Your Turn: Exhibit Q
Over the past week, the media has been full of reports of prisoner abuse at Bagram prison in Afghanistan. In an article and an accompanying multimedia report, NYT writer Tim Golden chronicles the plight of a frail 22 year old taxi driver named Dilawar. With the recent release of...
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Palms Away!
Of course, the latest Economist cover couldn’t be more loaded — starting with the incendiary headline. (As usual, I invite you to help diffuse it.) If you scan the editorial, it sounds like what really might be returning is the post 9/11 U.S. – European split. Wasn’t it just...
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Lynndie Comes up Short
Was Lynndie England framed? Going by the unusual front page photo in today’s NYT, the impression is that she was. This shot practically encourages a bit of visual speculation. Whereas the typical attorney/defendant photo shows the accused flanked by her defenders (example 1, 2), this image has England boxed...
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Doe, Oh Dear
Here at the BAG, the typical process goes like this: blogger meets image; blogger falls in love with image; blogger writes up image. There are certainly other times, though, when the image takes longer to get to know. I found this first shot in early March. I had...
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Higher Protection
Thursday, the NYT trumpeted the naming of the long-delayed Iraqi government. Although the event was not visually noted on page 1, this three column wide photo stretched half the height of page A12. Obviously, the picture tells a story about security. Besides our man on the roof, just count...
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Kurds on the Bus
I just don’t understand the Iraq coverage. Perhaps all those images of stained fingers waving in the air created the sense that democracy was “a done deal.” For whatever reason, however, the press seems to have spent the last nine weeks back under the spell of “Mission Accomplished.” I’m...
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Eye Foreign Eye
I picked out this image inspired by the many fine comments posted to my last couple Beirut entries. Specifically, I was thinking about the factors in play when we see more “westernized” images of women wearing the hijab. As BAG readers quentin and aethorian point out, this style of...
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Missing the Subject
According to the New York Times, this shot — on Friday’s front page — is missing the subject. The accompanying article (American Jails in Iraq Are Bursting With Detainees — link) deals with the number of people being held in Iraq as American captives. The caption, though, is what...
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Late in the Day (…Unless it's Early)
(Click on image for larger version) I’ve been holding on to this picture since it appeared on the NYT front page a couple weeks ago. I was interested in it before, but it seems more significant now following the outbreak of independence activity in Lebanon, and President Mubarak’s gesture...
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Following Through With The Engagement
One of the best photo sites dealing with the war is called Iraq Uncensored (link). This shot was taken by Kael Alford, one of the few non-embedded photographers in Baghdad at the beginning of the conflict. Last year, she was in Najaf documenting the confrontation between the U.S. and...
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Fallujah: Something of an Update
Looking at pictures from Fallujah, it seems there’s no “there” there. Rather than images of people situated to place, you see people trying to get someplace, or looking anxious and out of sorts because the right place does not feel right anymore. From the news pictures — an always...
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Mosul Update: Missing Men
With the election behind us, I was wondering if the news photos from Mosul had changed at all. Besides familiar shots of street patrols, sniper battles and firefights, I did find some pictures of soldiers hanging out with local children or cautiously interacting with civilians. From what I could...
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More Than A Day
Certainly, the election photos from Iraq are euphoric. And, who could not share the pride of this rare exercise of popular will? (This shot, captioned "The streets of Baghdad were full of children playing soccer" was featured in the NYTimes election slideshow.) At the same time, these pictures point...
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Our Gang
Yesterday, I saw an image from Iraq that really struck me. It was a stencil — almost like a gang insignia — on the wall of a petrol station that had just been raided by U.S. soldiers. The symbol was a skull with the the number “24” inscribed in...
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The Best Laid Plans Of Mice As Men
So, I was wondering how’s the promised miracle of Fallujah was progressing. I saved this from about a month ago. (image: Max Becherer/Polaris for the NYTimes)
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It's All A Little Sketchy
In the NYTimes last weekend, Frank Rich vented frustrated over how the press and public had lost interest in the prisoner abuse scandal. (“On Television, Torture Takes a Holiday'”– link.) What set him off, I believe, was the fact that the Prince Harry story got so many people up...
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Someone's Been Sitting in my Chair …and They've Broken it all to Pieces!
I have to admit, I’m still confused about the criticism I received during the Fallujah invasion for showcasing American troops storming into houses and messing up the furniture (See “Your House is My House” and “Fort Knocks“). I really do think I appreciate that couches and coffee tables don’t...
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If It Ain't Broke, Fix It
Back in November, The Atlantic published a wonderful article by William Langewiesche called “Welcome to the Green Zone.” (Unfortunately, it is no longer available on line without a subscription.) The piece was an in depth look into the operation and mindset of the Coalition Provisional Authority — the American...
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