August 24, 2018
Chatting the Pictures

Chatting the Pictures: Silent Sam, Charlottesville BlacKkKlansman, Trump “Judgement Day”

Welcome to the latest edition of Chatting the Pictures. Starting with this broadcast, we’re excited to roll out a new format. We’ll still be discussing three recent news photos, but the 25-minute webcast will now be broken into three segments, “The News,” “The Look,” and “The Pick.”

By Michael Shaw
About the Video

In “The News,” we’ll be looking at how much information or story a photo contains. “The Look” will focus on a news photo that pushes the boundaries of artistry and style. With “The Pick,” we’ll ask what makes a high profile photo unique in the minds of editors or the public?

“The News” shot this week was taken by Jonathan Drake for Reuters. It shows police and students surrounding “Silent Sam,” the Confederate statue on the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill campus that was toppled by protesters.

For “The Look,” we discuss a unique photo by Washington Post photographer Michael Robinson Chavez. It was taken in downtown Charlottesville on the anniversary of last year’s notorious white supremacist rally., It captures state police cars reflected in a window display advertising Spike Lee’s new film, “BlacKkKlansman.”

“The Pick” offers President Trump in West Virginia on the same day legal judgments came down against two of his former confidants, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. We look at two different versions of an AirForce 1 scene by Gabriella Demczuk, both featured by The New York Times. 

Chatting the Pictures is a weekly, micro-edition of the Reading the Pictures Salon. In each 25 minute webcast, co-hosts Michael Shaw, publisher of Reading the Pictures, and writer and historian, Cara Finnegan, meet to discuss three prominent photos in the news. You can find all the Chatting the Pictures replays here.

The Full Edit

Take a closer look at some of the images from our larger photo edit.

Photo: Jonathan Drake/Reuters

Caption: Police and protesters surround the toppled statue of a Confederate soldier nicknamed Silent Sam on the University of North Carolina campus after a demonstration for its removal in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. August 20, 2018.

Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post.

Caption: Aug. 11, 2018 In downtown Charlottesville, state police vehicles are reflected in a window display advertising Spike Lee’s new film “BlacKkKlansman.”

Photo: Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

Caption: President Trump in Charleston, W.Va., for a rally on Tuesday, hours after judgments against two of his former confidants.

Post By

Michael Shaw
See other posts by Michael here.

The Big Picture

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Topic

A curated collection of pieces related to our most-popular subject matter.

Panelists

Michael Shaw

An analyst of news photos and visual journalism, and a frequent lecturer and writer on visual politics, photojournalism and media literacy, Michael is the founder and publisher of Reading the Pictures.

Cara Finnegan

Communication Professor, University of Illinois. Author of Making Photography Matter: A Viewer’s History from the Civil War to the Great Depression and Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs. Moderator, Reading the Pictures Salon.

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