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236 Posts
Notes Photo February 18, 2012

Last Word on the Afghan War: That’s Entertainment?

Afghan landscape meets global war on terror meets ... John Bonham?

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Notes Photo February 12, 2012

War Photography Scrum: Kozyrev, McManus and BBC's Wordless World Press Commentary

Without uttering a word, the juxtaposition raises two of the most significant critiques I've had of war photography.

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Notes Photo January 23, 2012

U.S. Air Power in Afghanistan: From Ineffective to Disastrous — but Kinder, Gentler, and a Different Kind of Sexy

Despite our counterproductive air war, media embedding continues to pay off for the Pentagon in sympathetic coverage and cool pictures -- muscular and otherwise.

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Notes Photo January 12, 2012

Our Take on Video Showing Marines Urinating on Taliban

For an act of humiliation, these guys are pretty discreet about showing their members.

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Notes Photo December 23, 2011

The White House Military Christmas, and Christmas-in-Mourning Trees

I’m not sure I get the mourning holiday tree. Who decorates a Christmas tree with dead people?

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Notes Photo December 18, 2011

Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt …. Sucks 2 Be U

I wonder whether these soldiers, at least in part, might have been motivated to make a statement, before we turned over our bases, that punctuated how we engaged in a war for no real good reason.

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Notes Photo December 13, 2011

Drones, and Civilians, in the Light

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism documented twenty-five lethal strikes between August 23 2010 and June 29 2011, a stretch in which Obama's senior adviser on counter-terrorism asserted that no civilians had been killed. Although difficult to prove conclusively, the research on most of these attacks was further substantiated by...

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Notes Photo December 5, 2011

Occupy Forcing Militarized PDs to Show Their Colors

It's the uniform colors, combined with all the deployment and use of the teams, hardware and gear, that makes the town square feel like Fallujah.

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Notes Photo November 22, 2011

Was the UC Davis Pepper Spray Attack Just Waiting to Happen?

The question is, was the UC Davis pepper spray incident almost predictable based on a standing green light to law enforcement to take a hardline with students?

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Notes Photo October 2, 2011

“Out, Damn Spot!”

In America's war on terrorism (given our Christian sensibilities), "cleanliness is next to godliness.”

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Notes Photo October 1, 2011

al-Awlaki: What's Wrong with this Picture?

I am especially interested in this photo — and the opportunity for us to study it and think about it — since the Administration “predator-droned” Anwar al-Alwaki into the ground last Friday. (Yes, going forward, I recognize “predator drone” as a verb.) First, let’s consider the caption from TIME’s...

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Notes Photo September 21, 2011

It’s a Whole New Dance Down at the Recruitment Office: Life (and Pictures) After DADT

If this photo is any indication, the the U.S. military post-DADT might just be the picture story of the year.

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Notes Photo September 13, 2011

Weapons Dealers Meet 7th Avenue

Besides the message that employment opportunities, when it comes to civil defense, have become more gender-neutral, I had a more "veiled" reaction to this robo-helmet.

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Notes Photo September 11, 2011

The "Most Different" News Photos from the 9/11 Commemoration – #1: "Salam"

How novel it was to discover this photo, and the ritual of Muslim prayer.

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Notes Photo June 10, 2011

War is … Heaven?

Looking at this pic, it feels like the transition from war to art photography is finally complete.

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Notes Photo June 6, 2011

Afghanistan: Field of Dreams II

Poppies and opium fields have been favorite visual subject matter since the war began. In this case, the question is how much resonance there is between the dreamy pictures, the effect of the plants and the logic of the build up and now, potential drawdown?

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Notes Photo April 28, 2011

Remembering Chris Hondros, Part III: Tal Afar

Edward Wong of the New York Times shares the story of Chris Hondros's photographs documenting the accidental killing of Iraqi civilians by American troops in Iraq.

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Notes Photo April 21, 2011

Everywhere is War

Has militarism become a foregone conclusion, and a bankable future of the Western World?

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