Search - Reading The Pictures

Coronavirus Photo March 23, 2020

Coronavirus and Stock Photography

Stock photography is tricky. Take, for example, the meaning and messaging of this "stop coronavirus" image in the midst of the pandemic.

Chatting the Pictures Video

Chatting the Pictures: Coronavirus Culture, From Vatican, to Apartment Block, to Corner Bar

This webcast looks at the Pope addressing an empty St. Peters Square, the social power of the Italian balcony, and young revelers before the lock-down.

Chatting the Pictures Video

Chatting the Pictures: Coronavirus Politics–From the White House, to the Cafe, to the Gun Shop

This week, our webcast looks at a snapshot of the White House coronavirus task force, the virus and social class in a Rome cafe scene, and the run on guns.

COVID 19 Photo March 22, 2020

Drive-Up Confession and other Pandemic Improvisations

The drive-up church confession is just one of the creative adaptions being made on the fly as the coronovirus upsets the familiar rituals of life.

COVID 19 Photo March 20, 2020

The Coronoavirus and the World Atilt

Suddenly, the media is filled with images that situate the coronavirus into the most well-known backgrounds. This example from Pisa is striking.⠀

COVID 19 Photo March 19, 2020

Coronavirus: Looking at the Next Wave

What informs this photo and the fear it stirs is the knowledge that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is not quite as far along as it is elsewhere.

COVID 19 Photo March 16, 2020

White House Flickr Exposes Trump’s Oval Office Coronavirus Speech

While the crisis calls for selflessness, what the photos reveal is an obsession with the camera, and Trump acting the role of first responder.

Disaster Focus Photo March 15, 2020

As the Coronavirus Shutters Broadway

Photographers are using their symbolic gifts to process the loss of normality from the coronavirus. Here, the focus is on Broadway.

Coronavirus Photo March 10, 2020

Drawing on Contagion

This drawing by a young girl in Italy is a poignant illustration of the threat of coronavirus, and also the health of the planet. ⠀

Chatting the Pictures Video March 9, 2020

Chatting the Pictures: Virus Cover-up; Racial Politics in Selma; Women Covering the Weinstein Trial

This week, our webcast looks at a coronavirus photo from Washington, African-Americans making a campaign statement, and a tribute to woman journalists.

Gender & Identity Photo March 5, 2020

“Bernie’s Warren Problem” Really Media’s Gender Problem

The photo of Warren on the Edmund Pettus Bridge helps explain why, on the eve of Super Tuesday, everyone was talking about the old white guys.

Coronavirus Photo March 3, 2020

Faith Versus the Coronavirus

Where faith is the first line of defense against illness, we are watching appeals to divine intervention succumb to the untamed physics of COVID-19.

Campaign '20 Video March 2, 2020

Chatting the Pictures: Trump Bloomberg Golf Photo; Xi Masked; Elizabeth Warren’s Glass Ceiling

This week, we look at Trump and Bloomberg's gold game, China's President Xi and the coronavirus, and Elizabeth Warren campaigning.

Immigration/Migration Photo February 26, 2020

Saguaros and the Steely Monolith

It's a view you can instantly fall in love with–those saguaros, or giant cactus, sharing a "hug." That is, until you recognize the border wall.

COVID 19 Photo February 25, 2020

Tokyo 2020, Or Not

In terms of what photographs do, this split view of tourists above and the stadium below projects us five months into the Olympic future.

Culture Focus Photo February 16, 2020

Camouflage is a Common Marvel

Camouflage is a common marvel in the biological world. Whether the dress here is purposeful or not is a different question.

Militarism Photo February 10, 2020

Under MAGA, the Convergence of Militia and State

Those armed men prowling the Kentucky statehouse made one thing clear. Second amendment activism has fused with the militia movement and white supremacy.

Chatting the Pictures Video February 8, 2020

Chatting the Pictures: Pelosi Shreds Trump's SOTU; Coronavirus on the Move; Impeachment Going Away

This week, we look at Pelosi tearing up Trump’s State of the Union speech, the spread of the coronavirus, and the shot summing up Trump’s impeachment trial.

COVID 19 Photo February 3, 2020

Wedding Humor in the Age of Apocalypse

I noticed this picture from South Korea has been making the rounds again. It was taken as a (not-such-a-) joke photo at a wedding in Seoul in June 2015. At the time, the catalyst for the photo was the outbreak of the deadly MERS virus. Today, it strikes a...

Karrin Anderson Photo January 29, 2020

Athletic Upskirting at the Australian Open

In addition to being a (sometimes) illegal pastime of amateur photographers on subway trains and public staircases the world over, upskirting has long been a mainstay of fashion, advertising, and stock photography. It’s no surprise, then, that it pops up occasionally in the realm of sports photography in athletic...