Doubled Over By Ida
2021 was a climate tipping point. And among the catastrophes, this blow from Hurricane Ida seemed to speak to a larger fate.
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At the Tipping Point: Wildfire Threatens Tahoe
Summer 2021 was a tipping point. Fires, floods, heat waves and hurricanes scaled up, as did the mass recognition of climate change as an existential crisis. As part of that recognition, many brilliant, symbolically-laden pictures crystallized the moment.
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The Taliban, A Pair of Skis, and Seeing What We Think We Know
Seen as wildly provocative on social media, photos of Taliban fighters in the Norwegian Embassy after the fall of Kabul say as much about visual bias.
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Picturing Vaccination Reluctance Among Conservative Christians
Vaccination reluctance in these small Appalachian towns is less a matter of politics or social responsibility than a complex conflict with faith.
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Haunting for the Beauty, or the Stalking?
Beauty and subtlety distracts from the reality of asylum seekers in this news photos from the US/Mexico border.
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Scenes from Work as Photographers Increasingly Caught Up in the Protests They Cover
These Instagram photos of Colombian news photographer Luis Robayo speak to the all-consuming challenge of covering protests today.
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Figure and Ground
We rarely discuss it this formally, but our analysis of important news photos always considers the relationship between figure and ground.
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Notable Faces from the Start of the George Floyd Murder Trial
At the start of jury selection in the George Floyd murder trial, seeing solidarity, and visualizing accountability.
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The Halfs and the Half-Nots
How photojournalism is channeling split-screens and divided societies. Perceptually and morally, the style serves as an apt social mirror.
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What’s Distinguishing and What’s Familiar in the Post-Coup Protest Pictures from Myanmar
A former aid worker and a visual scholar help explain key media and Facebook photos after Myanmar’s military coup.
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Record Texas Freeze and a Photo of the Times
More and more, news photographs are capturing compound crises. Combining climate and Covid, this scene is particularly arresting.
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The Massive Snow Storm of ’21, Beyond the Pretty Pictures
The blizzard of '21 is producing gorgeous photography. But these two simple Instagram pix by Mark Peterson keep an unconditional focus on American hardship.
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Where the Mockery Falls
America has largely confused Trump's mockery of democracy with the mocking of Trump himself. The Europeans haven't had such a problem.
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The Cult Of Trump In Its Last Throes
In the assault on the Capitol, the distinction between faith, nation, and godhead finally and completely broke down.
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Capitol Artwork a Symbolic Participant in Trump White Supremacist Riot
While the rioters who invaded the Capitol amplified the nation's history of white supremacy, that history was already hanging on the walls behind them.
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Media, Grief, and Three Views of a Tragic Covid Zoom Goodbye
In the case where families and loved ones must say goodbye virtually, the life of that terrible scene is not so simple.
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Heartfelt Photos from Covid’s Crushing Third Wave
Just like in the spring, the focus has turned to Covid, to grief, and to hospital ICUs. However, the photos seem more intimate this time.
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Covid Denial in One Picture
In one photo, this man has become the poster for a government in denial, and everyone who can't be induced or bothered to wear a mask.
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