Racism, Symbolism, Story: More Notable Images from the Campus “Free Palestine” Movement
In our second "free Palestine" campus protest post, we focus on the institutional divide and more scenes that challenge the media narrative.
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Crucial Elements of the Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Overlooked by the Mainstream
Education, negotiation, militarism, human rights. Free Palestine campus protests have stood for much more than they have been credited for.
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New York’s AIDS Memorial Through the Lens of COVID-19
Todd Heisler's photo of the New York City AIDS Memorial in the midst of the COVID-19 health crisis honors memory and design.
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Coronavirus and Stock Photography
Stock photography is tricky. Take, for example, the meaning and messaging of this "stop coronavirus" image in the midst of the pandemic.
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Trump’s Napalm Girl: Consequences of a Drowned Migrant Father and Daughter
The significance of the drowning photograph: America at a tipping point. What it says about Trump. When a photo like this should be seen.
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Steve McCurry’s Rickshaw
If McCurry’s aesthetic and the doctoring to achieve it deserves the criticism, I’m wondering what is positive and worthy for us to learn from it.
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Since Katrina, What’s So Different? — Outside the Crawfish Shak
One thing that characterizes a good deal of these retrospectives is the sense that: that-was-then-and-this-is-now. What stands out to me is how much the racial schism then mirrors the racial schism today.
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On Publishing Photos of a Public Execution by Hamas Fighters: Still More Ethical Questions
As we’ve been asking in instance after instance over many months now, where is the line between news and propaganda? between reporting and enabling? between editorial responsibility and corporate self-interest when it comes to publishing such material?
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David Frum Accuses NYT and Reuters of Staging Gaza Hospital Photos (GRAPHIC)
Certainly, these organizations have better uses of their time right now -- including, keeping their photographers alive while adhering to ethical standards -- without having to contend with libelous charges being leveled on impulse.
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Yes, News Photos are Becoming More Graphic … and Beautiful
I think the degree of artistry and the level of poetry in these photos only increases with the horror. Apparently, the artistry is acting like a buffering agent, the beauty and mystique confounding the more amplified violence and gore.
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On That Over-Processed Times Cover Photo of MA17 Crash Site
If something happened at night, you can't turn it into day.
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The Dysfunctional Guitar: More on the Reuters Syria Photo Controversy
In this atmosphere of doubt, it's worthwhile to consider these images involving the presence of this musical instrument in multiple images. What really convinced me to share them publicly, though, was the confusing and misdirected explanation I received from Reuters after having contacted them.
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Were the Reuters "Boy in a Syrian Bomb Factory" Photos Staged?
We hope that this post might contribute to a thoughtful, open and persistent examination about the truth behind this story as well as the issues surrounding how photos in conflict zones can be procured today.
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The Real Winners of World Press Photo 2014: The Palestinians
If it's a sad commentary on the state of the Western news media gaze, it's a pleasure and a relief to see Palestinians as "not one thing" -- to see Palestinians who are secular and devout; who do "regular things"; who don't spend every moment seething; and who experience...
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Photo Ops and Staging: Beyond White House Access, the Larger Issue is What We Have Access To
The current antagonism between photographers and the White House needs to be broadened beyond the simple question of access. It is time to look at the bigger picture, and make the photo-op as much the subject, so we have a visual record of how events and issues are...
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My Lai, Sexual Assault and the Black Blouse Girl: Forty-Five Years Later, One of America’s Most Iconic Photos Hides Truth in Plain Sight
What are we to make of this erasure, one that indicates sexual violence in the light of day? And why is it that most Americans readily recognize the “Napalm Girl” but not the “Black Blouse Girl?”
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Facebook Censorship, Photographer Jacob Aue Sobol and a Birthday
You don't have a good idea, a lovely day, a touching moment, a sense of awareness, a sense of poignancy or connection -- a sense that someone is a part of you or you are a part of someone else -- (in other words, anything that makes Facebook Facebook)...
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Thoughts on Afghan Girl’s Third Cover Appearance as National Geographic Looks Back, Forward
Has the same portrait ever appeared on the cover of a major US magazine even twice, not to mention three times? Still, it's not exactly clear to me why she's on the anniversary cover.
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