Your Turn: The Double Obamas

Looking at newswire images day after day, you can’t help but see patterns, peculiarities and visual devices.  Although most aren’t worth thinking too hard about, there is one case I’ve been curious about.

Specifically, I’ve been seeing these reflected Obama images at least a couple times a month since the campaign started.  Because I haven’t seen the effect nearly as much with other candidates, I’ve been wondering what’s up.  I raise the question particularly because two examples are on the newswire right now taken in different locations by different photographers.

I don’t know, is Obama so popular that photographers tend to document him arriving or departing more than anybody else on the campaign trail?  And more importantly, how is one supposed to interpret this steady flow of double Obamas?  Of these latest two, the first shows Obama getting off his campaign bus on June 2nd in Waterford, Michigan.  The second is from the Indianapolis International Airport, taken on May 6th.

I should add that the second image is more indicative of the kind I’ve seen, especially offering the darker reflection.  I’m wondering how you understand this phenomenon, as well what you read in these particular photos?

(image 1: Jason Reed/Reuters. Indianapolis. May 6, 2008.  image 2: Chip Somodevilla/AFP-Getty. Waterford, Michigan. June 2, 2008)