BAGnewsNotes

Iraq Civil War #10 - Day 44

Like the image I posted back on March 27th, two days after Maliki declared war on the Mahdi, what lends the most poignancy to a situation we have otherwise grown numb to are pictures that are as this elemental.

In the latest de-evolution in the unrecognized Shiite civil war, American forces -- with the support of troops from the U.S.-installed, pro-Iranian government  -- have so knocked the shit out of Sadr City that a mass exodus would surely take place (similar to the exodus from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities that nobody seems to be reporting much about) if only the people, now trapped and starving, could get out.

Witnessing this woman's hands gripping onto a truck while waiting for food supplies to be distributed by Iraqi soldiers not only offers a powerful window into Sadr City, but in the personality, expression and adornment of those hands is the anguished and detailed portrait of an individual as well.

accompanying article: Aid Officials Urge Relief For Baghdad Slum (Reuters via NYT)
BNN Iraq Civil War thread
NYT Pictures of the Day, May 8 (nytimes.com)

(Photo: Petr David Josek/AP. May 2008. Sadr City. via nytimes.com)

The BAG Prepares For The Second Coming (Of Obama-Mania)

(click for full size)

Back in the cold of January, when Alan Chin was up in New Hampshire shooting for TheBAG, he and I had absolutely no clue whether, come fall, the Obama story -- still electrified at that moment by the post-Iowa buzz -- was going to play out more like this or this.

Fast forward two months, and Alan (having spent another overnight on the lip of the Ohio primary, developing film) sends me the shot above as part of a basket of pictures.  Of course, I dismissed it immediately.  "And what didn't you like about the Kennedy-esque one?" Alan asked the next morning from a roadside Bob's Big Boy somewhere, I think, between Columbus and Cleveland.  And in phrasing it that way, he pegged the source of my problem, knowing that, as dramatic an image as he had recorded, it in no way reflected how a struggling Team Obama had given up the pep rally in favor of the townhall.  (And so, this is the "more representative" pic I went with.)

But today, today.

Today, just 24 hours after the results from Indiana and North Carolina, at the moment at which the Democratic race apparently reached its tipping point, I saw as quick and dramatic a flip in the visual tone as I've ever seen before.  For the past few week, Obama has been largely portrayed in tandem with his controversial former pastor, or with not the friendliest looking white blue-collar workers, or standing alone on both the literal and metaphorical "other side of the tracks."  Looking at the images flying off the wire the past few hours, however, it seems suddenly like none of those other moments and picture were ever made.

So, before turning the focus to the return of Obama-mania and the visual media's tilt-on-the-dime purification, glorification and idolization of the man who just a few days ago was fighting the shadows, I felt (although it's hardly a digitally-appropriate description) like dusting off that Ohio image.

Our Man in Ohio (March 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)
Our Man in New Hampshire (January 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)

(image: ©Alan Chin. Westerville, Ohio, outside Columbus. March 2, 2008.  Used by permission)

McCain's Temperature (Or: Tweak Me Out To The Ball Game)

Going back a few weeks, the topic of McCain's temper briefly grabbed the spotlight before being quickly shooed away.

I'm not saying that anger comes into play in this shot from Monday's WAPO Day In Photos.  What I feel the photo does demonstrate, however, is an intensity or an emotional ferocity to the man -- his affective thermostat fixed in a range most Americans might want to think twice or three times about before trusting McCain with more than a bag of peanuts.

From the caption, we know that McCain is attending an Arizona - NY baseball game;  that he's among fellow Arizona fans; and that he's standing beside the team CEO, Jeff Moorad.  From the image, combined with previous observation, I draw at least two conclusions about McCain's wiring, one having to do with emotional intensity, the other having to do with reactivity and its effect on the ability to process and respond to more complex emotional situations.

If you compare McCain's reaction to every other fan in the photo (considering both the tonal and gestural response of the crowd, and in particular, the five, maybe six people we can clearly make out), it is exponentially more intense.

Winning, Going Away?

The permanent campaign?
Never let 'em see you sweat?
Still carrying the white male vote?
I'm going to Disneyworld?
The Hillary Bubble?

This shot led yesterday's final NYT Indy/N.Carolina primary slide show.  It seemed even more "reflective"  this morning.

(h/t: Nathan)

Candidates Stump In Indiana And North Carolina (May 6, 2008 - NYT slideshow)

(image: Damon Winter/The New York Times.  May 6, 2005.  Indianapolis. nytimes.com)

Bill Ayers, The Flag, Steve Clemons, And Going Off The Deep End - Updated

Oh please, where does this all end?

Apparently, the hysterical, formerly extreme right-wing "flag attack" on Obama has now wormed itself right into the liberal blogosphere, as evidenced by this image -- and the knee-jerk reaction to it -- on The Washington Note.

(Sorry for the brief commercial, but this is a perfect example of why we all could use a little more skill when it comes to looking at political imagery.)

Leading his post today, titled "Trampling the Flag," Steve Clemons grabs a lead image from an on-line Chicago Magazine feature on Bill Ayers.  (I'll just insert, by the way, that the article and image lighting Steve's fire in the middle of this stretch of blistering condemnation of Obama, and anyone linked to him, has been sitting there since August of 2001.)

So, let's talk about the picture, both formally and symbolically.

Obama's Last Day

(Expand browser for full view)

I'm always wondering how much these primary eve slide shows are supposed to be predictive in some way.  Short of that, however, I'm also wondering what this says about race (and if the black guy got out safely).

Last Day of Campaigning in Indiana and North Carolina (NYT Slide Show)

(image: Doug Mills/NYT.  Evansville, IN. nytimes.com)

All The Obama-Wright That Can Be Fit Into Print (Or Digital, And Now, Broadcast)

Adam Nagourney a TV star?  I don't think so.

I just noticed, though, that the NYT has teamed up with MSNBC on a political broadcast called Primary Edition.  What primarily stood out in today's edition, however, is that, eight days after the NYT starting milking the Jeremiah Wright story for all its color (and, on the eve of the Indiana/N.Carolina primaries), they are still working this linkage.

Choreographed with this split-screen, talking head Contessa Brewer begins today's report as follows:

So we start this hour with the front page of the NYT, and a new NYT poll indicates that Barack Obama has survived the controversy over Reverend Wright ... for now.  But this could be an issue that follows him all the way through the general election.

(She might have added: "If the NYT has anything to say about it.")

Notice the screen caption, by the way.  (No, not the reference to tornados, although that analogy might also fit somehow.)  I'm referring to the remarkable implication that Wright, juxtaposed with Obama, somehow (still) qualifies for front page treatment.

screen shot from Primary Edition May 5, 2008 (NYT Video via nytimes.com)

Does this guy have balls, or what: Roberts declares `Wright - free zone' for Obama interview (AP)

Before The Heartbreak

I was struck by this image of RFK in VF's new article and slide show, The Heartbreak Campaign.

At first, I thought my reaction involved a fairly straight one-to-one connection between Bobby sleeping with his dog on the floor of this plane, and that fateful image burned into my memory from the floor of the Ambassador Hotel.

On reflection, though, I think there is more to it than that.  Nobody symbolized the politics of hope more than RFK (if the term even bears credibility anymore).  And then, this photo is so syrupy innocent (sleeping on the airplane floor!  curled up with his dog! THE AMERICAN WAY!), it makes the vibe of the current Presidential race feel about as dank as that ashtray compartment.

The Heartbreak Campaign slide show (Vanity Fair)
Article/book excerpt: The Last Good Campaign (Vanity Fair)

(image: Bill Eppridge)

Blowing Up The Surge

When it's all said and done (sometime within the next hundred years), the most redundant image of the Iraq occupation could well turn out to be the razed car carcass.  At this point, however, what could possibly distinguish one more crippled hulk from another?

In the former case (besides the fact it's an ambulance that took the hit), the method of infliction is worth noting.  The roof of the car is caved in because it was damaged from the air by one of three U.S. Hellfire missiles.  The specific view, however, is actually peripheral to the main target which Iraqis identify as a mosque and the American military described as a “criminal element command and control center.”

What everybody does agree on, however, is that the building next-door was a hospital, which made it that much more convenient to treat the twenty-eight people injured, including a group of kids who were collecting cans to salvage.

BAGnewsSALON "Visual Week In Review" -- Late April/Early May Edition

Thanks to everyone for being part of this evening's 90-minute edition of the BAGnewsSALON.

The "Visual Week In Review" is a discussion of selected images that have been featured on BAGnewsNotes over the past week or two.  Besides many readers and special friends of BNN, the panel included:

John Lucaites, BAGnewsNotes contributer, as well as blogger and co-author of "No Caption Needed"; David Schonauer, Editor-In-Chief of (and blogger for) American Photo magazine; Loret Steinberg, professor of Photojournalism at RIT; Nathan Stormer, professor of Communications and Journalism at the U. of Maine (who is also well dialed-in to the progressive blogosphere); and Getty's fine staff photojournalist Mario Tama.

If you happened to have missed it, check out the transcript after the jump.  We welcome your comments regarding the content of the discussion, the choice/selection of subject matter, the format, the SALON concept overall, as well as future discussions you'd like to see.

McCain, Middle East Oil, And, Uh, What's Up With That Pipe?

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

-- John McCain, May 1, 2008

My friends, I thought the latest cover of "ARMY" was interesting even before McCain suggested we went to war over oil.  (A reader sent this to me on Tuesday, and McCain put his foot in his mouth on Friday.)

There was only one problem, however.  My reader assumed this was an oil pipe, but I've been burned enough times in making assumptions that I was taking nothing for granted.  The complicating factor, though, was that the magazine also failed to specify.  (In possession of the hard copy, my reader scanned the cover with ARMY's description of the cover affixed to the lower-left corner.)  Because the magazine's website wasn't any more helpful, I did some image searches on oil pipelines.  I found several cross-sections that looked almost identical to the picture above, but I still wasn't convinced.

Who Do You Think You're Fueling?

What is sleazy about Clinton's South Bend "fill 'er up" photo op, featuring recruited sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, is not his function as a prop.  It's that the truck isn't even Wilfing's.

According to the LAT, the secret service rejected using Wilfing's vehicle (perhaps, for security reasons).  Which leaves the question: what was he driving?  Absent a front license plate, is it a secret service vehicle?  Not that most photo ops aren't duplicitous by definition, but what makes this one particularly choice, as reported, is the fact that Wilfing and Clinton drove around pretending to look for gas while leading a caravan of eight secret service SUV's.

Of course, after they pulled into this Marathon station -- the waiting photographers already perfectly positioned -- Wilfing comes off the perfect owner.

Anatomy of a Hillary Clinton photo op -- the pictures and the reality (LAT)

(images: Elise Amendola/AP.  South Bend, Ind.  May 01, 2008 via YahooNews)