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The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament

How photographers are documenting the Trump administration's campaign of terror against immigrant communities.

Chatting the Pictures: When Immigration Raids Come to the Farm Fields

We examine the transformation of classic camp imagery into wreckage and evidence.

Willful Blindness: How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis

From systematic climate erasure to 'thoughts and prayers,’ the deadly cost of choosing not to see.

Chatting the Pictures: Camp Mystic, the Texas Flood, and the Landscape of Loss

In our latest ‘Chatting the Pictures’ video, we highlight the juxtaposition between a ripped-open Harrison Hall and the eerily placid Guadalupe River.

The Only Shot That Matters: How One Mother’s Photo Exposes the Truth of an Unfolding Measles Epidemic

As the measles spread, a family’s hospital image lays bare the unheeded crisis—and the acute need for pictures of cause and consequences.

Essential Images: 13 Scenes of Democracy Under Siege

From militarized raids to detention camps, these visuals expose and interrogate the country's slide into authoritarianism.

What If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?

How LA residents refused Trump's invitation to violence—and why the most essential protest images tell a different story.

What Now? Audacious Imagery Outside Immigration Court, Calling BS on the Trump-Musk “Melee,” and Researchers’ Fury

We sift the latest visual barrage to spotlight images at the heart of Trump’s war on democracy.

Weapons as Props, Warriors as Roadies: Brandon Bell’s Deadpan Photos Call Out Massive Effort Behind Trump’s Military Parade

Behind the spectacle, a hollow ritual orchestrated at staggering public cost.

The Oval Office as Demon's Lair

What's in a photo op? Trump's psychopathic corruption of American power.

Double Takes: Healthy, Wealthy…And Lies

In our new "Double Take" feature, we freeze-frame the images officials hope you'll miss—from detention SOS signals to political theater disguised as health policy.

Vatican Celebration Photos Spotlight Pope Leo's Challenge to Trump's America

As American flags wave in St. Peter's Square, a humble pontiff elevates a competing vision of patriotism and national identity.

Trump's Visual Legacy at 100 Days: Not Normal Pictures for Not Normal Times

I'm proud to share these 15 images, which the media's hundred-day photo reviews will likely ignore. Call it a democracy stress test.

Signaling Strangelove: The New Yorker Cover's Brilliant Take on SignalGate

Barry Blitt’s masterpiece perfectly captures the essence of the Trump administration. It’s a visual terror warning worthy of Kubrick himself. By Michael Shaw Barry Blitt’s latest New Yorker cover masterfully captures the essence of the SignalGate scandal. The illustration, depicting administration officials gleefully riding a missile downward like deranged...

Trump’s Mugshot as White House Power Play

Trump’s gilded mugshot guards the Oval Office—a warning to all who pass. As Ukraine’s president learned, this intimidating checkpoint signals the fate awaiting anyone who challenges Dear Leader. By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan In a narrow hallway between the President’s secretary’s space and the Oval Office, Trump’s framed...

The State of Disunion

I’m breaking down key images from Trump’s 2025 State of the Union—moments capturing a chamber in splinters, where resistance took many forms and silence would have meant complicity. By Michael Shaw “You have no mandate! You have no mandate to cut Medicare!” Pundits blamed Democrats for losing their cool. But incitement...

Trump’s Village People Takeover - Why This Matters Now

Is Trump’s MAGA theater still hypnotizing America—or is it finally awakening the resistance? By Michael Shaw One plays a cowboy, one plays a construction worker, and another plays a president. What’s genuinely unsettling isn’t the spectacle itself—it’s how quickly we’ve normalized it. Trump dancing with the Village People at...

Chatting The Pictures: Old Glory, Trump, and the L.A. Fire Disasters

The Visual Politics of the LA Fires

From a man rescuing Old Glory to a haunting ‘stairway to nowhere,’ key photos from LA’s devastating fires expose America’s most profound social divisions inflamed by Trump’s sabotage. By Michael Shaw In our latest short Chatting the Pictures video, Cara and I analyze a defining image from the LA fires: a...

A Portrait that Dares to Expose Musk’s Insanity

Mark Mahaney’s portrait captures the power and madness of Elon Musk, whose elevation from tech titan to democracy’s most dangerous private citizen mirrors a government fracturing under his influence. By Michael Shaw and Cara Finnegan Media and popular culture glorify and indulge the aberrant personalities of men like Donald...