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ReadingThePictures

@readingthepictures.bsky.social

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The analysis of news photos & media images. (Originally BagNewsNotes.) Subscribe to our Substack at: http://ReadingThePictures.media.

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Nov 14

Abandoning our 20k+ Twitter account and entering the Sky in earnest. Follow us here for persistent coverage of #visualpolitics, #photojournalism, and news #photography. We also encourage you to subscribe to our Substack. (Link in bio.)

*Other folks read the words; we read the pictures.*

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · 1d

Since Kirk’s assassination, the crackdown on dissent has jolted photojournalism, street art & illustration—each surging now to galvanize truth, disrupt complacency, and bear witness.

Visual Defiance Against the Authoritarian State

Photo: Diane Krauthamer.

readingthepictures.media/p/visual-def...

1000 Words: Visual Defiance Against the Authoritarian State

Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the crackdown on dissent has jolted photojournalism, street art, and illustration—each surging now to galvanize truth, disrupt complacency, and bear witness.

readingthepictures.media

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Sep 11

Some aftermaths command the spotlight, while others fade almost unseen, though their grief runs the same. Violence and mayhem in America, Sept 10, 2025.

(1) Evergreen High School, CO — RJ Sangosti/Denver Post via Getty. (2) Kirk shooting, Utah Valley Univ — Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Trib via Reuters.

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Sep 10

Pix from the #climate emergency, which is not just getting worse, but freakier--despite the lies. From the recent PHX Haboob. These blackout dusk clouds can sometimes carry over 100 miles.

(Photos: Ross D Franklin/AP; City of Phoenix/AFP/Getty Images; Charlie Budd/Reuters. Via The Guardian.)

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 30

Amid LA's ICE raids, Brandon Tauszik's photos reveal the human cost: not factory drama, but the invisible middle class, such as Ana sheltering in place. Ordinary moments, newly precarious.

The Machinery of American Cruelty
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Via @motherjones.com

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 28

A woman and daughter weep after agents detained her husband outside his immigration hearing. Even the building security guard is moved to tears. How do images like this not force a reckoning?

📸: Carol Guzy

**The Machinery of American Cruelty**

<readingthepictures.media/p/photos-of-...>

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 27

I've been tracking how photographers are documenting immigration enforcement, and the visual story they're telling is both devastating and essential. Let me walk you through it.

The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament

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📷Michael Owen Baker/AP

The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament

How photographers are documenting the Trump administration's campaign of terror against immigrant communities

readingthepictures.media

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thank President Miller.

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 18

1000 words: Vlad, in more peace-purple than MAGA red tie, lowers eyes and mirrors Trump’s perch while RUS flag and aide with pageful of notes reinforce his giving up nothing. Versus Trump, frozen in “how’s this coming off?” glance, echoed by team’s tense, wayward hands.

📷Doug Mills @nytimes.com

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 15

More visual framing of DC power play. Trump’s militant takeover, blatant executive overreach casts ominous shadow over the Capitol. Then the obvious subtext: where were the (federal) boots in the ground on Jan6?

(NYT)

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 15

You knew the moment this pseudo-emergency hit, vigorous photo commentary would follow.

Homelessness is such a crime, isn’t it?

(Via NYT) #Trump #DCtakeover

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 12

Before he took over policing DC, Trump did this.

"Co-witness" the destruction of Black Lives Matter Plaza—a spiteful act nearly buried in Trump's blitzkrieg of heresies and war on DEI. Jacquelyn Martin’s bird's-eye view positions us in solidarity with this resident. youtu.be/M9kEfBOo27w...

Chatting the Pictures: Witnessing the Erasure of Black Lives Matter Plaza

YouTube video by Reading The Pictures

youtu.be

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 12

Stone cold President.

(Images: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal law enforcement agents in D.C. August 11, 2025.; DC crime statistics, via WAPO.)

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 12

More eloquent storytelling by photojournalist Steffi Keith from the hallways of New York City's immigration court. Only the latest heartbreak.

A man takes off his wedding ring to give to his partner before he is detained by a federal agent. She ends up leaving without him.

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Reposted by ReadingThePictures

Tess Owen @tessowen.bsky.social · Aug 12

For @wired.com I wrote about the Trump admin's latest propaganda strategy: incorporating the casual nihilism and cruelty of the highly online far-right into memes about deportation

www.wired.com/story/trump-...

The Trump Administration Is Using Memes to Turn Mass Deportation Into One Big Joke

Memes shared by the White House, DHS, and ICE have used catchy TikTok tunes to normalize mass deportation and Christian nationalist narratives. Experts say that's the point.

www.wired.com

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 11

Photo-illustration of the day. Literally.

(Via @nytopinion.nytimes.com)

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 8

What follows is a sample of recent climate catastrophes that have received little coverage despite their scale.

Recognize any?

Willful Blindness: How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis

readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial...

📷 China Daily; USA TODAY, AP

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 8

A car hood in flood-ravaged Kerr County is painted with Trump’s assassination attempt, while a prayer sign directs people to a service for flood victims.

How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis

readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial...

📷Sergio Flores Jr/Reuters

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Aug 7

We've perfected the art of the unseen disaster. While Greece burns and Texas floods, our feeds fill with everything except the climate crisis spiraling out of control. It's not an accident.

(Photo: Fedja Grulovic/Reuters)

readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial...

Willful Blindness: How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis

From systematic climate erasure to 'thoughts and prayers,’ the deadly cost of choosing not to see.

readingthepictures.media

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 30

File under: the growing wariness over social media.

NYT “Op-Ed posters”

(Photo: Marco Arguello/Connected Archives)

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 30

The “othering” of the immigrant—and life in the shadows.

NYT “Op-Ed posters”

(Photo: Natalie Arrué)

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 30

After virtual Gaza blackout, the forced famine is finally cracking US media. The lethal ubiquity of pots and pans.

July 24, 26, 27th. NYT *Op-Ed posters.*

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 28

"We cannot say we did not know” carries the quiet weight of witness. The sign is small but its message is sharp: where images from Gaza are inescapable, denial is no longer an option. Echoing the language of past atrocities, it hints that history is watching—and so are we.

(📷John Trotter/MAPS)

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 28

This Times Square billboard shows real Epstein legal docs, turning them into political messaging. The top hooks you, the bottom lays out the evidence. A girl’s glance at the camera cues how the public is dialed in—the conspiratorial Trump caught in a web of his own making.

📷 Vincent Alban/NYT

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ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 28

One mother's hospital photo shows what media hasn’t: our worst measles outbreak in years. While outlets use stock shots, her sick kids tell the real story—even as Trump's anti-vax crusader swoops in for funeral photo ops.

readingthepictures.media/p/how-one-ph...

The Only Shot That Matters: How One Mother’s Photo Exposes the Truth of an Unfolding Measles Epidemic

As the measles spread, a family’s hospital image lays bare the unheeded crisis—and the acute need for pictures of cause and consequences.

readingthepictures.media

ReadingThePictures @readingthepictures.bsky.social · Jul 27

As Europe bakes: Not sure it would be a "pic of the week" if not for the climate emergency. These buried heads are becoming a denial theme.

📷 Tom Nicholson/Reuters. Young people jump into the Canal Saint-Martin on a sunny, warm summer day in Paris as an early summer heatwave hits France, July 2.