Bush's N.O. Restart — A Visual Report Card
(Bloggers Note: Before anybody gets crazy on me, I’m just having a little fun here. It’s Friday. …And, consider the material I have to work with!) I’ve been throwing so much analysis at you this week, I thought it was time for the visuals to do more of the...
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Fly E.P.A.
This subject might not be too popular, but the old environmentalist in me just can’t pass it by. A few days ago, I wrote about the tendency for photojournalist to become a little too artistic in the face of environmental problems. I also cited an article in the NYT...
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Bush's UN-doing
Yesterday’s images of Bush at the U.N. tell us a lot about what we already know. But they also start to tell us about what we can expect. We know Condi is the teacher and Bush is her pupil. We also know Bush is monitored for every word...
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The Week America Lost New Orleans: A Presidential Retrospective (#3)
Katrina Disaster — Day 3 Wednesday, August 31, 2005 As the Gulf Coast disaster spins out of control, most of us see this picture (taken by Mannie Garcia of Reuters) and conclude that the President is out of touch. However, in light of the incompetence that follows; the time...
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9/11 All Over Again
Dubya is back! (And the graphics couldn’t be more loaded.) With Bush’s third visit to the Gulf Coast, Rove has retooled the visual vocabulary. In a reprise of “the glory days,” Bush posed yesterday with New York firefighters in New Orleans. The gratuitous caption states that the firemen “also...
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More Shame
Not only did Kos have a devastating post on Tuesday regarding FEMA’s employment of firefighters as PR props during Bush’s Katrina visit, he also presented the visual smoking gun. Although the photo is damning enough, I was further interested in the emotional cost of Bush’s interference on the responders...
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The Week America Lost New Orleans: A Presidential Retrospective (#2)
Katrina Disaster — Day 2 Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Still Tuesday. George is backstage at the Naval Air Station in San Diego holding a "Presidential guitar" given to him by country music singer, Mark Wills. By the time I see this shot in the afternoon, I am profoundly aware...
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The Week America Lost New Orleans: A Presidential Retrospective (#1)
The Katrina Disaster — Day 2 Tuesday, August 30, 2005 Dubya is in San Diego likening his private war to WWII. The occasion is VJ Day — the 60th anniversary of the victory over Japan. Bush still has a few days left in his five week summer vacation. Even...
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Bush In Crawford: Calling It Curtains
Often, a news image will lead the wire because it captures some underlying truth about the political moment at hand. This shot is incredibly robust in terms of symbolism. The photo — from yesterday — shows George Bush in full “damage control” mode entering a press briefing to reframe...
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When George Met Cindy
The wingnuts are convinced Cindy Sheehan would be out-of-business if they could only get their hands on the full-sized versions of these photos. Apparently, they were taken during Bush and Cindy’s original meeting, including the one showing Bush giving Cindy a peck. (Here’s a blown-up view of the deed-in-question...
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Finding The Love In Crawford
How is it that one person can virtually starve the camera while another can practically nurture it? If you read the Drudge Report, you’ll notice the site is scrupulously partisan in its selection of photos. (See my post at The Agonist last Friday regarding Drudge Report’s Cindy Sheehan...
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Nobody Here But Us Cactus
Whether the editors planned it or not, the two stories on page A13 of yesterday’s NYT create a poignant juxtaposition. The Bumiller story on top sets up the Bush vacation (Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch, Redefining ‘Vacation’ – link). The story below (Of the Many Deaths in Iraq, One...
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Your Turn: Second Row Center
I know you are dying to get at this because I’ve never had so much mail about one image before. What do you pick up from Rove’s expression? What is your sense of the relationship? From the standpoint of visual politics (which is the main reason for the BAG’s...
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Uncle Sam George
Two questions: First, does The New Yorker imitate life or does life imitate The New Yorker? Second, how much does the personality of a leader come to represent (or supersede) the image of the country he leads? TNY produced a cover — dated July 4th and titled "Party of...
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Dressing Up The 4th
A number of you wrote urging me to post this image. I thought I would, along with this very incisive description from Eric, a BAGreader and professor: appeared on the NY Times website front page on July 4th. The most obvious effect is that of Bush...
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Your Turn: Man of the Season
Okay, the BAG yields the floor. Because the discussion has been so good here over the past few weeks, I leave this cover to the BAG community to deconstruct. Also, if you’ve been following along but have been hesitant to share, this is your chance to jump in. Make...
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Away from Sesame Street
Who can account for Laura Bush this past May 25th? We know Mrs. Bush was in Egypt on May 22nd. That’s the day she was photographed with Suzanne Mubarak at the Itahedeya Palace in Cairo, the two sitting in the chairs President Mubarak uses to greet foreign dignitaries in...
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Twice to the Pyramids
Laura Bush takes a major trip to the Mid East, visits every holy site she can get photographed inside or in front of, sits down with a who’s who of Jewish and Arab females in the region, and the most interesting image I can come up with is this...
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