Notes Archives
6,420 Posts
Photo May 10, 2015

What if I Asked You to Imagine a News Photo from Gaza…

Is this scene what you would have envisioned?

Continue Reading
Fashion Focus Photo May 8, 2015

Militarism and Race as Martin Parr Does the Derby

Beyond the jesting and the field day with hats, these two Parr photos from the Kentucky Derby feel a bit more political than usual.

Continue Reading
Eco Watch Photo May 6, 2015

Remember that Angry Penguin? Now it's the Cows.

As climate change gains more visibility in the public square, it's interesting to observe how creatures are playing a supporting role.

Continue Reading
Media Focus Photo May 5, 2015

Photographer Natalie Keyssar on Getting Baltimore Wrong

The photos capture a Baltimore that, unlike the stereotypical stories of anger and violence, poverty or neglect, is not one thing.

Continue Reading
Protest Focus Photo May 4, 2015

1000 Words: Freddie Gray

Images in the news that speak for themselves.

Continue Reading
Photo May 1, 2015

Beyond My Pet Goat: Race, Education and the President's Long Game

If you’re a politico and you want to make a point about education, you need to sit or stand in front of a wall of books. That’s the first rule. The second rule is to make it about the students. And like all the smart kids in school, President...

Continue Reading
Race Focus Photo April 30, 2015

There's the Pennant Race, and Then There's Just Race: On the Pics from the Empty Orioles Game

Is it significant, then, in a city that is 63% black, that the photos of fans just beyond the gates aren't all that racially balanced?

Continue Reading
Christa Olson Photo April 28, 2015

Volcanic Exceptionalism: Why America Treats Every Disturbance Abroad Like it’s Looking in a Mirror

People from the United States have been looking at South American volcanoes and seeing them as metaphors for what’s happening at home for at least one hundred and fifty years.

Continue Reading

The Looting Selfie and Portraits of Media Bias in Baltimore

What was particular to the photo coverage of protest violence this week was the portraiture. I don't recall citizens so willing to share their venom with news photographers in an actual pose.

Continue Reading
Middle East Watch Photo April 27, 2015

More Absurdity in Baltimore

Maybe the reporter knows something we don't because his reaction to this potentially explosive situation is primarily one of bemusement.

Continue Reading
International Focus Photo April 25, 2015

Armenian Association

Rituals of public memory have always been about forming the community through public display—using cultural materials to fashion and shape how "we" want to remember ourselves.

Continue Reading
Disaster Focus Photo April 24, 2015

Congrats to the Calbuco Volcano, Crashing the Weekly Menu of Disaster Entertainment

We don’t love the photos of the Calbuco Volcano because the eruption reminds us of a Yellowstone geyser, a giant 4-H winning cauliflower or the perfect backdrop for the monotonous subdivision.

Continue Reading
Culture Focus Photo April 23, 2015

An Immigrant Walking: On the Stunning NYT Magazine / JR Cover

How can you call an image subtle when it’s 150 feet long, takes up an entire square in NYC and graces the cover of the NYT Magazine?

Continue Reading
Eco Watch Photo April 22, 2015

On That “Angry" Penguin

Of all the nature and eco images I’ve seen lately, this hit me like a bucket of ice water.

Continue Reading
Eco Watch Photo April 21, 2015

Mediterranean Crisis: Ecology is About People, Too

Isn't it curious how people tend to think about "ecology" as it relates to plants and air and water and less in terms of humanity and how much we look out for each other.

Continue Reading
Immigration/Migration Photo April 20, 2015

On Media Visuals of the Migrant Tragedy in the Mediterranean

These are some images and thoughts that struck me about the visual media coverage of the catastrophe as photos filled galleries and illustrated news stories this morning.

Continue Reading
International Focus Photo April 19, 2015

From Johannesburg: A Photo That Makes Us Stop

Typically, news pictures prompt us to visualize the continuous action in our own mind.

Continue Reading