BAGnewsNotes

School Skirmish: "Oh Brother" Vs. "Big Brother"

I'm rather proud of this image (taken by our good friend, Mario Tama) given how the Administration deflected the latest wingnut flak. I also thoroughly applaud Obama for reaching out to school children and delivering a message of encouragement and responsibility. As Molly, a reader, said this morning in the previous post: "Whatever he is as a politician, I think Obama is a good man."

That said though, I do thing this episode, and today's pictures, also offer a lesson about perception, cognition, visual politics and the black arts of the right-wing. I've been doing a BlogRadio show every Friday with Florida progressives Susan Smith and Alison Morano discussing the "pictures of the week" and we're constantly mindful how effectively the philistines use framing (if just evidenced by how much time we spend deconstructing it).

Simply put, there's something in my reptilian brain -- as the result of having been privy to the week-long rebel narrative -- that looks at this image and conjures up "1984," given the rapt attention, and the way the kids are looking up/to/at the man in the box, and the way the two folded arms on the left, and the other two on the right, are so uniform. (And then next time, I could also do without the drama department's "Little Shop of Horrors" backdrop, illustrated by the guy in the tuxedo manipulating the marionette.)

(image: Mario Tama/Getty Images. caption: Manhattan Charter School students watch the National Address to Students on Educational Success by U.S. President Barack Obama September 8, 2009 in New York City. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to students beforehand at a "My Education, My Future" event at the school.)

Woodstock's 40th. (Righteous!)

Or, psychedelic! (Yeah, just wanted to say that.)

Our friend Mario Tama captured this joyful image from the Woodstock 40-year anniversary music festival. The photo seemed like a worthy choice to spur some reflection, nostalgia and to take time out from the haters. I'm digging the tie-dye, the saturated colors and the blurriness -- like everything going on behind this guy might just be a hallucination.

And then, what's it say that Woodstock's 40th, as a cultural marker, will pass virtually unnoticed compared, say, to the no-end celebration of the moon landing's 40th?

(...Here are more images from Daylife. Most of the one's marked Getty Images are also Mario's.)

(caption: BETHEL, NY - AUGUST 15: Roger Morris laughs as he waits for the start of the concert marking the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival August 15, 2009 in Bethel, New York. On August 15-17 in 1969 an estimated 400,000 music fans gathered on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, N.Y. for the celebrated music festival. The 40th anniversary concert will take place tonight.)

Geither Watch: Tim 2.0

It's bright. It's arty. It's rainbow. It's stimulus dollars for the 'hood rather than bailout bucks for the banksters. ...And, he's smiling.

After a bit of a rocky start, the Tim Geithner reboot hits pay dirt.

(image: our friend, Mario Tama/Getty Images caption: NEW YORK - JUNE 29: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (R) chats with U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) (L) at The Point community development center June 29, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Geithner visited the center to announce $90 million in financial assistance awards for 59 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) across the country in vulnerable communities as part of the Recovery Act)

The Horror

I've found the media's treatment of the recession so anesthetizing lately, so fixed on the "silver lining" (or "green shoots"), this photo -- paradoxically -- was like a breath of fresh air.

Even if it's just an odd glance, the fact Fritz looks aghast (as well as sealed in the hybrid) actually lets me feel a major horror occurred today.

(Photo by the fabulous Getty photographer and consistent BNN contributer, Mario Tama.)

(caption: General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson (L) exits U.S. Bankruptcy Court in a G.M. hybrid vehicle June 1, 2009 in New York City. Troubled Detroit automaker General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection today.)

Looking Since the Storm: BAGnewsSALON With Mario Tama

Since Hurricane Katrina, Getty photographer Mario Tama has produced compelling documentary images of life in New Orleans. Three-and-a-half years after the storm, we invite you to this BAGnewsSalon where we will discuss how Mario's images look to us, one president and a major financial crisis later.

In addition to Mario Tama, discussants include professors Loret Steinberg, RIT and Nathan Stormer, U. of Maine ; lawyer and historian Michael Steinberg; photojournalists Alan Chin, Tim Fadek, Aric Mayer and Yana Paskova; photographer/publisher Michael Itkoff (Daylight Magazine); BNN publisher Michael Shaw; and BAGnewsSalon producer Ida Benedetto. The discussion will be moderated by Cara Finnegan (University of Illinois).

 We will be accepting moderated questions and comments from the readership in the last half-hour.

(Note: Images are viewable in larger size by clicking on thumbnails below or clicking slideshow "full screen" icon. Slideshow also offers caption option.) 

Reflecting On The Meltdown

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Getty photographer Mario Tama sends in this evocative image from yesterday's demonstration in New York's financial district.

It captures a two-day anti-capitalist rally protesting the Wall Street bailout. Through the use of reflection (in this photo of a restaurant, as well as this one playing the street off against a corporate lobby), Mario portrays America's class schism (note the guy in the lime-colored reflective vest overlapped with the guy in the jacket with the wristwatch); America flip-flopping between awareness and denial; and the strange disconnect these days between crisis and "business as usual."

Mario's photos from New Orleans will be the feature of a BAGnewSALON, our on-line discussion series, here tomorrow.

(image: Mario Tama/Getty Images. New York. April 3, 2009)

Ground Zero 2009

I find this image from Mario Tama particularly fitting given Obama's crack down today on executives whose firms have been scoring bail-out dollars.

The photo was taken last week outside the NY Stock Exchange. The photo seems to capture what the Executive Branch is recognizing, which is the blasphemous contrast between what has been the bright and warm, thoroughly protected, gilded heart of American high finance as compared to the cold, empty and obstructed terrain outside.

(image: Mario Tama/Getty Images. January 28, 2009. New York)

Pfizer/Viagra's Handy CEO

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Pfizer Buying Wyeth- Reuters video

Pfizer merger poses antitrust test (Journal Inquirer)

Wyeth deal could mean NJ drug industry job cuts (Forbes)

(This BAGnewsNotes slideshow -- featuring the images of Getty photographer Mario Tama -- looks at CEOs, especially as they come under new scrutiny from the administration and the press. The images were captured at a press conference last week featuring Pfizer CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler and Bernard Poussot, CEO of Wyeth. Pfizer -- maker of Lipitor and Viagra -- plans to acquire Wyeth for $68 billion creating the world's largest biopharmaceutical company.)

On To Washington

As during election week, photographer Mario Tama is in Alabama again tracing the sights, symbols and echoes of the civil rights movement in marking Martin Luther King Day and the Obama inauguration. These two images document a scene playing out in many cities these past few days, of African-Americans boarding buses for the trip to Washington.

The second photo not only captures the pride inherent in the week and this moment in history, but eloquently evokes the profound generational differences -- forty-four years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act -- when it comes to racial identity and civil rights.

Also:    

(images: © Mario Tama. January 18, 2009, Birmingham, Alabama.)

Mario Tama: The Vote From Birmingham

Eighty-one year old Emmitt Coleman sitting on his porch after casting his ballot.

(image: ©Mario Tama/Getty. November 4 2008. Birmingham, AL)