Reading the Pictures | Michael Shaw | Substack
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readingthepictures.media.web.brid.gy
Reading the Pictures | Michael Shaw | Substack
@readingthepictures.media.web.brid.gy
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The non-profit Reading the Pictures is dedicated to the analysis of news photography and media images. Click to read Reading the Pictures […]

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That Year-End Bubble? It’s Carnage Fatigue
Cover illustrations and photojournalism show us what 2025 is ready to shed: the cult of self, algorithmic capture, and cruelty as spectacle.
readingthepictures.media
January 1, 2026 at 8:54 AM
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Democracy Was the Target, DEI Was the Scapegoat: Key Pictures of 2025
Trump killed DEI and called it a win. What he really killed: due process, free speech, sanctuary, and dignity.
readingthepictures.media
December 16, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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DC Guard Attack: Trump’s Storm Troops Caught in Web of His Making
Photojournalists continue to expose the damning ironies and toxic symbolism of Trump’s escalating crackdown—visual truths words fail to convey.
readingthepictures.media
December 6, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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Images of American Fascism
Federal agents as militias. Home Depot parking lots as killing fields. The People's House demolished. These photos defy sanitized language and show us what American fascism looks like.
readingthepictures.media
November 7, 2025 at 8:47 AM
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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
October 23, 2025 at 8:43 AM
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The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament
How photographers are documenting the Trump administration's campaign of terror against immigrant communities
readingthepictures.media
September 4, 2025 at 8:31 AM
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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
August 15, 2025 at 8:11 AM
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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
August 1, 2025 at 8:08 AM
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Essential Images: 13 Scenes of Democracy Under Siege
From militarized raids to detention camps, these visuals expose and interrogate the country's slide into authoritarianism.
readingthepictures.media
July 21, 2025 at 8:07 AM
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What If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?
How LA residents refused Trump's invitation to violence—and why the most essential protest images tell a different story.
readingthepictures.media
June 30, 2025 at 8:07 AM
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What Now? Audacious Imagery Outside Immigration Court, Calling BS on the Trump-Musk “Melee,” and Researchers’ Fury
We sift the latest visual barrage to spotlight images at the heart of Trump’s war on democracy.
readingthepictures.media
June 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM
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Weapons as Props, Warriors as Roadies: Brandon Bell’s Deadpan Photos Call Out Massive Effort Behind Trump’s Military Parade
Behind the spectacle, a hollow ritual orchestrated at staggering public cost.
readingthepictures.media
June 11, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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The Oval Office as Demon's Lair
What's in a photo op? Trump's psychopathic corruption of American power.
readingthepictures.media
June 4, 2025 at 7:55 AM
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Vatican Celebration Photos Spotlight Pope Leo's Challenge to Trump's America
As American flags wave in St. Peter's Square, a humble pontiff elevates a competing vision of patriotism and national identity.
readingthepictures.media
May 22, 2025 at 7:56 AM
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Double Takes: Healthy, Wealthy…And Lies
In our new "Double Take" feature, we freeze-frame the images officials hope you'll miss—from detention SOS signals to political theater disguised as health policy.
readingthepictures.media
May 16, 2025 at 7:54 AM
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Trump's Visual Legacy at 100 Days: Not Normal Pictures for Not Normal Times
I'm proud to share these 15 images, which the media's hundred-day photo reviews will likely ignore. Call it a democracy stress test.
readingthepictures.media
May 8, 2025 at 8:25 AM
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Selling Out Ukraine
Watch now (3 mins) | Our exclusive video exposes Trump’s Moscow pivot and its devastating cost to a key ally.
readingthepictures.media
April 24, 2025 at 7:51 AM
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Signaling Strangelove: The New Yorker Cover's Brilliant Take on SignalGate
Barry Blitt’s masterpiece perfectly captures the essence of the Trump administration. It's a visual terror warning worthy of Kubrick himself.
readingthepictures.media
April 17, 2025 at 7:50 AM
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Trump’s Mugshot as White House Power Play
Watch now | Trump’s gilded mugshot guards the Oval Office—a warning to all who pass. As Volodymyr Zelensky learned, this intimidating checkpoint signals the fate awaiting anyone who challenges Dear Leader.
readingthepictures.media
March 26, 2025 at 8:08 AM
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The State of Disunion
I’m breaking down key images from Trump’s 2025 State of the Union—moments capturing a chamber in splinters, where resistance took many forms and silence would have meant complicity.
readingthepictures.media
March 15, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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Trump’s Village People Takeover - Why This Matters Now
Is Trump’s MAGA theater still hypnotizing America—or is it finally awakening the resistance?
readingthepictures.media
March 11, 2025 at 7:57 AM
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The Visual Politics of the LA Fires
From a man rescuing Old Glory to a haunting ‘stairway to nowhere,’ key photos from LA’s devastating fires expose America’s most profound social divisions inflamed by Trump’s sabotage.
readingthepictures.media
March 3, 2025 at 7:47 AM