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Notes Photo June 23, 2014

Staring Our War in the Face

Using the President's suit to simulate a simple dark background, the gaze makes its own larger statement.

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Notes Photo June 3, 2014

Conservative Backlash Gets Visual in White House's Soldier – Taliban Prisoner Swap

The deal to trade Bergdahl for five high profile Gitmo detainees threatens to dust off the visual genre of the "war on terror," a vocabulary that has been more in remission.

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Notes Photo May 5, 2014

That Sleazy Obama – Sebelius White House Correspondents Dinner Photo

Evoking the stereotype of the hyper-sexual black man and the penchant for white women, it's still one more photo of the first black president with racist overtones.

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Notes Photo April 24, 2014

On NYT Mag's Obama/Gay Marriage Cover and that "Projectile Bouquet"

The way that Obama agonizes over his trajectory, perhaps the mixed metaphor is a direct hit.

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Notes Photo April 6, 2014

Obama, Ortiz and White House Photo Access: When You Can't Handle Your Own Pitching

But, where's the real substance here, with the White House so exercised that selfies are facing a ban? It has to do with two things, visual filibustering and this Presidency's obsession with popular and commercial culture.

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Notes Photo March 29, 2014

Instagram Mining: whitehouse meets popefrancis

With world leaders and heads of state now standard fixtures on Instagram, I was curious about your take on each's version of the Obama-Pope, Pope-Obama meet up.

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Notes Photo March 20, 2014

If You Can't Join 'Em, Outshoot 'Em: Dharapak, AP Take On White House Over Dalai Lama

What the administration doesn't seem to be considering is that the press, beyond the venting and the resentment, is going to raise its game.

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Notes Photo March 14, 2014

On Ukraine, that Viral Kerry-Lavrov Photo and More Complex Feelings

From my perspective, I think this is a bold and honest photo for the White House to publish. I imagine the White House is confiding there is no way we can take this head on.

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Notes Photo

Photo Op-date: Obama at the GAP

If the White House has been nothing but masterful, consistent and highly disciplined in its photo ops, Monsivais’s shot down the checkout counter pulls back the curtain on the stage set.

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Notes Photo March 10, 2014

Methinks the White House Doth (Visually) Protest Too Much

I find it interesting how politicized and message-focused the job of White House photographer seems to have become.

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Notes Photo January 29, 2014

Obama's State of the Union Goes PowerPoint

Ready as I was to do the usual -- to riff on my own screenshots from the television broadcast, along with published news photos -- something curiously different happened watching the SOTU last night.

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Salon Photo January 21, 2014

The Debate Over White House Photo Access: The BagNews Salon (with Video Highlights)

Watch video highlights of the salon as an esteemed panel, mostly current or former White House photojournalists, discuss the ins-and-outs of presidential photo coverage.

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Notes Photo January 15, 2014

Latest Pushback to The White House Photo Op: President "That Guy" Meets the Millennials

Sure, we can debate the genuineness or artifice of Obama the "everyman." But how does that even matter anymore when a White House PR gesture suddenly morphs into this?

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Notes Photo January 9, 2014

The FLOTUS Selfie and Photo Jujitsu: The White House Year in Pictures

Sure, it's quite a photo on its own, but read as a counterpoint to Obama's infamous selfie, it's brilliant.

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Notes Photo December 21, 2013

History, Holiday Cards and that Obama "Visual Propaganda" Machine

Before Souza (the White House, Flickr and Instagram edition), before Callie Shell and before Obama was running for President, the Obamas were exhibiting some very sophisticated moves, and product, when it came to photography and photojournalism.

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Notes Photo December 13, 2013

As Press Battles WH Over Photo Access, Did Media Cross its Own Line Publishing Obama/Bush Mandela Trip Pictures?

What's the point of major media companies challenging the release of exclusive photos by the White House when many of these companies, not three weeks later, just turn around and publish those photos?

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Notes Photo December 8, 2013

Holiday Inc: From Louis Vuitton's Red Square to Amex's Obama-Powered Small Business Saturday

Maybe Amex's use of the Obama newswire image is fair game because the company birthed a quasi-official shopping holiday that stealthily interweaves its interests with the patriotic credo to go shopping?

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Notes Photo December 1, 2013

Relative Vantages (and Advantages): Souza and the Photo Media Go to the Bookstore

In light of ongoing tension between the White House and the press over visual access to the President, I was interested in Saturday's post-Thanksgiving photo op from the D.C. bookstore, Politics and Prose.

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