I can't look at the Shuttle seeming to thread its way in and among the New York cityscape without recalling other scenes burned into my psyche.
Continue ReadingMarking the one year anniversary of the tsunami and Fukushima meltdown, this photo is like the cousin of a very early one presaging the ongoing radiation threat on Japan's next generation.
Continue ReadingThat the tornado could destroy everything but the stoop is an indication of its power, to be sure, but it's also an indication of its limitations.
Continue ReadingWhat's so powerful about Guttenfelder's nuke disaster photos is how "silent" and humbling they are, framing the disaster as an "ego check" and portentous of a future without us.
Continue ReadingAs Don Quixote’s sidekick Pancho reminds him, “whether the stone hits the bottle or the bottle hits the stone … its always bad for the bottle.”
Continue ReadingDespite 2011 marking the end of both Osama bin Laden and the Iraq War, what the picture reflects is that the fear of impending doom remains as vivid as ever.
Continue ReadingI'm a lot less concerned about MVRDV's design than I am about the hysteria it's generating. If there's really something to worry about here, it's the destruction of the opportunity for a more nuanced discussion given all the cultural, political, perceptual and aesthetic alarms going off.
Continue ReadingGiven Tepco and Japan's efforts to tightly contain this story, it's hard for me to look past the metaphor here of journalists, bottled up to fend off the microsieverts, being taken for a ride.
Continue ReadingFar from stakeholders in their toil, Mr. McGowan and his cohorts are romanticized for their brawn and the "lucky fortune" of being part of the legacy of this re-building.
Continue ReadingThe other thing you can't see here, though it's there, is the plant in the distance.
Continue ReadingCompared to the simplistic one-liners sprouting like mushrooms on cover after cover as part of the 9/11 ten year anniversary newsstand pileup, the New Statesman cover kept me going for a while.
Continue ReadingHere’s the latest example how visual media likes to frame natural disasters through a nationalistic lens (the flag as a dominant symbol or “actor”), the impact inferred as a blow to America’s self-esteem and/or survival equated to the strength of the American character. A few more examples: 1, 2,...
Continue ReadingWhat I like about the New York Mag anniversary cover is the message how little we're that much over it.
Continue ReadingAre politicians so unwilling to take calculated risks these days that we're in for automatic and massive security investments at the first whiff of either high-profile natural or man-made threats?
Continue ReadingI just wish I could have been there yesterday to help place sandbags at the NY Stock Exchange.
Continue ReadingJake Price returns to the earthquake and tsunami devastated zone in Japan, where cultural celebration renews life alongside mountains of debris and for some -- bleak prospects for the future.
Continue ReadingJake Price reflects on photographing the aftermath of Japan's earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, as he embarks to return for a follow-up journey to the disaster zone.
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