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Notes Photo April 28, 2012

Space Shuttle in the Skies of Manhattan: The Healing

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.

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Notes Photo March 11, 2012

Fukushima +1

Marking 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.

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Notes Photo March 8, 2012

Pictures After the Tornados: A Meditation on Things Lost—and Found

That 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.

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Notes Photo February 17, 2012

Guttenfelder's Fukushima: Contemplating a Future Without Us

What'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.

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Notes Photo January 18, 2012

Flying Too Close to the Sun

As 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.”

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Notes Photo December 21, 2011

Our Favorite Photo from 2011

Despite 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.

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Notes Photo December 14, 2011

Some Thoughts on the MVRDV "9/11 Exploding World Trade Center" Building

I'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.

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Notes Photo November 12, 2011

Fukushima's Radiant Media Junket

Given 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.

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Notes Photo September 6, 2011

9/11 and the Trade Center Overrun Labor Day

Far 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.

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Fukushima: Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Except…

The other thing you can't see here, though it's there, is the plant in the distance.

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Notes Photo September 5, 2011

9/11 Covers: Beyond the One-Liner

Compared 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.

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Notes Photo August 31, 2011

Irene: Death to America!

Here’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,...

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Notes Photo August 29, 2011

9/11: One Day, Ten Years

What I like about the New York Mag anniversary cover is the message how little we're that much over it.

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Notes Photo August 28, 2011

Zero-Tolerance

Are 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?

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Notes Photo August 27, 2011

"No Katrina In My Irene-a!"

The anti-Katrina. All our ducks in a row!

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Notes Photo August 26, 2011

Hurricane Prep: Protecting Wall Street

I just wish I could have been there yesterday to help place sandbags at the NY Stock Exchange.

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Notes Photo August 12, 2011

Jake Price in Japan: Five Months On

Jake 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.

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Notes Photo July 31, 2011

Jake Price in Japan: The Road Back

Jake 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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