Thoughts on the Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) Gitmo-"Inspired" Force-Feeding Video
Of course, buzz arises whenever a particular photo or set of photos with blowback potential make the news -- most typically these days, involving their suppression. What we are hardly mindful of, on the other hand, is the ongoing obscuring or the outright censorship of imagery when an issue...
Continue ReadingThat Giant Laser Messaging in Tahrir Square: It's Not a Coup
What I find interesting is how defensive this phrase is.
Continue ReadingDavid Degner in Cairo: Scenes from the Toppling of a Government (Once Again)
Cairo photographer David Degner provides key scenes and details preceding the removal of President Morsi from power by the military.
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Egypt vs. Morsi: What Pics are Trending, and Why
Surface-to-air muscle flexing meets "e-tagging." Photos of citizen demonstrators flashing laser pointers at Egyptian military helicopters.
Continue ReadingObama in South Africa: Political and Media Disconnect
If anything, we need to understand these protest images in S. Africa more in terms of current and similar photos from Brazil and Turkey. The public, in other words, is more sensitive these days to when they're being patronized.
Continue ReadingWendy Davis and the Texas Abortion Filibuster – Lasting Images
As for Wendy Davis and the filibuster, the visuals from the drama in the Texas State Legislature the other night represent a wellspring.
Continue ReadingBrazil and Turkey: If it Bleeds, it Leads
What I can say is that, in spite of the violent spasms on the streets, it would be shortsighted to simply lump Rousseff and Erdogan, Brazil and Turkey into the same tear gas canister.
Continue ReadingStriking Protest Images from Brasilia’s National Congress: the People on Top For a Change?
How meaningful is it to see the bodies of protesters against the skin of this iconic structure? Is it just fanciful or cool, or can we take it as citizens in these developing countries acquiring a truly larger profile?
Continue ReadingProtest, Suicide, Guns & Terrorism: All The Fashion
The corporate state, by way of its Mad Men and women, has the perfect answer for populist discontent or unprofitable social ills that start bucking for attention: appropriate and glamorize.
Continue ReadingRobert Hariman On Daniel Etter's Viral Taksim Square Protest Photo
Neither quite color nor black and white, it seems to create a dimension halfway between documentary reportage and artistic reflection.
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Love Amidst the Tear Gas
After the hubbub over "Riot Kiss," I'm not sure how to account for this.
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Turkey in a Whirl
On the surface, I see citizens honoring cultural tradition in the face of a government attempting to impose its will and ideological agenda.
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Icons, Memes and the Hair-Raising Turkish "Lady in Red"
Just to reiterate: the woman is clearly heroic, but not -- at least, in the frame that went viral -- because what is happening is so straight-forward to read. The power of the image may be primarily derived through political horror, but not without some ambiguity and curiosity as...
Continue ReadingWhy I Like Guy Martin's Gezi Park Photos
The pictures are notable for what they're not. Not sensational. Not glorifying the violence. Could the photo world be approach a tipping point in terms of sensation, aesthetics and the combination?
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.
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Seattle May Day Riot Commandos: What Looks Different
What Richard Reid did for the sneaker, it looks like the Tsarnaev brothers have done for the backpack.
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Femen Storms Putin, but is “Femenism” really “Feminism”?
Unfortunately, Femen’s “new aesthetics” look strikingly similar to the optics of patriarchy.
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