Held At Pen Point
As the deadline for a new Iraqi constitution expires today, I was looking at posters showing support for the effort. Although reading in to a picture is always a subjective matter, my first glance at this image left me somewhat startled. Before I realized I was looking at a...
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Your Turn: Getting Framed
One reason I’ve been working the Roberts images so hard is because I’m fascinated by the rise of relatively unknown or “undefined” political figures. Bush basically came out of nowhere, and was a blank slate before he was elected. (If you remember, people were still trying to decide which...
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Your Turn: Gotta Hand It To 'Em?
In the middle of last week, Rummy makes a surprise visit to Baghdad. Is he there to hasten the completion of the Iraqi constitution? (Apparently, the talk out of Washington is that nobody reads these silly documents anyway.) Or, is here there to warn al-Jaafari to keep his distance...
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Your Turn: This Kingdom Is My Kingdom
Last month, the Christian Broadcasting Network took up the cause of a U.S. Christian flag. The proposed design was created by Marcia Thompson Eldreth of Cecil County, Md., and was inspired by a sermon she heard in church. It is intended to replace the international Christian flag (which Ms....
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Your Turn
One of my biggest dilemmas as a blogger has been taking time off. As a shrink, you’re almost expected to disappear for up to a couple weeks in August. If you don’t, some people even wonder what’s wrong with you. On the other hand, I can’t stand the idea...
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Heart of Stone
If it’s last show didn’t create enough controversy, the insidious but generically named "Family Research Council" is now preparing another mediathon. From the BAG’s perspective, it is interesting to tease apart the organization’s visual propaganda. Although this poster doesn’t trouble me as much as the last (Spoil the Rod...
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The Snappiest Place on Earth
Yesterday morning — with the LATimes and the NYTimes laying side by side on my kitchen table — I saw these two lead photos at the same time. The LA Times story had a local angle. The photo was titled: The Snapppiest Place on Earth. The caption read: Fans...
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Life on the Farm
Nicholas Kristof has a passionate editorial in the NYT on Tuesday on why “W” has sold out Darfur. Rather than confront what they admit is a genocide, the White House is attempting to railroad legislation that would rollback preventative steps by the U.S. to halt the disaster. Why the...
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Tarmac Tales: Me and My Shadow
Obviously, Dubya’s (maybe not-so-) excellent adventure with Tom DeLay drew plenty of photographic attention the other day. After holding hands with Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Monday, Bush came back on Tuesday effectively exercising the same gesture with the hemorrhaging House leader. This tarmac shot was the most...
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Your Turn: War as Child's Play
Hearing about the disputed mass hostage taking and killings in Madaen, as well as the massacre of Iraqi troops at the soccer stadium near Hadith… …You know, I was quick on the hunt for an image. Finding the documentation scarce, however, I decided — finally — to check back...
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Coulter and Colder
I really had a debate with myself over giving attention to a figure like Ann Coulter. In this case, however, the visual analyst lost out to the shrink. Liberal pundits like to talk about the clay feet of the right-wing gods. The major recent examples include Bill Bennett with...
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Your Turn: Ironing Out a Few Details
I must be crazy to invite your analysis of an illustration having to do with …tax policy! On the other hand, the subject did find its way onto the latest cover of The Economist — and you know how much pleasure the BAG community derives from TE’s visual coverage. ...
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Your Turn: See Me, Feel Me, Cell Me
I was interested in your analysis of this photo in this morning’s NYT. It makes a wide sweep of many subjects, including British politics and Blair’s standing; the psychology of Blair; the current art of campaigning; the current intersection of politics and technology; the current intersection of technology and...
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The Royal Mice
It’s Friday again. Meaning, it’s my opportunity to distribute some news image processing to the powerful, yet highly decentralized network of BAG analysts. As is becoming a custom, we have another suggestive cover of The Economic to decrypt. (I would have said “debug,” but the last issue you teased...
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Your Turn: The Shrine
(click on image to examine larger version) In what seems like a growing consideration of the price of the Iraq war, the media is full of stories. Particularly fateful are losses suffered by immigrants who enlisted in the U.S. military in hopes of a quick path to citizenship and...
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Friday Forum: Faces of the Fallen
(To open in separate window — click here) If you’ve been following this site for awhile, you know I often refer to it as a collaboration. Over the past few weeks, this has never been more true. As BnN becomes better known, one thing it’s becoming known for is...
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Your Turn: Winging It
The BAG’s crack team of image analysts did such an acute and thoughtful job of deconstructing the NYTimes Magazine Mahmoud Abbas cover (Fitting the Fabric – link), I thought I’d offer additional stimulus for commentary. Obviously, the one liner here is: “The fly on the wall.” However, I think...
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Your Turn: Two For One, And One For All
For my money, the visual story of the week involved the duel (or dueling) pro-democracy demonstrations in Beirut. The first demonstration (consisting of more upwardly-mobile Anti-Syrian Christians, Druse and Sunni) had been ongoing, and was the subject of my post, Betty Boop Takes Lebanon (link). The pro-Syrian demonstration, sponsored...
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