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Burundi in Crisis, Love the Headdress
I was struck by these portraits by photographers for Reuters, AP and AFP/Getty. Along with their existing captions is a second one I've volunteered to think about how these photos are actually consumed.
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Eye on Police Violence: NYPD Officer Shoots Crazy Man with Hammer
After all the highly-publicized incidents of police brutality and racial profiling in New York and around the country, what's as much under the microscope here are these militarized police departments.
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Boy in the Suitcase: The First Photo of the New Century
The photo captures the bare life of the human subject in migration; the emblematic equipment of global transportation and a powerful but harsh global economy that permeates everyday life.
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Muhammad Art Contest: Pamela Geller Rallies the Troops
This show of muscle is reminiscent of the American invasion of Iraq -- as supplemented by the Blackwater group.
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What if I Asked You to Imagine a News Photo from Gaza...
Is this scene what you would have envisioned?
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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.
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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.
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On the Viral Photo of the Baltimore Girl and the National Guardsman (and the Portland "Ferguson Hug")
It’s not just cozying up to the man.
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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.
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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...
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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On That “Angry" Penguin
Of all the nature and eco images I’ve seen lately, this hit me like a bucket of ice water.
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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.
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