Reading the Pictures is a web-based, non-profit 501(c)(3) educational and publishing organization dedicated to visual culture, visual literacy and media literacy through the analysis of news, documentary and social media images. We examine news and media images for meaning, trends, context and fairness, with the aim of imparting that appreciation to media consumers and professionals. We’re concerned with the visual framing of major social issues, and how images function and are affected in an age of unrelenting persuasion, promotion and variable truth.

Reading the Pictures originated in 2001 as a daily political cartoon on a lunch bag called BagNews intended to engage high school kids in the news and civics. In 2003, with the advent of the online blogosphere, Michael Shaw, the publisher and clinical psychologist, renamed the site BagNewsNotes and repurposed it to focus on in-depth analysis of news photography. In confirmation of that mission, we took on our current name in 2015.

Among our accomplishments, we have been recognized as a top 20 photo blog by LIFE, a Webby finalist for “Best Political Blog,” and a Picture of the Year, International multimedia award winner. We contribute regularly to Columbia Journalism Review, and we were the researchers that uncovered misrepresentation in the winning 2013 World Press Photo of the Year award.

Over the years, we have been highly responsive to change in visual media and culture.

We’ve tracked the highs and lows as:

• The culture became more visual, with at least one notable photo a month turning into one a week and now, sometimes several a day.
• Important events in our world have become inextricably intertwined with visual mediation and a play to the camera.
• Visual sophistication has risen and news photographs have become more linguistic and “storyful.”
• News photography has incorporated elements of art, fashion, and advertising photography, and become more aligned with documentary photography.

Our basic premise is that people (even visual professionals) don’t spend enough time talking about the information and meaning contained in the elements and composition of individual pictures. These days, a picture worth reading —and the ones that typically get the public’s attention — are “narratively rich.” They are full of information and implications that most people don’t take the time to see. We tend to take a forensic approach to news photos. The elements of a picture are examined for clues which help us understand the facts surrounding the photo and how it confirms or contradicts its usage.

We are concerned with photography and power, whoever wields it politically, socially, or economically. We are unapologetic in our focus on the political framing of race, gender, class and other cultural stereotypes, and how those issues are filtered by organizations and institutions with either an ideological, or a particular marketing or financial bent.

We are also interested in photographs as a window and sometimes a magnifying glass on human behavior and personality, based on data such as setting and activity, to the consideration of body language.

Over the years, we have been recognized by educators and experts for our “public scholarship.” But we have always spoken to a wider audience while encouraging conversation between visual media professionals, visual academics, and visual media consumers. And we deliver our content with that scope in mind, from longer, more in-depth think pieces on our website, to the more curatorial role of our Instagram feed, to the micro-analysis moving with the speed of the news cycle on Twitter.

We hope you will enjoy us, learn from us, and communicate with us.