BAGnewsNotes

Your BAG/World Press Sunday: From Gaza City

World Press '08 - Spot News: Honorable Mention

Emilio Morenatti, Spain, The Associated Press.

Rockets launched from Gaza City towards Israel, 22 May

Your BAG/World Press Saturday: The Range

World Press '08: General News: Honorable Mention

Christoph Bangert, Germany, Laif for Stern.

German Army sniper practice target, Kunduz, Afghanistan, 27 April

christophbangert.com
Iraq: The Space Between (BNN)
Exit The Green Zone (BNN)

Your BAG

As I mentioned in the threads the other day, I'm going to be away through Wednesday.  I'll be completely unplugged, taking a break from the pics, the keyboard and even the U.S. of A.

This stretch, however, offers the chance to do something I really look forward to, and which we've done successfully several times before.  For five days, I'm turning The BAG completely over to you.  (Because I'm told people come here as much to hear your take as mine, I say, all the better.)

While I'm gone, I plan to auto-post five 2008 World Press Photo winning images, one each day.  (The awards, acknowledged as a mainstay of photojournalism, were announced just last week.)

I hope you'll consider each image, first and foremost, for its own elements, then for its political and media commentary, and its relevance to now.  Although you might have more to say about one than another, I've tried to choose photos that are as visually interesting (if not odd or provocative) as they are politically and culturally relevant.

By the way, I know I'll be missing Wisconsin and Hawaii on Tuesday, but that means more energy when Ohio and Texas rolls around.

The line-up:

Saturday: Christoph Bangert, Germany, Laif for Stern.
German Army sniper practice target, Kunduz, Afghanistan, 27 April

Sunday: Emilio Morenatti, Spain, The Associated Press.
Rockets launched from Gaza City towards Israel, 22 May

Monday: Platon, UK, for Time magazine:
President Putin of Russia

Tuesday: Michael Kamber, USA, The New York Times.
Searching for missing soldiers, Latafiya, Iraq, 18 May

Wednesday: Philippe Dudouit, Switzerland, for Time magazine.
PKK fighters, Northern Iraq

Note that this post will stay in place at the top of the blog.  Each new offering will appear below.

To old friends and new, I know I'm leaving the place in good hands.

When You Subtract Lewis

How often, as regards a political campaign, do you find yourself thinking about negative space?

This shot was taken on October 12th, the day Representative Lewis -- the influential congressman and civil rights veteran, as well as long time friend and supporter of the Clintons -- gave his endorsement to Hillary.  The image surfaced yesterday after the Georgian and super delegate reversed that commitment.

The act of going in and mentally extracting the Representative from this picture has an immediate cognitive effect.  In the void, a number of assumptions -- previously held by embrace -- start to float free.  The perceived political power of the Clintons, the depth and endurance of the Clinton bond with the black community, and even the authoritative capital of the Hillary campaign become fundamentally indeterminate.

Then, Hillary's newswire pose (as contrasted with Lewis' more grounded and introspective look);  the citizen-paparazzi, motivated as much or more by celebrity as substance; and the fact the mostly black crowd is more spatially aligned with Lewis, while Hillary lines up with the one (mostly obscured) black woman, plus a parking lot, only further diminishes the Clinton grasp.

image from: Black Leader, a Clinton Ally, Tilts to Obama (NYT)

(image: John Nowak for The New York Times.  October 12, 2007. nytimes.com)

Your Turn: Welcome To New Orleans

People in New Orleans are not just angry but also horribly embarrassed by this Times Picayune photo -- featuring Mayor Nagin and the police chief -- illustrating a recent city purchase of SWAT and riot equipment.  Compounding the reaction, Nagin used the occasion to welcome the NBA All Star Game to New Orleans this weekend.  I should also mention, the photo was taken on the floor of the Superdome.  The armored vehicle in the background was part of the buy.

Your thoughts, lamentations, weapon tutorials?

N.O. police show off new crime-fighting equipment -- (original NOLA story with long comment thread)
Blinded By The Light? - (BNN)

(image: Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune.  New Orleans.  February 12, 2008. nola.com)

Swingin' With David Petraeus

Nice to see General Petraeus -- taking time out from putting Sunnis on the U.S. payroll -- celebrating the grand opening of a USO facility at the air base in Balad, Iraq.  I mean, if our fighting men and women are going to be there another hundred years, they are sure going to need some place to unwind between that 33rd and 34th tour of duty.

The real stumper to me, though, is the video game of choice here.  What happened to Halo, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, or even 9/11: The Video Game?  Could it be that Public Affairs got to choose?

Besides the phallic association (oh yeah, and there's also the gun propped in the corner), I love the situation on screen.  It's like a mirror of the Administration's almost five year old story line: We may be in the rough at the moment, but in the next shot, we'll surely be on the green.

Kill Or Convert, Brought To You By the Pentagon (The Nation)
Playing 'outside the wire' (msnbc.com)
Propaganda Propaganda (this week's earlier piece of mis-direction - BNN)

(image: Anja Niedringhaus/A.P. Feb. 7, 2008. Balad, Iraq. via YahooNews)

RGB

Although the picture was taken some days before the voting, you can't look at this image outside the context of the one-sided loss HRC suffered last night in Maryland (as well as Virginia and D.C.).

Here, Maryland Clinton-backers Lt. Gov. Brown, Senator Mikulski, and Governor O'Malley, back-right, join Hillary on a tour of the Powertrain manufacturing plant.  Clinton and Brown wear masks of attention, but you get the feeling that either or both could be as far away as the (at least momentarily) discordant Mikulski.  Visions of the end-of-the-line, perhaps?

What seems to enhance the effect is the arrangement of primary colors.  While the red-green-blue creates an optimal visual differentiation in the brain, I wonder if the color harmony actually serves to heighten the dissonance of the manufactured mood.

Winning Streak Extends To District, Md. and Va. (WAPO)
image from: Presidential Candidates Boost Campaign Efforts - (WAPO slide show)

(image: Nikki Kahn - The Washington Post.  February 2008.  Maryland. washingtonpost.com)

Badly Lacking

Maybe this is more Wonkette than BAG material, I don't know.

Still, I saw both last night while doing my tour around.  The top shot is Robert Gates at the Conference on Security Policy in Munich on Sunday.  (Here's the justice.)  The McCain image was taken at a rally at the Virginia Aviation Museum on Monday.  According to the caption, this A-4 is just like the one he was flying when he was shot down in 'Nam.  (Frankly, I'm so exhausted by the war props ... but maybe that's more Mac's problem than mine.)

What these pics mostly make me think about, however -- beyond the (not so) subliminal -- is how Rove, with all his exacting visual message discipline, would never have let either of these shots happen.  Especially not the latter.

(image 1: Alexandra Beier/Reuters.  Munich. February 10, 2008.  image 2: Steve Helber/A.P.  Feb. 11, 2008. Richmond, Va. Via YahooNews)

Propaganda Propaganda

U.S.: Al Qaeda video shows armed boys in training (CNN)

(images: Reuters, AP/ Multi-National Force - Iraq/Handout.  Also Sabah Arar/Pool - Reuters. Via YahooNews. sample caption: A screen grab from an al Qaeda video released February 6, 2008 shows boys brandishing weapons. U.S. forces seized Al Qaeda videos which showed Iraqi children younger than 11 carrying out mock kidnappings and attacks, the U.S. military and Iraqi officials said on Wednesday. Videos played to media showed about 20 boys, mostly under 11, wearing balaclavas and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers almost as big as themselves. final caption: U.S. Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, director of the Multi-National Force - Iraq's Communication Division, speaks during a joint news conference with the spokesman of Iraq's Ministry of Defence Mohammed al-Askari in Baghdad February 6, 2008)

Signs And Signals

Interesting pic accompanying the AP story on the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Virginia on Saturday.

Moving to the fore?

Animate vs. inanimate?

That was then, this is now?

image from: Clinton, Obama Pitch to Va. Democrats (2/10/8 - NYT)

(h/t Al, Chip.  image: Rick Bowmer/Associated Press.  February 9, 2008. nytimes.com.  caption: Senator Barack Obama in Richmond, Va., Saturday at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, sponsored by the state’s Democratic Party, where Hillary Rodham Clinton also spoke.)