Best Photos of 2012 and Why: The Election and "Otherness"

During the holiday break, Bag is noting the notable: the most interesting shots in the many 2012 Picture of the Year galleries. The photo in this post came from The Vancouver Sun’s Top photos from the year shot by Getty Images photographers around the world.

Are some photos more valuable in retrospect, after we know the demographic make up of the presidential vote?  Most suspected long before election day that Romney would win more of the white vote than Obama, so this photo by Getty photographer Joe Raedle doesn’t speak to any new revelation. But our knowledge of just how the demographics fell out on November 6 leads to a different interpretation of Raedle’s found nostalgia — the older white folks, the quaint print dresses, the old-fashioned fairground setting — and lends “otherness” to voters who readily believed Obama was the “other.”

(credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images caption: People listen as Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in front of the Bavarian Inn Lodge on June 19, 2012 in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Romney is on the last day of a five day bus trip through battle ground states as he battles President Barack Obama for votes.)