Cold War Kiss: On Russia, the U.S. and the “Return to Normalcy"
It could be humans caught up in the worldly tensions between Eros and Thanatos. Or, it could be a “Return to Normalcy” where the war was “cold” and we could identify who our enemies were.
Continue Reading
Towell from Kiev (and Canada): the Cream Rises to the Top – Updated
this photo is jarring for the woman in the fashionable jacket putting her hand to the shield -- as if pushing (or pushing back) with the strength of modernity.
Continue Reading
The Face of the Future in Kiev’s Battle for Middle Earth
I’ve argued before that conflict photography is accumulating evidence of a of disturbing change in the political and cultural dimensions of modern violence: that it is becoming less modern.
Continue Reading
De Blasio (and Getty) at Police Plaza: Let the Gaming Begin
What I can say, looking at these pictures from the Bratton ceremony, is how a series of unguarded expressions allowed Getty's Spencer Platt to at least suggest a sense of discomfort.
Continue Reading
Your Turn: Riot Cop Fantasies
How odd is it that these two pics, one from Bulgaria, the other from Italy, surfaced within the same week. More significantly, what are we to make of them? For thoughts, we're turning things over to you.
Continue Reading
On That Open Carry Parking Lot "Shooting"
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help seeing (that profile) view as a targeting, and exactly the angle that a real enemy would take. More to the point, we can see how the potential for violence invites a greater potential for violence.
Continue Reading
An Attack That Was Waiting to Happen: Guns and the TSA, in Pictures
By displaying inert and disarmed weapons, the TSA emboldens the very critics they would hope to pacify.
Continue Reading
Ready to Punish Assad, Cameron as Action Figure
If we're in another one of those countdowns where the time for temperance is somehow running out, this photo perfectly sets up the lizard brain.
Continue Reading
Bradley Manning's Lawyer on the Unfairness, and Dignity, We Weren't Allowed to See
What his lawyer wanted us to know is that Manning, against the stereotype of him as diminutive and weak, behaved with dignity and grace under enormous pressure. If allowed, photographs and videos would have reflected that on the air and front pages everywhere.
Continue Reading
Militarization Meets Back-to-School Day
I liked the photos above for their quirky art photography vibe, these knobs -- like extras in a Wes Anderson movie -- as little more than laughably-impressionable automatons.
Continue Reading
SF Weekly's Ball Busting Oakland PD Cover
Of course, it's a sexual innuendo, but it's perfect the way it's that twisted.
Continue Reading
Post Verdict: Bradley Manning in First Light
It's always dangerous to read in, but my strong sense from the look and expression is that, knowing he has support, he was offering reassurance.
Continue Reading
Those Egypt Military Propaganda Videos: The Look of Blowback?
After the latest large-scale killing of Islamist demonstrators in Cairo, it's hard not to think that the military's surveillance technology and the characteristic features of that video imagery, is minimizing its propaganda value, particularly with an international audience.
Continue ReadingEgyptian Military vs Muslim Brotherhood: At the Battle of YouTube
It's not only (perversely) interesting how social media is evolving as an extension of the battleground but how everyday web metrics become a defacto measurement of who's up and who's down in the contest for hearts and minds.
Continue Reading
The Big Deal Surrounding Bradley Manning
What the number and (relative) size of the security detail suggests about the high-profile military prosecution.
Continue ReadingUprising Pictures from Turkey: Going All In with the Gas
Tear gas has become an increasingly visible staple of domestic control. From the pictures distributed by newswire and social media though, these Turkish gassings seem to rise to a new level.
Continue Reading