by Michael Shaw

If you had to choose one photo to illustrate the immigration crisis, this is literally the money shot. In fact, Mark Peterson’s photograph, taken at a recent border security trade show (a revealing exercise in itself), might serve as the defining image of Trump’s America.

It’s a great example because of the Trump mantra, born from the chants of those early primal rallies and the GOP convention, to lock people up. But what’s brilliant about the photo is how unabashed it is about the ultimate motive. …

by Christa Olson

You’ve seen pictures like these before.

In early April, The New Yorker published a series of three by Jonathan Blitzer articles lushly illustrated with photographs by Mauricio Lima. Blitzer’s essays provide context for the recent surge in migration from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States. Lima’s photos provide the viewer with different entry points to the issues … and to understanding of the people depicted.

Each of Blitzer’s three pieces tells a different story: remittances, debt, and climate change. Together, they treat the forces that push and pull migrants — many of whom are rural and indigenous — to leave their homes and head north. The first of those articles, How Climate Change is Fueling the U.S. Border Crisis, introduces climate change as a significant push factor in today’s migration crisis. As Central America’s “dry corridor” expands, extreme weather events increase, and seasonal weather patterns become unpredictable, communities of subsistence farmers in the western highlands of Guatemala are no longer able to subsist with traditional crops. Some turn to selling firewood, which contributes to local deforestation and exacerbates the effects of climate change. …

by Philip Perdue

How fitting that, two years into Trump’s presidency and upon the final, but necessarily incomplete release of the Mueller Report, one of the most significant impressions of the document was pictographic. Usually reporting about a report involves careful verbal summary and synopsis, but in this case much of the pertinent language has been redacted. But to Jon Schleuss and his scanner at the Los Angeles Times, we have a bird’s eye view on all the pages of the report put together-all 448 of them-to help us get a sense for just how much has been blotted out.

The image above went viral almost immediately likely because audiences were quick to assume in the black-and-white pattern that Trump-fronting Attorney General William Barr used his legal authorization to block key passages. …

by KC McGinnis

ONE OF THE reasons people go on pilgrimages is to find solace in arriving at a concrete destination. That may be why Roseanne Barr, the exiled TV star who cut her own explosive comeback short last year with a disastrous, racist tweet, made a surprising appearance at the Western Wall during a recent two-week excursion to Israel. Award-winning photojournalist Melina Mara accompanied Roseanne on the trip, documenting for Washington Post how Hollywood star power negotiates a career fallout by heading to the Holy Land. …

This week in ‘Chatting The Pictures’

by Michael Shaw

“The News” photo this week was taken by Sergio Flores for The Washington Post. At a makeshift detention center in El Paso, a surge of asylum seekers has been overwhelming Border Patrol and the U.S. immigration infrastructure. In this frame, we see how a news photograph can present many messages at once. The government and Democrats would agree it shows a humanitarian crisis. But it’s one that the government has designed.

For “The Look,” we discuss an image by Cliff Owen for the Associated Press. This photograph of Special Council Mueller in front of the White House, after leaving church, was taken a day after his report was delivered to Attorney General William Barr. After a careful and meticulous investigation, that awkward look at the camera is the perfect compliment after the government engineered a four page summary of his 300 page report, and the White House declared itself vindicated. …

by Rian Dundon

With all the anxiety and anticipation over the Mueller Report, the release of a slight Justice Department summary exonerating Trump just led to a deeper foreboding. Bereft any lingering hope of the special prosecutor revealing something of immediate consequence for this administration, instead we were left with more of the same. Following the release, the anxious mood in Washington was captured by photographers, variously, in Mueller’s wistful expressions and the late winter landscape of the city itself. …

by Michael Shaw

With the death of the White House press briefing and the presidential press conference, these South Lawn encounters are really all that’s left of a regular exchange between Trump and the press.

The scene above, by Evan Vucci, could be called your standard fare — meaning, a picture that is indistinguishable from those conducted over the years with other Commanders in Chief before flying off on Marine One.

But, as we know, “standard,” “normal,” or “regular” are not terms that apply to Trump and his presidency, and these driveway encounters haven’t been either.

If anything, these episodes provide a consistent backdrop against which to observe the president’s oft-repeated moves. In this case, the push back, the keeping inquiring minds at bay, the enforcement of one version of the facts. …

by Michael Shaw

Welcome to the latest edition of Chatting the Pictures. In each 20-minute webcast, co-hosts Michael Shaw, publisher of Reading the Pictures, and writer and historian, Cara Finnegan, discuss three prominent photos in the news. The program is broken into three segments: “The News,” “The Look,” and “The Pick.” “The News” examine a hard news image for its content value. “The Look” focuses on a news photo for its artistry and style. And “The Pick” asks what made a high profile photo so unique to editors or the public.

“The News” photo this week was distributed by Mega. Based on the college entrance scandal that broke this week, we see actress Felicity Huffman leaving court after her arraignment. We look at the irony of the crossover news/paparazzi photo, wonder where Bill Macy (Huffman’s husband is), discuss that classic grimace on the officer’s face, and muse about how well-heeled parents get their kids into college through the back or side door. …