Michael Shaw, Author at Reading The Pictures

Media Focus Photo June 19, 2015

Front Pages That DIDN'T Turn the Charleston Shooter into a Poster Boy

We could stand for more recognition of those papers that largely ignored the perpetrator in favor of elevating the victims and affirming existing bonds.

International Focus Photo June 18, 2015

Suddenly, Assad Not Such a Bad Guy?: On TIME’s Exclusive Photos of ISIS – Syrian Battle

The question here is how to evaluate the informational value of the story against its propaganda value.

Politics Photo June 17, 2015

Why You’ve Gotta Love Heisler’s Photo of Trump’s Announcement

If the GOP has set a particularly low bar this presidential cycle, my early sense of the photojournalism is the opposite.

Campaign '16 Photo June 16, 2015

Yes He's All In, But Is Jeb Somewhere Else?

Watching Bush's campaign announcement was interesting ... and strangely odd.

Photography/Photojournalism Photo June 14, 2015

A Photo's Reach: Barbara Davidson Revisits the Navajo, Eddie Adams and Capa, Too

With the understanding that photojournalism is timeless, Barbara Davidson's photo both offers an update and invites great comparison.

Campaign '16 Photo June 12, 2015

It Went Viral, But Why?: Hillary's 1st Instagram

If you said, because it's patriotic, that's too easy.

Race Focus Photo June 9, 2015

The Screen Shot to Consider BEFORE the Cop in McKinney Pulled his Gun on Black Teenagers

Perhaps it starts with questions like: who and where are the adults?

Photo June 8, 2015

What's Familiar and Different about the First Scenes of S. Korea's MERS Outbreak

Given the impact on Seoul, it's a threat that is all-too-easy to visualize in the west.

Media Focus Photo

On the Invisibility of Upper East Side Primates, and the Rich in General

When it comes to candid images of the upper and the upper-upper classes, a secret shame of the visual media is that it self-censors.

Media & Culture Photo June 5, 2015

A Demanding Photo from Lynn Johnson’s National Geographic Cannabis Feature

What's powerful about the photo is how it functions as testimony.

Campaign '16 Photo June 4, 2015

Clinton / Sanders #2: The Look of Authenticity

Hillary's Iowa campaign photos so far have demonstrated the ultimate concern, engagement and compassion. And that’s the problem.

Militarism Focus Photo June 2, 2015

Juxtaposition of the Day: So Much for Ploughshares and Pruning Hooks

War is a force that gives us meaning.

Gender & Identity Photo

The Caitlyn Jenner VF cover: Actually, What the Moment Called For Was Going Beyond Vanity

I, for one (maybe, the only one), think that the V in VF actually matters. Or, that there’s something weird in the culture when the exhibition of vanity is so equated to empowerment.

International Focus Photo May 31, 2015

When Those Endearing Photos of Kids and Riot Cops Really Aren't

It cautions us not to take pictures at face value or to assume that what's in a frame is necessarily that consistent with what's happening just outside of it.

Campaign '16 Photo May 28, 2015

Clinton / Sanders Pix of the Week

Trolling the visual flotsam and jetsam better known as the nascent Democratic 2016 presidential campaign, two different photos floated to the surface.

International Focus Photo

The Palestinians and the Indians: One Pic from Israel’s Burning Man

The parallel of the American West and the eradication of the “Native Americans” with the Israeli desert and the trials of the Palestinians is mind bending.

Militarism Focus Photo May 25, 2015

We Commemorate these Losses but Where are they Leading us?

With Iraq teetering again and threatening to unspool, and with the Taliban in Afghanistan reasserting itself in our wake, what’s there to make of these treks?

Culture Focus Photo May 24, 2015

Make Love, Not War

If we agree that war is pathological, this image from an International Gay Rodeo Association event in Little Rock this week could be seen to radically challenge the disease.