The presidential election has exposed all kinds of fault lines, but one fracture has come to define Kamala Harris's historic run. In the 14 weeks since she became the Democratic contender, this election has crystallized into a culture war. The visual landscape heading into decision day tells this story in stark relief, dominated by photos of a deep gender divide.
Harris’s Tightrope
In the video above, visual experts unpack a photograph that captures a defining moment of Campaign 2024: Kamala Harris descending Air Force Two at Delaware National Air Guard Base just 24 hours after Joe Biden exited the race. As Professor Karrin Vasby Anderson and Guardian photo editor Gail Fletcher reveal in their analysis, this tarmac scene bears layers of significance – from the military protocol that frames Harris's authority to the visual disruption of seeing a woman of color inhabit this traditionally male space.
The discussion—from our Reading the Pictures Salon, “Looking at Images from Campaign 2024,” hosted by the International Center for Photography (ICP) on October 22nd—illuminates how Harris embraces and challenges presidential photography conventions. However, the image raises a more profound question than whether America will elect its first woman Commander-in-Chief. It spotlights the persistent tightrope women in power must walk: navigating the narrow space between authority and authenticity in a society still grappling with gender bias.
Whether Harris succeeds or not, her candidacy forces us to examine how much latitude women in high office genuinely have to express themselves. Has her historic run widened the path for future female leaders or exposed the obstacles they still face? Examining eight photos, the Salon delves deeper into these themes, exploring how this single image encapsulates the intersection of race, gender, and power in American politics.
Photo: Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images. The Salon is produced by Liliana Michelena and moderated by Cara Finnegan.
The Binary
While Trump supporters, the “Maga Boyz,” present a masculine front with matching red shirts, raised fists, and militant posturing, Harris's supporters radiate a spontaneous joy, their expressions more celebratory than confrontational.
Depending on the poll, there is a 15 to 20% gap between men and women in their preference between Harris and Trump, a difference that expands to over 30% among the young. As Rachel Janfaza, who created this visual juxtaposition for The Free Press, observes: “Young women say they are fighting for their bodies. Young men say they are fighting for their dignity.”
Reproductive Rights: Reversing the Tide or More Fracture?
This photo by former White House photographer Lawrence Jackson predates the campaign but also brilliantly sets the stage. This picture captures Vice President Harris aboard Air Force Two, just 19 minutes after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade. The composition is masterful – Harris's contemplative pose, the executive seal hovering between her and the news feed, the stark interior of the plane creating a space of suspended reaction, and the vibe of a woman exiting the cabin.
This photograph captures both the weight of the moment and the seismic electoral implications that would follow. As Harris watches the screen, she seems to grasp what polling would later confirm – that the Dobbs decision would fundamentally reshape American politics along gender lines.
What is most relevant and frighteningly undetermined right up to the moment is how instrumental a role women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and the abortion measures appearing on ten state ballots will play in the outcome of the election. And how much Trump’s ugly, persistent, and highly targeted effort to cultivate disaffected males and exploit a gender divide will successfully counter it.
Susie Wiles and the Irony of “Behind Every ‘Great Man’“
Campaign 2024’s great poke-in-the-eye is that it took a woman to tame a gang of angry men while steering a campaign built on masculine appeal and misogynistic rhetoric.
Susie Wiles, a 67-year-old grandmother, has emerged as the quiet architect behind Trump's strategy, demonstrating that ego suppression can also be a political superpower. (You’ve got to love how she stands slightly apart from these Trump supporters; her posture and expression convey as much authority as detachment.)
Wiles' leveraging the gender divide to generate more votes and new voters across racial and generational lines has proven shockingly effective. By tapping into existing undercurrents of male anxiety and resentment, the campaign has managed to energize a base that extends beyond Trump's typical demographic. One thing is how it affects the outcome of the election. Its impact on American society—especially if it’s the difference maker—is terrifying.
Harris for the People. All of Them.
Dina Litovsky's photograph from Trump's Madison Square Garden rally captures a complexity often missing from campaign coverage.
In this image, we see a crowd that, at first glance, might resemble the typical depiction of Trump supporters—predominantly white, male, and proudly displaying MAGA gear. However, Litovsky’s lens reveals more than just a monolithic group. A range of behaviors and expressions here transcend the usual caricature of Trump rallies. Some attendees appear animated and defiant, while others are more subdued, even reflective. The photo captures not just the spectacle but the humanity within it.
This sensibility mirrors Harris's approach to the campaign. While she forcefully critiqued Trump's leadership, ideology, and deplorable character, she carefully avoided demonizing his base. This delicate balance—condemning the leader while respecting his followers—mirrors Litovsky's ethical struggle as a photographer: how to document without demeaning and reveal without reducing.
Yet the crucial question remains: Has Harris's inclusive rhetoric and careful distinction between Trump and his supporters gone far enough to broaden her appeal, not to mention help bridge America's deep divides? Litovsky's essay also illuminates the challenges of this higher path, noting how even attempting to document Trump supporters with dignity drew criticism from both sides.
Culture of Violence
Where does one start in selecting images conveying the implicit and explicit violence stoked by this campaign?
This photo captured a fight between two vendors at a recent Trump rally. I must emphasize that the vendors had no affiliation with the campaign, and security ejected them from the premises. Even still, this scene attracted much attention in the press and even more on social, as the beatdown, one has to think, serves as an apt symbol for the vitriolic atmosphere inside.
Beyond that, there is this medley of sniper images by Mark Peterson from a late New Yorker campaign profile of J.D. Vance. It not only highlights the threat level of the Trump campaign but metaphorically at least illustrates how much a vituperous and gaslighting Trump has weaponized the political process.
Fast Food Fakery
At critical moments, Trump turned the visual media into a PR extension of his own campaign. He transformed his mug shot into an icon; he instinctively stage-directed an assassination attempt, earning a glorified news photo that he elevated into a call for arms. Then, he so thoroughly staged a fast-food photo op in the aptly named Feasterville, PA, that it deserved calling out.
Although I’m guessing you never saw it from this angle (note, those snipers again), it tells the larger story of how the photo press ate it up.
Climate Gamble
Kamala Harris took the calculated risk that appealing for fracking votes in Pennsylvania was worth overlooking the climate crisis, even as back-to-back global warming-charged hurricanes devastated voters in the crucial battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia. This campaign presented an essential opportunity, and scientists would say it was both the moral and literal imperative to rally the public around this existential and escalating threat.
Mario Tama’s photo shows a hurricane survivor in North Carolina standing up a soaked Old Glory. At the same time, the second image–like a sad knock, knock joke—juxtaposes roadside campaign posters with cardboard relief signs offering climate victims free food and water.
The October Surprise?
With all the Puerto Ricans living in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, is it possible comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's reference to the American territory as an island of garbage at Trump’s Madison Square Garden event might lose him the election? In the photo, Jennese Torres, a northeast Philadelphia resident and one of the almost half a million Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania, raises an image of the Puerto Rican flag on her phone and shows what happens when you pull out all the stops.
Maybe the takeaway here is that Trump can get away with saying the most heinous things while others can’t. But then perhaps, just maybe, on the threshold of election day, enough people have gotten sick and tired of the political refuse.
I don’t know what is in store next Tuesday (or however long it will take to sort the election out), but what remains a very open question at this point is how much Harris versus Trump has set a precedent for respect and recovery or made the wounds that much more profound.
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