Chatting the Pictures: The Trump Crazy, and that Viral Olympic Surfing Pic
In a pair of videos, we read a brilliant Mark Peterson image exposing the ever-more-damaged Donald Trump and riff on an almost supernatural photo from the Paris (and Tahiti) Olympics.
No wonder Trump can’t get over Biden dropping out. While the former president’s mental health was primarily obscured for most of this election cycle, with Harris as the competition, his dysfunctional personality is more apparent than ever. Still, this photo—taken by Mark Peterson at the CPAC convention last February for The New York Times—remains one of the rare images to portray Trump’s tortured mind.
The video we recorded in late June delves into the photo's political and psychological symbolism, draws a cinematic parallel, and highlights the challenge of distinguishing the man from the showman.
Flailing Gestures, Desperate Optics
The replacement of Biden with Harris has not only reset the presidential race. Harris’s popularity and social media buzz have thoroughly shifted the visual campaign. Mindful of Peterson’s portrait, Trump’s optics grow even more strained as he does more extreme things to regain momentum and claw back attention.
Above, we see Trump mansplaining to ABC journalist Rachel Scott in a bizarre interview at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention, claiming Kamala Harris only recently decided to “turn Black” for political gain.
We can see Trump regressing, hampered by old insecurities and obsessions, particularly the size of his crowds compared to Harris’s. This anxiety led to the utterly specious claim that a photo of a crowd at a Harris event was doctored or generated by A.I.
In a bid for visibility, Trump gave a live talk on Twitter with Elon Musk. Few were impressed, however, and, to add insult to injury, many outlets led their reporting with this 2020 photo of the two men with Trump’s back to the camera.
The Editorial Narrative
Kamala Harris’s candidacy has not only inspired visual parallels between her and Trump but cast older Trump images in a new light.
I was interested in the appearance of a critical article this week on Trump’s dancing, undoubtedly motivated by the electricity of the Harris/Walz rallies. Although his followers were enjoying Trump’s moves in Grand Rapids, the dance-party spirit Harris’s followers have brought to the presidential race shifts the tenor of this mid-2023 Trump shot from quaint to cringe.
The Washington Post used the second photo, taken in 2023, to illustrate an article in yesterday's edition detailing the shift in the political landscape. Ironically, this image also captures Trump dancing. However, the current atmosphere emphasizes how Trump and his shtick have become obscured, and he appears to be sinking.
Our analysis of Mark Peterson’s photo makes a special note of Trump’s hands and body language. As Harris rises, photos of Trump in the dark, silhouetted by harsh glaring lights, become a signifier. Here’s another picture of the dark prince. In the context of the headline and the shifting political race, however, the blinding force in his fists reads more like a last gasp. With Harris’s campaign debut suggesting far more than a honeymoon, look for more glare and darkness if it’s genuinely lights out.
Reading That Almost Supernatural Olympic Surfing Photo
And now for something completely ascendant.
You’ve most likely seen the Olympic photo of Brazil’s Gabriel Medina, taken by Jérôme Brouillet for AFP/Getty Images. But you might not have thought about what makes it so “wow.”
This Chatting the Pictures video breaks down the moving parts. We also discuss the Tahiti factor and focus on the power and license of Olympic photography to frame sports distinctively. As Brouillet himself noted, the picture captured the kind of attention it did because it wasn’t really a surfing photo.
Chatting the Pictures features writer and photo historian Cara Finnegan and RTP Publisher Michael Shaw and is produced by Liliana Michelena. These 3-4 minute videos closely read essential news photos, complemented by related imagery. You can see the archive on our legacy website and recent examples on our Instagram feed. Stay tuned as we focus our video analysis on the campaign and other storyful images.
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