Michael Shaw Archives
5,648 Posts
Ferguson MO Photo August 23, 2014

Why I like the Businessweek Scott Olson Ferguson Cover

Perhaps it’s because of how it breaks from the unrelenting theme of the white police force versus the young black male.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 21, 2014

The Video of the Killing of Kajieme Powell and the Killing of Michael Brown

Don't let people label this a freak coincidence considering how tweaked St. Louis police must be over the anger in the streets in Ferguson.

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Iraq and Afghanistan War Photo August 20, 2014

Enabling ISIS, the VICE Videos and the Execution of AFP Videographer James Foley

Where are the ethics and the boundaries when the media engagement is so passive, even acquiescent, and the product, so indistinguishable from propaganda that the insurgents feel they can have their way with the exposure?

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Ferguson MO Photo

Losing Michael Brown to the Spectacle? — #Ferguson and the #Press

If the images and the tension, as seen through the photos and the media lens, felt more raw and spontaneous last week, I'm finding myself scaling back my diet of reporting and waiting for news.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 19, 2014

On that Picture of Obama Dancing During the Ferguson Turmoil

Until white right-wing critics suddenly become the official arbiters of political correctness, let's just say the President has many roles to play in public.

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Photo August 17, 2014

News Photos, Victims of the Propaganda War

To the extent armies, governments, political parties and police departments have become active and increasingly sophisticated visual combatants and critics, the difference between news photography and propaganda is being lost.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 15, 2014

Irony of Ironies: Ferguson PD Offers Surveillance Pics of Michael Brown as “Smoking Gun"

Because when you step back, this photo impugns the intent of the Ferguson police and just lends more credence to the fear that they, along with that "named officer," have blood on their hands.

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Race & Ethnicity Photo August 14, 2014

On that Incredible Screen Shot of the Ferguson Protester Marked in a Police Laser Sight

In a single picture, it captures the double-bind, the bait-and-switch, the potentially lethal double-cross that can happen like-that on any doorstep or at any traffic stop.

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Media Focus Photo

On the Snowden WIRED Cover Issue: Still Missing

At the expense of releasing to the public more "raw data," it's as if WIRED and Platon redact from us the actual man experiencing his actual and ongoing trials.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 13, 2014

Beyond the Hoodie: Michael Brown's Extended Arms

After the Michael Brown killing, the symbolism that emerges as standing for the systemic dehumanization of young black males is the gesture of extending one's arms to the sky.

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Ferguson MO Photo August 12, 2014

If it Loots, it Leads: Stereotyping the Police Shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson

For these acts and images to do more than express the release of anger over one more senseless killing is still another textbook example of America's racial and class polarization.

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Militarism Focus Photo August 11, 2014

The Art of War

Is America equipped to fight adversaries that do not follow traditional rules of engagement?

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Photo August 9, 2014

From Plymouth, CA: Is This a News Photo?

As a sometimes series, we're interested in how much a particular photo has informational value...

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Faith Focus Photo August 8, 2014

Philip Montgomery: From a Harlem Frame Shop

What’s impressive about the photo is how it has both a pre- and post-9/11 meaning.

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International Focus Photo August 7, 2014

Gaza Parting Shots: Hamas Revealed, Israel No But(t)s

Fitting of perhaps the most (visually and politically) polarizing news event I can remember, the parting imagery from Israel and Gaza could not be stranger and more cutting.

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International Focus Photo August 5, 2014

On Carolyn Cole’s Striking Photo of an Injured Muslim Woman in Gaza

Speaking for myself, I can hardly remember a news photo of a woman in a chador laying injured, let alone lying down.

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Media Focus Photo August 4, 2014

Gaza: What One Side Sees and What the Other Side Sees (GRAPHIC)

While media consumers are bombarded daily with the most gut wrenching images of dead and injured Palestinians, especially children, the battle rages as to whether the images represent atrocities or collateral damage and the use of human shields.

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