Afghanistan: Field of Dreams II
Poppies and opium fields have been favorite visual subject matter since the war began. In this case, the question is how much resonance there is between the dreamy pictures, the effect of the plants and the logic of the build up and now, potential drawdown?
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More War Branding: Chevy Brings Heros Home
No, this Chevy ad doesn't have the buzz factor of the subtle Bud "Gay's in the military" tribute, it just panders straight out.
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Budweiser "Coming Home" Ad: Gay? Straight? Who Cares, Let’s Drink to the War!
I couldn't get past the exploitation of the uniform, the beer company tapping the sacred glow around the troops while so many of America's finest are drowning their PTSD in the brew.
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Another Picture of Normalcy from Afghanistan: What Would Tweedledee and Tweedledum Say?
One more scene of the normalization of life in Afghanistan. It appeared prominently at nearly every one of the mainstream media slideshows that I visited, Only one, though, seemed to have challenged the theme of normalcy.
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Ankle Deep in the Big Muddy
In the photograph, the soldier walking through a combat outpost in Kandahar is only ankle deep. And so one would like to think that there is still hope for him ... until we see the next photo.
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Kandahar and the Distraction War
Just thought we'd take a brief look at some routine media practices in light of the brazen Taliban assault on the government and security infrastructure in Kandahar.
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Narcissist! Couch Potato! Twelve-Year-Old! — DoD Spins bin Laden Watching the TeeVee
Why is the DoD video of bin Laden watching TV so much more devastating than the "rehearsal" clip also released this past weekend?
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Alan Chin: Through the Champagne Spray – Report from Ground Zero upon bin Laden’s Death
A crowd gathered at the World Trade Center site (Ground Zero) to celebrate after President Obama announced the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
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Finding the Chris Hondros "Checkpoint Girl"
NYT finds Samar, Chris Hondros' "checkpoint girl." What are the ethics, however, of capturing her seeing the iconic photo of herself for the first time?
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“… and a Haughty Spirit before a Fall”
For some, no doubt, Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice. And that is no small thing. But what exactly does it mean to count that as a marker of “winning”?
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Remembering Chris Hondros, Part III: Tal Afar
Edward Wong of the New York Times shares the story of Chris Hondros's photographs documenting the accidental killing of Iraqi civilians by American troops in Iraq.
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Afghanistan: Holey War
The clueless gaze of the Afghan military guy with his little notebook only adds to the haplessness of this metaphor.
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Soldier-Taggers: Afghanistan as Fight Club
Street art depends on disrupting the order and values of everyday life. Except, that is, when it's riffing off of "Fight Club" and posted on a NATO military base in Afghanistan.
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America’s Afghan Crusade
To the extent that the War in Afghanistan is a war on terror its success or failure will turn on winning “hearts and minds” throughout the Muslim world. It is hard to imagine how displays such as this can serve a productive end.
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Terry Jones: But Beyond Mel
After this weekend's carnage, how much are we supposed to write Jones off as an unbalanced Braveheart fanatic and how much --given the rest of the picture-- much are we supposed to reflect on his mood and nature?
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War Vs. Summer Camp: Hipstamatic Debate Just More Distraction Game?
It doesn't bother me all that much that Damon Winter shot "A Grunt's Life" using an iPhone with a Hipstamatic app. What does bother me is how much the impassioned debate surrounding the aesthetics of Winter's images takes place at the expense of their content.
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Big Media Sent 3 Of My Favorite War Photographers to Afghanistan And What They Brought Back Were The Near-Same Medevac Shots
What really dismays me -- the Afghan war crying out for context as far as big media is concerned -- is how three major organizations could send out three of the best photographers in the business and, within the space of just over two weeks, proudly publish nearly the...
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