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Chatting the Pictures: Hurricane Ida, Chemical Plants Flare Louisiana Gulf
We know the levees held and the electric grid didn’t. But the other impact of Hurricane Ida, as the photo telegraphs, came from the chemical plants in “Cancer Alley.”
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Chatting the Pictures: Bernie Serves Up Massive New Deal
Maureen Dowd was looking for dish but Bernie Sanders would not be distracted from liberal's game-changing social spending and climate plan.
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Chatting the Pictures: The Military’s Night Vision “Leaving Afghanistan” Portrait
The viral photo of the last U.S. soldier leaving Afghanistan was a brilliant final bit of public relations.
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Chatting the Pictures: In One Embrace, All the Feelings of Back-to-School During Covid
As at-risk students return to campus after more than a year on lockdown, we discuss this surprisingly expressive and apolitical photo.
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Chatting the Pictures: On That US Transport Plane Swarmed By Afghans on a Kabul Runway
First reactions to the image of Afghans running alongside a U.S. military plane after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.
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Chatting the Pictures: Climate Crisis Photo Delivers a Lot More than an Instagram Moment
Behind a selfie-in-progress at Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, the Colorado River at a 44 year historic low juxtaposes how we value the environment and how we’ve manipulated it.
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Chatting the Pictures: Photo of an Exhausted California Firefighter
We focus on mood and body language as this viral photo bluntly reflects on another early and overwhelming California fire season.
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Chatting the Pictures: A Covid Kiss That Is Harder to Read
Two people kiss through plastic bags marking love in the time of Covid. We discuss how the image parallels earlier pandemic hugs and kisses.
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Chatting the Pictures: Honoring Farm Worker Parents in Proud Graduation Photos
A student takes her graduation pictures in the same farm field she once worked with her parents. We compare it to others and explore the visual history.
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Picturing Vaccination Reluctance Among Conservative Christians
Vaccination reluctance in these small Appalachian towns is less a matter of politics or social responsibility than a complex conflict with faith.
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Chatting the Pictures: Biden-Putin Summit Photo Cracks the Fourth Wall
Just an amusing photograph? We discuss how savvy it was for the media to circulate it, and how surprisingly informative it is.
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Chatting the Pictures: Beyond Cute
We explain how this Chinese panda at the National Zoo in Washington both offers lessons in photo editing and captures a post-pandemic mood.
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Chatting the Pictures: Photo of Gaza Vigil an Appeal to the Senses
Amidst the rubble, this photo of Palestinian family members attending a candlelight vigil in Gaza makes an exquisite appeal to the senses.
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Chatting the Pictures: A Singular Picture of George Floyd’s Daughter Entering the White House
On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, this photo of his family visiting the White House stood above the others.
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Chatting the Pictures: Submerged Man in Miami and Kadir van Lohuizen’s Essential Climate Imagery
Considering a deep examination of the world's vanishing coastlines and the media challenge of making climate crisis images more impactful.
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Haunting for the Beauty, or the Stalking?
Beauty and subtlety distracts from the reality of asylum seekers in this news photos from the US/Mexico border.
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Scenes from Work as Photographers Increasingly Caught Up in the Protests They Cover
These Instagram photos of Colombian news photographer Luis Robayo speak to the all-consuming challenge of covering protests today.
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Chatting the Pictures: The Ameriguns
Parker ‘Baret’ Fawbush stands with his family and his firearms for an American family portrait in Poseyville Indiana.
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Figure and Ground
We rarely discuss it this formally, but our analysis of important news photos always considers the relationship between figure and ground.
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Chatting the Pictures: Frank Thorp’s Portrait of Dion 100 Days after the Capitol Riot
This portrait photograph of Dion Montague is part of an NBC News feature, "After the Riot," marking 100 days since the Capitol attack.
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