James Whitlow Delano – Fourth Dispatch: My Odyssey to Learn What Gold Wreaked on Suriname
In this longread and photojournal for BagNews Originals, photographer James Whitlow Delano chronicles the influx of foreigners, the ecological toxification and the adverse cultural effects of intensive mining in Suriname.
Continue Reading
A TIME Person of the Year We Were Never Going to See
How much is it about person vs. personality?
Continue Reading
Alongside the Grace and Poetry of the Mandela Memorial Tribute, a Mirror of Our Lesser Selves
If a profound delineation would have ever emerged between tabloid culture and our highest nature, yesterday would have been that day.
Continue Reading
The Politics of Nostalgia: The Mandela Fist
It's interesting how the flood of memorial portraits in the West marginalize or soft-peddle, but also get stuck on Mandela's ferocity and engagement with the tool of violence.
Continue Reading
Holiday Inc: From Louis Vuitton's Red Square to Amex's Obama-Powered Small Business Saturday
Maybe Amex's use of the Obama newswire image is fair game because the company birthed a quasi-official shopping holiday that stealthily interweaves its interests with the patriotic credo to go shopping?
Continue Reading
A Picture of Poverty Tourism that Still Means Business
Far too often, photojournalists take pictures that support commercial, rather than journalistic, interests. Instead, a photojournalist should go for another angle that presents the hypocrisy.
Continue Reading
Reading the Tribute Photos: Mandela's Masterful Body Language
How effective was Mandela as a craftsman in social space? Well, let's take a look.
Continue Reading
The Most Important Michelle Obama Photo Ever, Clarified
I understand the formula involves an ultra-superlative in every post title, but in this case, "Most Important" is less having, or even making fun of Michelle Obama than writing her off as a fool.
Continue Reading
An (Extreme) Meditation on our Virtual Times
To the extent we live so vicariously today, I couldn't imagine a more ingenious photographic parody of modern times.
Continue Reading
Those "Upside Down" Pictures from Kiev: Citizens Cracking the Whip in Ukraine?
With mass protest and iron fisted crackdowns sadly common newswire fare, there was something curiously different about the images from Kiev's Independence Square.
Continue Reading
Relative Vantages (and Advantages): Souza and the Photo Media Go to the Bookstore
In light of ongoing tension between the White House and the press over visual access to the President, I was interested in Saturday's post-Thanksgiving photo op from the D.C. bookstore, Politics and Prose.
Continue Reading
I'm Thankful … I Didn't have to Photo Edit That
Once upon a time, picture quality had everything to do with you fiddling skills with the rabbit ears.
Continue Reading
I'm Thankful … For the Pepper
Beyond the funky Thanksgiving morning amuse bouche, I think it's wonderful how subtly this pivots us into the holiday season.
Continue Reading
I'm Thankful — from Dealey Plaza
Over the next four days, I'm sure there'll be six or eight things I'm thankful for.
Continue Reading
One More Commentary on the Cell Phone
Of course, anything could be happening here. Still....
Continue Reading
Racism as Style: The Return of Blackface
It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to overlook the tremendously casual manner in which fashion photographs repeat the ghoulish visual history of racism as style.
Continue Reading
Your Turn: Riot Cop Fantasies
How odd is it that these two pics, one from Bulgaria, the other from Italy, surfaced within the same week. More significantly, what are we to make of them? For thoughts, we're turning things over to you.
Continue Reading
Pic of the Day: White House's Crass (Visual) Response to Media's Photo Access Protest
If the White House intended even a half-respectful gesture, they would have provided access to the president yesterday in a spot that was personal, doing something personal.
Continue Reading