More Katrina in Retrospect: Blinded by the Light
The question we asked at the time, and we're asking still, is why the photos published inside the Superdome were so artful and distant?
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Since Katrina, What’s So Different? — Outside the Crawfish Shak
One thing that characterizes a good deal of these retrospectives is the sense that: that-was-then-and-this-is-now. What stands out to me is how much the racial schism then mirrors the racial schism today.
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On the TIME Trump – American Eagle Shoot … Beyond the Ha, Ha, Ha
If you get too (or completely) distracted by Trump, either through offendedness or amusement from the farce, you’re going to miss the deeper take-away here.
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Newswire Pix: Were it Not for the Culture of Surveillance
I doubt this random newswire photo would have enjoyed the same kind of distribution were it not for the present-day security state.
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Why We’re Changing Our Name
Our choice wasn’t difficult, considering we’ve actually been using this phrase as a tagline since, well... that Bush-Kerry election.
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Campaign 2016: The Rapture
If we can be less dogmatic for a second about our own jadedness, what is divine is that hope is still out there.
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The 1% Two Ways
If the term “two Americas” (or two Londons, or, in this case, two Shanghais) is largely understood as a metaphor, what are we to make of it here?
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On the Photo Coverage of the One Year Anniversary of the Ferguson Crisis and the Death of Michael Brown
I was looking and hoping for imagery that got underneath the more stereotyped depiction of violence, anger and despair.
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The First GOP16 Cattle Call: Our 3 Pix of the Night
In this troglodyte moment, you can see the boys behind Ms. Kelly back there tittering.
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From His Own Perspective: The Seductive Power of the Instagram Migrant
Of course, we would hope that the migrant diaspora in our media diet would reflect the greatest realism, but that’s a whole different thing than the migrant telling his or her own story, taking his or her own pictures, and controlling his or her own narrative.
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On the Empire State Building Endangered Species Spectacular: I Want to Believe
I want to believe that what I’m experiencing here is demonstrably more than just do-good shock-and-awe.
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Killer Cop Arraigned in Cincinnati (Confused by How Much Social Media Thrives on Shame)
One thing the shaming obscures is the extreme moral contrast between Tensing and the cops.
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Beyond Matt Black’s Poverty Percentages
If you simply relate to Black’s poverty or class imagery in the broad brush, it’s a prolific view. But, in most every frame, the deeper power and reward is that further question or allegation.
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Selfie Finger-Wagging on Mars? or, Something Lighter and Earthlier Than That?
So, can I tell you what the photo made me think about … apart from any issue about photography?
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Classic Misdirection: The State’s Sanctimonious Sandra Bland Jail Video Play-by-Play
If what we're presumed to have now is full visual disclosure, I'd say the state has an even bigger credibility problem on its hands than it had before.
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How to Understand the Newly Released 9/11 Photo of Dick Cheney with his “Foot Up”
Anyone reading a smug indifference, even if that's characteristic of Cheney most of the time, would understand at some level that it’s misattributed here.
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Hyper-Capitalism and the Pictures of our Time
If hyper-capitalism is becoming the issue of our time, I’m also tempted to say that more and more news images are appearing as counterweight.
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The Sandra Bland Mug Shot and the Distrust of Photography
The main point here is not whether these questions or allegations are even possible but that people might look at the picture and see it so.
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