Chatting the Pictures Archives
169 Posts
Politics Video February 22, 2024

Chatting the Pictures: Trump on Trial

We examine how Trump, despite his astonishing legal woes, turns his court appearances into photo-ops and how the images play in his parallel universe.

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Environment Video December 22, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: Personal Meets Political in Undersea Climate Change Portraits

We survey the powerful blending of portraiture and landscape and the brilliant tension between domesticity and disaster in this photo project.

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Middle East Watch Video December 3, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: Mourning Embrace in a Gaza Hospital

We discuss the photo's anonymity and intimacy, as well as other images of the woman and child to personalize the interconnection of grief and loss.

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Middle East Watch Video November 3, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: On a Gaza Playground, Seized by the Peril of Fighter Jets

The photo, timeless as it is specific, embodies the instinctual reactions, sustained fear, and psychic harm to children lacking true refuge.

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Middle East Watch Video October 29, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: The Israeli Hostage Poster

Analyzing the posters of abducted Israelis, we examine their format, 9/11 parallels, wide circulation, and how they inform Israeli unity.

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Chatting the Pictures: Libya’s Climate-Fueled Flood at Epic Scale

With an expert perspective, this photo vividly conveys the immense scale of the climate-supercharged flooding in Libya.

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Media & Culture Video October 1, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: A Portrait that Dares to Expose Musk’s Madness

We do a deep dive into a daring photo that reflects Elon Musk as a supervillain and potentially mentally disturbed.

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Chatting the Pictures Video September 23, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: Coexisting with a Steadily Rising Sea

In the video, we contrast the vibrant elements of this Javanese portrait with the irony and cultural loss from the advance of climate change.

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Environment Video September 6, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: The Climate’s Dark Harvest

As striking as it is ominous, this disorienting photo is a powerful indictment of the social and environmental impact of extreme heat.

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Media & Culture Video August 14, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: The Fate of Twitter in a Single Shot

In the video, we into the symbolism of the dismembered logo, the visual dynamics of the replacement “X,” and the live bird and the “BlueSky.“

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Middle East Watch Video August 7, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: Israel’s “Democracy SOS”

We note the scale and urgency of the "judicial coup" protests in Israel and their failure to garner international attention.

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Chatting the Pictures Video July 25, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: NYC’s Children of the Smoke

The sight of smoke descending on NYC was otherworldly. The emotional fallout from the Canadian wildfires, especially on children, was also.

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Race & Ethnicity Video June 30, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: Rough Times for Trump and His Body Man

In addition to the power imbalance evident in the photo, we explore the racial and cultural dynamics in the Trump-Nauta relationship.

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Video June 13, 2023

Chatting the Pictures: The War Against Drag. And Why Drag is Winning

Energized by right-wing moral panic, this image reflects the growing popularity of drag as both social education and family entertainment.

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Video May 29, 2023

Chatting The Pictures: Death is Part of Life

The image is exemplary for its calmness and domesticity when death is so often distanced and ostracized in modern culture.

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Video October 7, 2022

Chatting the Pictures: Ukraine’s Army of Exhumation

We explore the stunning portraiture, the powerful geometry, and how unique and devastating the investigation is for taking place this soon.

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Video September 27, 2022

Chatting the Pictures: Liz Cheney On the Hunt

As Liz Cheney leads the charge against Trump and “the big lie,” the background here lets us know she’s a force to be reckoned with.

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Video September 21, 2022

Chatting the Pictures: When the Wind Turbine Met the Wildfire

This dramatic photo sets up a fundamental clash between symbols of climate destruction and a green energy future.

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