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Chatting the Pictures Video October 29, 2023

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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Notes Photo May 27, 2021

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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Notes Photo May 11, 2021

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 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.

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Notes Photo November 23, 2019

Turkey’s Syria Invasion and Visual Media Bias

Media bias usually has to do with what's in the frame--not whether there is one. Turkey's Syria invasion is an example of bias for only showing one side.

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Notes Photo October 8, 2019

The Larger Reason China Wants to Strip Hong Kong Protesters of their Masks

By banning Hong Kong protesters from wearing face masks, China is also hoping to undermine the visual and the moral power of these disguises.

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Notes Photo October 2, 2019

Apartheid’s Legacy From Here: The Photo That Struck Me Most At Photoville

I'm sure this scene is more nuanced in South Africa. But to see a photo in America of black kids eyeballing a white kid is exceedingly rare.

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Notes Photo July 24, 2019

Religious Persecution Survivors on the Oval Stage

We examine the political agenda behind President Trump’s Oval Office meeting with 27 survivors of religious persecution from around the world. 

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Notes Photo June 11, 2019

Mexican Forces Give Their All for the Cameras to Placate Trump

With Trump on their backs over immigration deal, Mexico put the "show" in "show of force" at its southern border.

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Notes Photo April 29, 2019

How Climate Change is and isn’t Fueling the U.S. Border Crisis: These Pictures aren’t that Simple

With all the visual attention given to the "caravan," how powerful to see mass migration also depicted by people taking hold of a place.

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Notes Photo April 1, 2019

The Meaning of Roseanne Barr in Jerusalem

How Hollywood star power negotiates a career fallout by heading to the Holy Land.

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Notes Photo March 20, 2019

The Grieving Woman at the Ethiopian Airlines Crash Site, and the Western Gaze

The expression of grief is so intense, I cannot forget it. At the same, however, I feel challenged looking at the photo as a westerner.

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Notes Photo March 12, 2019

Kill Them with Kindness: Leading up to the Lie Maduro Burned US Aid Trucks

The lie has been disproven. But what is missing from the bridge story is the role the US and USAID played in stoking this incident in the first place.

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Notes Photo February 7, 2019

Why Wall Breaching Photos Don’t Capture the Border Crossing Story

These photos remind us that immigrants are not an organized caravan or an impending wave of bodies. They are mostly alone, navigating one step at a time.

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Notes Photo October 22, 2018

What We’re Looking At: Hurricanes Michael and Khashoggi

Visual news has been dominated by two hurricanes lately. Here are selected photos with commentary.

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Notes Photo July 8, 2018

Gangster Mindset: Pompeo Gets Owned on North Korea Visit

Taken during Mike Pompeo's empty visit to North Korea last week, Andrew Harnik's Instagram photo is pretty clever.

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Notes Photo April 25, 2018

How John Moore’s Brilliant US-Mexico Border Photos Also Migrate

John Moore’s focus is not so much the US-Mexico border itself but the way the line infiltrates the lives of people in every direction.

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Notes Photo February 8, 2018

Portraits of Retired Sex Workers: The Gaze Turned the Other Way

Formerly public women evicted from private space, these retired sex workers are now proudly private and challenge us to recognize it.

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