Back to all topics John Lucaites
63 Posts
Notes Photo April 5, 2015

Why all the Photos of People Taking Photos, Especially When Heavy Things Are Going Down?

The utter ubiquity of camera phones, portable screens as well as digital circulation has given citizen spectators a whole new way of registering their voice—or is it their gaze?

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Notes Photo March 15, 2015

Jewelry to Die For

Accessorizing at the “fashion and firearms extravaganza.”

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Notes Photo February 10, 2015

The Masking of Damaged Vets (With an Appearance by Hannibal Lecter). Photo by Lynn Johnson.

While the mask purports to give voice to his inner pain, it also makes it possible for us to observe him (from a distance) without actually seeing him.

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Notes Photo December 3, 2014

… the more things stay the same.

The photograph stands as notice that the problem of black-white relations is the true American tragedy.

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Notes Photo March 3, 2014

Cold War Kiss: On Russia, the U.S. and the “Return to Normalcy"

It could be humans caught up in the worldly tensions between Eros and Thanatos. Or, it could be a “Return to Normalcy” where the war was “cold” and we could identify who our enemies were.

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Notes Photo November 19, 2013

Syria Ho-Hum

The real horror of war may well be its everyday ordinariness.

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Notes Photo August 13, 2013

There is Shooting and There is Shooting

Among photography's many virtues, it slows the world down, indeed, it stops the world in ways that normal sight is often hard pressed to do—at 1/800th of a second, for example—inviting us not just to look at the world around us, but to see it, sometimes with fresh eyes.

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Notes Photo January 8, 2013

“A Well Regulated Militia, Being Necessary …”

The point here is not that we should eliminate the right to keep and bear arms, but that the conditions that animated the original intent of this amendment no longer abide.

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Notes Photo April 6, 2012

How Much More War You Can See in Magenta

When infrared film is used, the invisible becomes visible forcing us to look again at what we are seeing.

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Notes Photo March 8, 2012

Pictures After the Tornados: A Meditation on Things Lost—and Found

That the tornado could destroy everything but the stoop is an indication of its power, to be sure, but it's also an indication of its limitations.

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Notes Photo January 25, 2012

Perhaps It’s a Wonder Vet Suicide Rate as Low as It Is

Brian Scott Ostrom, an honorably discharged Marine veteran served two tours of duty in Iraq. Ostrom did not commit suicide, but as the fresh stitches that mark his wrist indicate, he made a serious attempt at doing so. In fact, it was his second attempt. The...

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Notes Photo January 18, 2012

Flying Too Close to the Sun

As Don Quixote’s sidekick Pancho reminds him, “whether the stone hits the bottle or the bottle hits the stone … its always bad for the bottle.”

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Notes Photo January 13, 2012

Ironing Out the Wrinkles

But in the end there is Governor Romney, his hair carefully coifed and even his American flag steam ironed so that none of its wrinkles will show.

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Notes Photo October 22, 2011

How the Other Half Lives

What we see in these two images when juxtaposed is a glimpse at a possible future, a world divided between the haves and the have-nots with little room in between. In short, we see a world in which the middle class itself has been erased.

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Notes Photo October 2, 2011

“Out, Damn Spot!”

In America's war on terrorism (given our Christian sensibilities), "cleanliness is next to godliness.”

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Notes Photo July 22, 2011

Facing Our Warriors (Before, During and After)

Taken as a piece, the three portraits mark the subtle, psychic metamorphosis of a young man who has encountered the experience of war.

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Notes Photo May 18, 2011

Another Picture of Normalcy from Afghanistan: What Would Tweedledee and Tweedledum Say?

One more scene of the normalization of life in Afghanistan. It appeared prominently at nearly every one of the mainstream media slideshows that I visited, Only one, though, seemed to have challenged the theme of normalcy.

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Notes Photo May 11, 2011

Ankle Deep in the Big Muddy

In the photograph, the soldier walking through a combat outpost in Kandahar is only ankle deep. And so one would like to think that there is still hope for him ... until we see the next photo.

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