Michael Shaw Archives
5,648 Posts
International Focus Photo February 19, 2015

On Those Migrants Up a Pole (POYi Spot News Award)

What is it about this photo of Sub-Saharan migrants high up a pole in Spain’s border town of Melilla that earned a POY award?

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USA(ID)! USA(ID)!: Full Salute to a Military Photo

And when in our lifetimes have we been made aware the military has been deployed to save lives?

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Culture Focus Photo February 18, 2015

Seeing Surveillance Everywhere and Nowhere

In this day and age, when an image could as easily have been pulled off a civil defense drone or a surveillance camera, we also register that.

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Protest Focus Photo February 16, 2015

Beyond FEMEN: That Arresting Photo Outside the Strauss-Kahn Trial

I doubt the group expected a photo this effective, even if Femen protesters are consistently “manhandled” by police.

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Photography/Photojournalism Photo February 14, 2015

Picture of the Year (Sports Feature): What is it About Men and their Balls?

It could have landed on his shoe. It could have bounced and landed on that other guy's straw hat. But, it didn't.

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Photography/Photojournalism Photo February 13, 2015

LGBT Love and Anxiety: The Ambiguity and Politics of the World Press Photo of the Year

Perhaps the noirish quality serves as a buffer but this photo is at least as tense as it is tender.

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Photo February 10, 2015

More Than Less Than Meets the Eye: The Pope in a (Roman) Shanty Town

I'm wondering when was the last time a head of state ventured into a similar homestead -- and did so with such intimacy.

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POYi Winning Photos: Is the Freeway the New Protest Battle Ground?

Stopping these throughways provide a way for the movement to demonstrate that business-as-usual has got to stop, and that citizens -- especially those that simply watch on TV -- need feel it, too.

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International Focus Photo February 9, 2015

Priests and Protests: Looking Back on the Photography from Kiev Square

Protestors armed themselves against government forces with whatever was available to them, creating a visual mash of color and symbolism, the clergy ministering throughout.

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Middle East Watch Photo February 7, 2015

Too Much Art in a News Photo? West Bank Rhythm and Flow

The infusion of creativity into the news photo is not just an art itself, but is often a slippery slope.

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Culture Focus Photo February 6, 2015

Denial Is a Pool in Bakersfield: An Immigration Picture You've Hardly Seen Before

What Mark’s photo frames and what it also nails are two of the immigration issue's elephants in the room.

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International Focus Photo February 5, 2015

A Preliminary Thought As We Enter Photojournalism Award Season

I appreciate that a news photo deserves to be judged and valued as a professional artifact. It's not nearly so straight forward, however.

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Business Focus Photo February 4, 2015

For Crying Out Loud: The Visual Politics of the Vaccination Photo

Now that vaccination has become the latest political football in America’s ideological and culture war, the injection photo really does carry some weight.

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Campaign '16 Photo February 3, 2015

Dr. Christie, He Presumes: GOP Optics and Weird Science

If you don't have the politics or the facts firmly enough behind you -- especially if the public doesn't take you that seriously -- doing a photo op against the no-nonsense background of the clinic or the lab is not a very good idea.

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What War, Terror, Racial Tension, Climate Change? The Anxiety Underneath This Year's Kinder, Gentler Super Bowl Ads

I'm wonder how much of the softer, lighter, funnier and friendlier focus of many of these ads was actually a reflex to buffer the consuming public from the social tension and political anxiety that has formed an almost steady drumbeat since last November.

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Eco Watch Photo February 2, 2015

Last Week’s Scariest Newswire Photo (For 81% of Americans and 61% of Republicans, at Least)

What's ironic is the way the children skip forward leaving us to wonder at what rate over their lifetimes the environment will deteriorate.

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Business Focus Photo January 31, 2015

That Deflate-Gate Photo, Focused Appropriately

Yes, phallic associations abound in this story — and given the NFL’s travails, are fully deserving.

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Campaign '16 Photo January 30, 2015

Two Views of the GOP's Iowa Freedom Summit

If Peterson's shots are more consistently dark and cynical in tone, it's not to say that the Yahoo Gallery doesn't match, and in certain instances, exceed Mark's most equivalent photo for skepticism and even mockery.

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