Michael Shaw Archives
5,648 Posts
Media Focus Photo September 18, 2013

Times Square Tweet Carnage: Where We (and Twitter) Are Now

Today, Twitter is much more of a gawking and tabloid territory, the happenstance procurement of a slice of trauma or celebrity functions as much or more like a trophy, the posting and engagement less an act of witnessing than voyeurism.

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Photography/Photojournalism Photo September 17, 2013

Sweet Damascus

So the photos from Syria the past year or so have been a little weighted toward Aleppo and, recently, the Damascus suburb of Gouta. On that diet, of course, one would only think that apocalypse reigns.

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Culture Focus Photo September 16, 2013

No Photos by Women Photojournalists In Syria & Brown Miss America Freak Out: 2 Reasons BuzzFeed Starting to Piss Me Off

Here was a perfect opportunity to show us a women or multiple women journalists, for goddsakes, actually covering the war in Syria -- though I understand it might have taken about a minute to find one.

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Security the Pressing Thing

Seems you can't look over your shoulder, in the rear-view mirror or in the reflection of a puddle without seeing some reminder, allusion, suggestion (thought broadcast?) about the surveillance and security state.

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International Focus Photo September 14, 2013

The Munitions Factory

My question is, why did this photo stand out so powerfully from the larger edit of 10-year-old Issa working in a Syrian rebel weapons factory?

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International Focus Photo September 13, 2013

Why All the Syrian Execution Imagery in the Major Media Lately? (GRAPHIC)

I would say that these images represent the inclination, on the part of the West, to paint every faction in Syria with a broad bloody brush.

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Protest Focus Photo September 11, 2013

Is USPS 50th Anniversary March on Washington Stamp Based on Steve Schapiro's Jackie Robinson Photo? and What Would That Mean?

In this day and age in which events are so thoroughly produced and packaged, how strange to consider that the iconic figure wouldn't be identified and co-branded with that event, that a person's celebrity wouldn't be utilized to transfer their personal shine to the event in question.

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The Great Recession Photo September 10, 2013

Guns vs. Butter: DC Poor Lose Homes As Syria Debate Drowns Out All

The story of Mr. Coleman and the loss of his home over $134 is a troubling counterpoint to the consuming debate in DC and the press over war with Syria.

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Advertising Watch Photo September 9, 2013

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid (Without Your AmEx Card)

The galloping anxiety right now surrounding war, dangerous brown people in the Middle East, electronic surveillance, privacy and security agency breaches offers the perfect storm for those Orwellians on Madison Avenue to scare you into, what else, much stronger brand identification.

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International Focus Photo September 8, 2013

If Your Average US Citizen Could Make Sense of this Photo….

Given the scope of religious and cultural branches spanning the Middle East, this photo actually presents the Western media consumer with an Arab and Islamic world political knowledge quiz.

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International Focus Photo September 7, 2013

Will this (Random, Dated) Snuff Video Prevent the Attack on Syria?

With respect to everything at stake here, the bar for decisive imagery remains much higher.

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Media Focus Photo September 6, 2013

Impressive Level of Artificial Sweetener: Obama-Putin St. Petersburg Body Language

It's such a supreme example of pretending, it's the mutual recognition of the exercise that ultimately makes the contact authentic, even intimate.

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International Focus Photo September 5, 2013

Before and After the Bombing Starts: The Disconnect in 2 Pictures

It seems some variation of that Mike Tyson "best laid plans" quote is on a lot of minds these days.

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Business Focus Photo September 4, 2013

What’s So Impressive About Joe Raedle’s Climate Change Slide Show at the Denver Post

Like it or not, the photo story defies the simplistic treatment of the doomsday piece. If surprising for how politically incorrect it is, Greenlanders seem to see more than a silver lining to climate change.

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International Focus Photo September 3, 2013

White House Syria Crisis: Kerry/Hitler vs. Rumsfeld/Hussein

I'm sure this photo of Kerry and Assad drudged up by Drudge is going to get plenty of attention -- along with the resuscitation of how many Kerry French jokes and Kerry Assad-Hitler citations.

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White House-Syria Crisis: Obama/McCain

Maybe this really was a case of getting the photographer in and out that quickly, and Souza grabbed -- and the communications people published -- the best of what he got.

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Photo September 2, 2013

White House Flickr: Looking for a Leg Up on Syria

My sense of Saturday’s White House Flickr shot is that the President is trying, perhaps a little too hard, to compensate for the perceived foot dragging — as if looking for a literal leg up on the situation.

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International Focus Photo September 1, 2013

Anti-War Protests and the Media Stage. (Or: Assad Gets Around)

These discs might be accessible at the click of a button, but the uniformity and the geography makes me appreciate how much al-Assad gets around.

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