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Reading the Pictures: Mitt's Temperature

Michael Shaw | Posted 05.11.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-05-11-Screenshot20120511at8.56.49AM.jpgFor all the Levis and plain-language answers that supposedly constitute Mitt 2.0, what we continue to see in Romney is someone who is excitable, always right and constantly taking offense.

Reading the Pictures: Obama's Perfunctory Gay Marriage Endorsement

Michael Shaw | Posted 05.10.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-05-10-pullquote.jpgIs it a significant development that the president of the United States has professed his support for gay marriage? Of course it is. Is it also a narrow development? Yes, that, too.

Reading the Pictures: Ann Romney's Coffee With the Nation in Her $1000 T-Shirt

Michael Shaw | Posted 05.03.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-05-03-Screenshot20120503at1.53.07PM.jpgIf you use your wife to humanize you and to help relate to the average American, you might want to remind her before sitting down for coffee with the nation NOT to wear her $990 T-shirt.

Reading the Pictures: Surveilling the Death of Anna Brown

Michael Shaw | Posted 04.02.2012

Michael Shaw

Anna Brown is dying. Last September, Anna Brown, a 29-year-old homeless black woman, went to three hospital emergency rooms complaining of pain in he...

Reading the Pictures: The Active Duty Homecoming Kiss -- The Gay Male Edition (Finally)

Michael Shaw | Posted 05.01.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-03-01-dfdgrrgfvfgvbbnnbnbv.jpgThere are several elements to point out about this photo which both punctuate the kiss and the potential for pushing buttons of less open-minded viewers. Here they are in increasing order of impact.

Reading the Pictures: The Clint Eastwood Chrysler "Halftime in America" Controversy, and the Doctored Wisconsin Footage

Michael Shaw | Posted 04.08.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-02-07-chrysler.jpgIf we want to take visual politics seriously, what Chrysler and its corporate Madison Avenue agency did in its ad can be best understood as anti-union.

Reading the Pictures: Stephen Crowley's Extraordinary Photo of Santorum at an African-American Church

Michael Shaw | Posted 04.03.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-02-02-Screenshot20120202at7.57.56AM.pngHere is a true "emperor's new clothes" moment, not to mention a brilliant example of the photojournalist refusing to play along.

Reading the Pictures: "Occupy" Flag Burning Photo as Extreme Prejudice

Michael Shaw | Posted 03.31.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-01-30-Screenshot20120130at1.22.20PM.pngThe photo almost everybody saw. I guess it's hard to conclude anything other than the fact that the Occupy movement must have decided to torch itself.

Reading the Pictures: Brewer-Obama: Letter Rip

Michael Shaw | Posted 03.27.2012

Michael Shaw

2012-01-26-Screenshot20120126at1.00.16PM.jpg This shot got the overwhelming share of attention -- a reactionary governor, overflowing with the same lack of respect for the president as the radical far-right she's aligned with.

Reading the Pictures: Occupy: End of the Camping Trip?

Michael Shaw | Posted 01.15.2012

Michael Shaw

2011-11-15-Screenshot20111115at11.22.01AM.pngIs this the beginning of the end, or just the end of the beginning for Occupy Wall Street?

Reading the Pictures: Demonizing OWS: Beware "the Anger Meme"

Michael Shaw | Posted 12.18.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-10-19-Screenshot20111019at8.53.45AM.pngWhat's so significant about this Washington Post photo is how it plants the seeds of demonization in a movement that has been overwhelmingly peaceful and non-violent so far.

Reading the Pictures: Occupy Demographics: Dirty Hippies?

Michael Shaw | Posted 12.12.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-10-12-Screenshot20111012at9.08.15AM.jpgIs Occupy Wall Street comprised of hippie youth? Not according to these photos.

Reading the Pictures: al-Awlaki: What's Wrong With This Picture?

Michael Shaw | Posted 12.02.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-10-02-Screenshot20111002at4.27.41PM.jpg

Reading the Pictures: TIME's Rick Perry "Near-Nomination" Cover

Michael Shaw | Posted 11.15.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-09-16-Screenshot20110916at8.32.49AM.pngConsidering that TIME has always reserved the "big floating head" treatment for shoe-in nominees, their Rick Perry cover suggests an air of inevitability.

Reading the Pictures: Obama's Jobs Address -- Key Optics

Michael Shaw | Posted 11.09.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-09-09-jbospp.pngThis frame leaves me wondering how the political cycle will be any different from before: a deft speech leading to appeasement leading to mostly a brick wall.

Reading the Pictures: As 9/11 and the New World Trade Center Overrun Labor Day

Michael Shaw | Posted 11.07.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-09-07-Screenshot20110907at8.18.37AM.pngWhy isn't anyone asking what made the edifice of the WTC such a target in the first place?

Reading the Pictures: Cheney's Audacious Memoir Cover (And Claim to the Empire)

Michael Shaw | Posted 10.26.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-08-26-chen.pngIt's hard not to be impressed by Dick Cheney's cojones, and the spiteful swipe at George Bush, given the cover photo of his new memoir.

Reading the Pictures: The Symmetry of Bush Perry

Michael Shaw | Posted 10.24.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-08-23-Screenshot20110823at11.06.08AM.pngLooking at Bush and Perry, I don't think you get the sense at all they are clones as much as you get the feeling -- that they are both players.

Reading the Pictures: The Obama Bus As Metaphor

Michael Shaw | Posted 10.18.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-08-18-shawpull.pngIf people can't stop talking about the Obama campaign bus, the question is why?

Reading the Pictures: Really, Bachmann Sex Act With Corn Dog?

Michael Shaw | Posted 10.14.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-08-14-Screenshot20110814at7.10.22PM.jpg Editor Toby Harnden posted this Michele Bachmann pornographic fantasy he shot himself in a two-fer piece on the Ames Straw Poll and the Iowa State Fair.

Reading the Pictures: President Boehner (Or, Obama Losing the Pulpit)

Michael Shaw | Posted 09.26.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-07-27-boehnerobama.gifI find it striking, clever and telling the way the Repubs worked the visuals surrounding Tuesday night's presidential TV statement.

Reading the Pictures: Murdoch Testimony: Missing a Few Marbles?

Michael Shaw | Posted 09.20.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-07-22-murd.pngAs much as there are serious moral, legal and personality issues to consider with Rupert Murdoch, what we also see in the pictures are competency issues.

Reading The Pictures: Marcus Bachmann Looking Gay?

Michael Shaw | Posted 09.17.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-07-18-mb.png Has Dr. Bachmann, in his and his wife's vitriol toward homosexuality, brought this flamboyant visual upon himself?

Reading the Pictures: Newsweek's Palin "Make Up Sex" Cover

Michael Shaw | Posted 09.11.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-07-12-palin.pngIs this "make-up sex" for the notorious Sarah Palin Runners World cover?

Reading the Pictures: "Diana at 50": Newsweek's Perverse Newsstand Seance

Michael Shaw | Posted 08.30.2011

Michael Shaw

2011-06-30-sh.pngWhat an abusive thing to do to Kate Middleton! I could understand raising Diana's ghost around the royal wedding, but to raise the dead like this on the cover of Newsweek?