BAGnewsNotes

Shoe on the Other Foot

The photo plays with your assumptions once you know the context. Where do you think this is set, and what do you think you are looking at? (Detail after the jump...)

Baring the President's Fists

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If the term "game change" gets thrown around a lot these days, in Obama's case, passing health care has done just that.

Among the 91 White House Flickr photos in the "Health Reform; A Year in Photos" set, you'll notice three shots that are completely atypical. In each, Obama assumes the pose of a boxer and, in one, looks to throw a punch in the air.

If health care legislation had not passed, there is not a chance we would be seeing these pictures -- not now. Up to this point, in fact, Obama has been extraordinarily cautious not to appear either angry or aggressive in these Flickr shots -- that powerful are the racial stereotypes in this not-so-"post-racial" society we live in. With the extraordinarily deliberate, assertive and mammoth health care win, however, Obama gains the capital to claim much greater authority and, with it, individuality. Largely putting to rest the fear of an inexperienced and relatively unknown (and possibly testy) black man in the Oval Office, what the pictures validate is the license -- as Pete Souza drives home in triplicate -- to reveal Obama as a real fighter.

(photo: Pete Souza/White House. caption: President Barack Obama pumps his fists during a meeting with senior staff in the Chief of Staff 's office at the White House, March 21, 2010.)

Health Care: We Shall Overcome (with an Assist to the Teabaggers)

Credit the Tea Party for helping drive home an analogy far more powerful than Nancy Pelosi marching through the streets of DC with the gavel used to pass Medicare.

Haiti: Strictly Bananas

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Hmm, couched in a bunch of U.N. photos of peacekeeping troops patrolling "a notoriously dangerous slum on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti" (1, 2, 3 -- this latter one particularly scary the way the gun points directly at the woman's head); and this one in the "Central Market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a sensitive area where security measures have been increased"; and also this one, of a "slum of Martissant in the southern hills of Haiti capital Port-au-Prince, where violence is rampant and security measures have been increased since a prison break of about 4,000 convicts," we find the photo above.

I guess the jungly vibe, and the crouch, and the turned-in fingers, and all those bananas -- absent any hint of the so-captioned "newly-revived Port-au-Prince market" -- are supposed to strictly reveal this boy as part of Haiti's rebound.

(photo: Pasqual Gorriz/UN. caption: Boy Sells Bananas in Newly-Revived Port-au-Prince Market: A teenage boy sells bananas in Port-au-Prince Central Market which is slowly reviving after the 12 January earthquake. 22 February 2010 Port-au-Prince, Haiti.)

Even Hot Chocolate

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by contributor Stan Banos

I'm not claiming this is the absolute first- though it's most definitely the first commercial print ad I've ever seen featuring a biracial European and African American family (be interested if any of you know of others). Couple of things of note- first, it runs in the December 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine; and although ultimately ubiquitous in libraries, thrift stores and third grade art collages, Nat Geo's original audience can be seen as an educated, somewhat "upscale" lot, and the product itself (a cappuccino maker), one directed at an upscale taste and market.

The photograph is quite interesting as far as its composition.

CPAC 2: Black Power

Somehow, I'm not surprised FOX chose to illustrate their CPAC article yesterday by ripping off a familiar symbol of black power and radicalism --  transferring this historic and visceral symbol of anger, empowerment, and radicalism to an audience of mostly grumpy, white GOP activists. (Notice, by the way, how the juxtaposition with the old guy boosts the vitality of the gesture and makes it that much stronger.)

The photo reminds me of Rove's vision of  a "permanent Republican majority" -- contingent, in part, on flooding the media with Bush Administration photo-ops with African Americans while pandering to black conservatives and evangelicals -- in the hopes of peeling away a few percent of the African-American votes from the Dems each election.

(photo: Cliff Owen/AP. caption: Andre Harper pumps his fist in the air salute as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010.)

That "Looting"

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I think media has got to be very careful in using the term "looting" in the midst of an overwhelming humanitarian crisis, especially given how much that term calls to mind generations of violent protests and riots over civil rights. (One of The BAG's most widely circulated posts -- Outside the Crawfish Shak -- had to do with exactly this, as media headed down the same path in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.)

Compare these two paragraphs from the same AP story, "Struggle to aid Haitians as fears of unrest rise," dated Friday, for example. The article's second paragraph is followed by the eighth:

Annie/VF's Tiger Trash

I've got three words:

Naked, black(ened) thug.

***

Here's the pollyanna quote Ms. Leibovitz offered up to rationalize this "raw" photo of Woods taken before the scandal broke -- T I G E R's face out-of-focus to further dehumanize him; the view extending salaciously down toward his short-and-curlies.

“Tiger is an intensely competitive athlete—and quite serious about his sport. I wanted to reveal that in these photos. And to show his incredible focus and dedication.”

Gimme a break. Try:

Tiger is an intense freak show right now -- and I'm seriously lucky these photos reveal what a sport he's become. Since I'm intensely competitive (and as stretched as VF is for the benjamins), I'm forsaking my dedication to score some huge bank off this incredible focus.

The photo might well have been compelling before Woods's life, and facade caved in -- if VF truly dared push on the man's pristine image -- but at this point, its publication is only cheap and punitive.

I'm looking forward to your analysis.

Update 1/7/09: Just to put a date on the photo shoot, the NY Post reports that this photo, and the others published in this month's VF, had been in Annie Leibovitz's file for four years.

Shafting Tiger and Obama: That Sexually-Suggestive Golf Digest Cover

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For whatever drama this kicks up post-Tiger hitting the tree, it only gets in the way of how much the cover suggests sexual stereotypes of the African-American male.

(Just to be clear, what you're looking at is not a picture of TW and BHO but a photo-illustration using body doubles. Also, according to the publisher, the edition went to press November 14th, which was well before Tiger's Thanksgiving meltdown.)

I don't think it's unusual a caddy would be holding the flag in this situation, but look how Tiger's clasping it -- the flag like a very long shaft with that curious tip protruding.

Sotomayor Confirmed: Hip-Hop Hooray!

Sometimes a wall is just a wall and a wave is just a wave. Still, I had some questions about yesterday's NYT front page pic.

Specifically, I'm wondering how much cultural and racial loading there is in juxtaposing America's first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice with a tag spray-painted on the wall outside her apartment building while also capturing her wave so it looks like a hip-hop gesture?

(Props: Pete Martin)

(image: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times. Story.)