Michael Shaw Archives
5,648 Posts
Media Focus Photo May 12, 2014

Michael Sam's Draft Day Kiss: ESPN as Deep Throat

What's mainly an issue here is how media makes all of us flies on the wall without causing us to think about how we got in the room in the first place.

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Photography/Photojournalism Photo May 10, 2014

How They See Us: The World Trade Center

As much as the Freedom Tower is all about America’s grief and will, to the Russian on holiday it's just one more stop between the Chrysler Building and Liberty Island.

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Media Focus Photo May 7, 2014

That Vanity Fair Monica Lewinsky Spread: Black and White and Re(a)d All Over

What were left with (if it's not a parody on her claim to fame) is the act of her giving her body.

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The Open-and-Shut Assault Case Against Occupy Activist, Cecily McMillan: Just Look at the Pictures

And, if you thought this story had to do with anything more than the state and a woman's body, this shot puts that to rest.

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President Obama Photo May 5, 2014

That Sleazy Obama – Sebelius White House Correspondents Dinner Photo

Evoking the stereotype of the hyper-sexual black man and the penchant for white women, it's still one more photo of the first black president with racist overtones.

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About Those Callous Selfies

I'm not prepared to say that this photo or its innumerable cousins have any moral implications at all.

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International Focus Photo May 3, 2014

Spacious Photos of People Living in Shoeboxes

Spurred by top and bottom incomes rocketing in opposite directions, these eye-catching and, certainly, morally disorienting bird's eye views capture people in Hong Kong's high rises forced to exist in closet-sized spaces.

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Photo May 2, 2014

Some Guy Executed Somewhere After a Couple of Tries

I wonder how much the randomness is reflective of how little we want to see, understand and take responsibility for this brand of extermination.

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Disaster Focus Photo May 1, 2014

The S. Korean Ferry Disaster: Living Hell in an Increasingly Mediated Age

I'm referring to how and how much participants live the experience live via screens and visual and social media. Which then, we do.

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International Focus Photo April 30, 2014

Finbarr O'Reilly and the Fabulist Art of the Israeli Bomb Shelter

What strains also is the actual imagining of a "promised" land -- with the delusional notion that, once the air raid siren goes off, residents simply meld into the Zionist dream.

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Race Focus Photo April 28, 2014

Hash Tag Mining: NBA Clippers vs. Owner Donald Sterling

It's black because that's the issue.

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Business Focus Photo April 26, 2014

Viral, But Why? That Photoshop Swarm over LAX

I'm entranced, too, but I'm wondering why architectural photographer, Mike Kelley's beautiful and meticulous LAX photoshop image, "Wake Turbulence," went viral.

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International Focus Photo April 25, 2014

Gaza Riding Club: The Seduction of Seeing Palestinians Better Off

The potential existence of an elite class in Gaza – as much as America worships wealth and the demonstration of it – makes the Gazans not only look more normative and less like "the other."

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Culture Focus Photo April 24, 2014

On NYT Mag's Obama/Gay Marriage Cover and that "Projectile Bouquet"

The way that Obama agonizes over his trajectory, perhaps the mixed metaphor is a direct hit.

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Occupying #MyNYPD

How fitting what might be the first social media mass demonstration is playing out on truly communal real estate.

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Militarism Focus Photo April 21, 2014

Boston Marathon 2014: Back to (the New) Normal

Funny how getting back on track looks a lot like war time.

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Media Focus Photo

SI's #BostonStrong Cover

I imagine it's almost sacrilegious to to get too analytical about this, but it's interesting just how much the bombing seems to have threatened the psyche of this city.

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