to a haunting ‘stairway to nowhere,’ key photos from LA’s devastating fires expose America’s most profound social divisions inflamed by Trump’s sabotage. By Michael Shaw In our latest short Chatting the Pictures video, Cara and I analyze a defining image from the LA fires: a...
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Scenes from the Coronation of King Donald II: A Visual Guide to American Autocracy
From executive order theater to Elon’s salute, telling moments of Trump’s second inauguration (and yes, Justice Jackson’s eloquent necklace). By Michael Shaw “Don’t let the rotor blade hit you on the way out.” We know the whole ‘waving goodbye to your predecessor’ thing is tradition. But that photo of...
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A Visually Rhythmic Journey Through a Year’s Most Striking Book Covers
A curated tour of 2024’s most striking book covers reveals unexpected patterns in our collective consciousness – from wild abandonment to geometric precision, from fragmentation to wholeness. By Michael Shaw In 2024, book cover design mirrored our cultural moment, reflecting our anxieties and aspirations through visual allusion. Drawing from PRINT...
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What’s in a “Top 100 Photos of the Year” List?
TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2024 captures the year’s defining crises, from war and climate disasters to political polarization. This analysis explores what the images reveal—and what they leave out. By Michael Shaw Every year-end, media organizations and news photo publishers ritually curate their choice of best images. Both...
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