Reading the Pictures

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Crafting Trump's Hero Narrative: Media's Visual Complicity in the Assassination Drama—and the Shoe Panic Explained
Now that Trump has spun the attack images into convention hype and marketing gold, we dissect the media's role, address the problem with the bullet…
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Michael Shaw
2
"Climate Ecstasy" and More: Our Photography Round-Up
It's true—people value the pictures we choose just as much as what we have to say about them.
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Michael Shaw

June 2024

May 2024

Blind to the Apocalypse: The Climate Emergency has Fallen Off the Radar
I'm sharing these images from Southern Brazil to place the planetary crisis front and center.
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Michael Shaw
Racism, Symbolism, Story: More Notable Images from the Campus "Free Palestine" Movement
In our second post on the "free Palestine" campus protests, we focus on the institutional divide, portraits and emotions, police actions, and more…
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Michael Shaw
Crucial Elements of the Pro-Palestinian Campus Protests Overlooked by the Mainstream
Keenly focused on education, negotiation, militarism, and human rights, the encampments have stood for much more than they have been credited for.
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Michael Shaw
5

April 2024

How a "Camera Free" Courtroom is Dealing Trump the Deepest Visual Blow
The lack of TV cameras in the courtroom during Trump's criminal trial has inadvertently provided a unique and damaging portrait of the former president.
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Michael Shaw
Notes on that Transcendent Border Eclipse Photo
The image of the Border Patrol agent and the migrant detainees is truly inspiring. But what makes it work as well as it does, and what context and…
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Michael Shaw
The Feast of the Arms Industry, and More Eye Candy
Nikita Teryoshin's photos of arms fairs satirize invisible weapon bazaars. In our latest video, we analyze his “delicious” pictures and contrast them…
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Michael Shaw
Israeli Military in Gaza: Are You Going to Believe Us, Or Your Own Eyes?
Despite the Israeli military's attempts to control the narrative and censor coverage of their operations, photojournalists continue to make images that…
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Michael Shaw

March 2024

Late-Stage Abortion and the Changing Face of the Movement: Tracing our Post-Roe Coverage in 7 Photographs
We trace the visual arc of our abortion coverage from the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg to a clinical focus on later abortion. Distress and crisis has…
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Michael Shaw
© 2024 Michael Shaw
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