The fed extracting drivers from their cars in MN: After ICE killed Renee Good, the violence in these moments became impossible to ignore--graphic proof of the roadway impunity I analyzed and Trump denies. readingthepictures.media/p/telling-ph... 📷 Tim Evans/Reuters; Scott Olson/Getty; Adam Gray/AP

Reading the Pictures of Trump 2.0 at the End of Year 1 I'm proud to share these 15 images, which the media's 100-day photo reviews will likely ignore. Call it a democracy stress test. Not Normal Pictures for Not Normal Times (April 27, 2025) readingthepictures.media/p/trumps-not...

Reading the Pictures of Trump 2.0 From executive order theater to Elon’s salute, telling moments of Trump’s second inauguration (and yes, Justice Jackson’s eloquent necklace). Scenes from the Coronation of King Donald II: A Visual Guide to US Autocracy readingthepictures.media/p/coronation...

Deportation cops rammed the car of Mr. Molina, a U.S. citizen—and the insult to injury? The enforcer in his face was on loan from the Bureau of Prisons. (Photo from Minneapolis on Monday. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times)

Trump and Noem spun her death into proof of her guilt. Forensic analysis proved them wrong—and photographs revealed the larger pattern of who lives and dies behind the wheel and on the street. Roadway Impunity: Telling Photos After ICE Killed Renee Good readingthepictures.media/p/telling-ph...

The latest bloodshed—ICE agents killing a civilian in MN, two more in Portland—was tragically predictable. Photojournalists saw the trajectory months ago, as our early December post showed Trump’s war on migrants putting his own foot soldiers in harm’s way. readingthepictures.media/p/trumps-sto...

Are you going to believe me, or your own eyes? Trump insisted to the reporters that the agent was struck by the vehicle. Well, I'll take the findings of the NYT Visual Investigations unit over whatever it is Trump thinks he saw. (📷 Doug Mills/NYT. Screenshots: NYT Visual Investigations Unit.)

Among hundreds of images documenting the Capitol attack, Balazs Gardi captured something different: a moment of quiet triumph that seemed premature then, but prophetic now. On this fifth anniversary: The January 6 Photo That Knew readingthepictures.media/p/the-januar...

Floral wallpaper lies beneath a raw, urgent spray-paint script. Whimsy with an edge, it delivers a rebuke to narcissism and the cult of personality, with togetherness as the new order. That Year-End Bubble? It’s Carnage Fatigue readingthepictures.media/p/that-year-... 🖋️ Eric Stefanski

That Year-End Bubble? It’s Carnage Fatigue readingthepictures.media/p/that-year-... Cover illustrations and photojournalism show us what 2025 is ready to shed: the cult of self, algorithmic capture, and cruelty as spectacle.

Fav pic from the Suzie Wiles self-immolation. The administration she manages is one of darkness and shadow—a collision of edges, a clash of banal planes. It’s a long, dark passage, a gauntlet of corners, fragments of frames within frames. (📷: Christopher Anderson for Vanity Fair.)

Render unto ICE. Democracy Was the Target, DEI Was the Scapegoat: Key Pictures of 2025 readingthepictures.media/p/democracy-... (Photo: Jim Vondruska-Reuters. Minister Michael Woolf is detained by Illinois State Police during a protest outside ICE facility in Chicago.)

America First: The rich pay in cash, the rest in chains. Democracy Was the Target, DEI Was the Scapegoat: Key Pictures of 2025 readingthepictures.media/p/democracy-... (Photo: Christopher Lee for TIME. Hand and leg restraints left over from ICE deportation flight in La., May 29.)

Crush the protests first, break the universities after. Democracy Was the Target, DEI Was the Scapegoat: Key Pictures of 2025 readingthepictures.media/p/democracy-... (Photo: Alex Kent-NYT/Redux. Columbia University alumnus arrested during the university’s graduation ceremony, May 21.)

Love Diane’s street art beat. (Photo: diane.krauthamer Anti-fascist street art from all over #NorthwestDC in recent weeks 🎨📣🎨 11/25-12/6/25 - Via Instagram)

American brands. (Photo: Adam Gray for AFP. Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino. “Operation Catahoula Crunch,” New Orleans, Louisiana.)

Oct 5: Tape X's out a masked agent's face—inverting journalism's protective redaction into exposure. A visual act of cancellation, conveying public rage. Photo: Jim Vondruska via Instagram DC Guard Attack: Trump's Storm Troops Caught in Web of His Making readingthepictures.media/p/trumps-sto...

Photographers documented the warning signs BEFORE the DC Guard shooting—caution tape, bubbles, mirrors. Visual prophecy we ignored. They're exposing what words can't express: forces caught in a web of their own making. This attack was completely avoidable. readingthepictures.media/p/trumps-sto...

Perfect angle: Rezin lined up marching federal agents with Trump Tower looming behind—his gilded monument as backdrop for his forces. Not law enforcement serving the public. This is occupation as policy. 📸: Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP readingthepictures.media/p/images-of-...

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/p/images-of-...

Saturday’s “No Kings” protests were one of the largest coordinated citizen demonstrations in modern U.S. history. And what of the day-after NYT coverage?There was no mention at all in the lead online section. The print front page had two small pix below the fold, with an article on page 23.

She’s literally sticking her neck out—the most vulnerable target bearing the most defiant message. Sinna Nasseri captured this photo at Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA conference in July. 1000 Words: Visual Defiance Against the Authoritarian State readingthepictures.media/p/visual-def...

Since Kirk’s assassination, the crackdown on dissent has jolted photojournalism, street art & illustration—each surging now to galvanize truth, disrupt complacency, and bear witness. Visual Defiance Against the Authoritarian State Photo: Diane Krauthamer. readingthepictures.media/p/visual-def...

Some aftermaths command the spotlight, while others fade almost unseen, though their grief runs the same. Violence and mayhem in America, Sept 10, 2025. (1) Evergreen High School, CO — RJ Sangosti/Denver Post via Getty. (2) Kirk shooting, Utah Valley Univ — Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Trib via Reuters.

Pix from the #climate emergency, which is not just getting worse, but freakier--despite the lies. From the recent PHX Haboob. These blackout dusk clouds can sometimes carry over 100 miles. (Photos: Ross D Franklin/AP; City of Phoenix/AFP/Getty Images; Charlie Budd/Reuters. Via The Guardian.)

Amid LA's ICE raids, Brandon Tauszik's photos reveal the human cost: not factory drama, but the invisible middle class, such as Ana sheltering in place. Ordinary moments, newly precarious. The Machinery of American Cruelty readingthepictures.media/p/photos-of-... Via @motherjones.com

A woman and daughter weep after agents detained her husband outside his immigration hearing. Even the building security guard is moved to tears. How do images like this not force a reckoning? 📸: Carol Guzy **The Machinery of American Cruelty** <readingthepictures.media/p/photos-of-...>

I've been tracking how photographers are documenting immigration enforcement, and the visual story they're telling is both devastating and essential. Let me walk you through it. The Machinery of American Cruelty: A Visual Testament readingthepictures.media/p/photos-of-... 📷Michael Owen Baker/AP

Thank President Miller.

1000 words: Vlad, in more peace-purple than MAGA red tie, lowers eyes and mirrors Trump’s perch while RUS flag and aide with pageful of notes reinforce his giving up nothing. Versus Trump, frozen in “how’s this coming off?” glance, echoed by team’s tense, wayward hands. 📷Doug Mills @nytimes.com

More visual framing of DC power play. Trump’s militant takeover, blatant executive overreach casts ominous shadow over the Capitol. Then the obvious subtext: where were the (federal) boots in the ground on Jan6? (NYT)

You knew the moment this pseudo-emergency hit, vigorous photo commentary would follow. Homelessness is such a crime, isn’t it? (Via NYT) #Trump #DCtakeover

Before he took over policing DC, Trump did this. "Co-witness" the destruction of Black Lives Matter Plaza—a spiteful act nearly buried in Trump's blitzkrieg of heresies and war on DEI. Jacquelyn Martin’s bird's-eye view positions us in solidarity with this resident. youtu.be/M9kEfBOo27w...

Stone cold President. (Images: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal law enforcement agents in D.C. August 11, 2025.; DC crime statistics, via WAPO.)

More eloquent storytelling by photojournalist Steffi Keith from the hallways of New York City's immigration court. Only the latest heartbreak. A man takes off his wedding ring to give to his partner before he is detained by a federal agent. She ends up leaving without him.

For @wired.com I wrote about the Trump admin's latest propaganda strategy: incorporating the casual nihilism and cruelty of the highly online far-right into memes about deportation www.wired.com/story/trump-...

Photo-illustration of the day. Literally. (Via @nytopinion.nytimes.com)

What follows is a sample of recent climate catastrophes that have received little coverage despite their scale. Recognize any? Willful Blindness: How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial... 📷 China Daily; USA TODAY, AP

A car hood in flood-ravaged Kerr County is painted with Trump’s assassination attempt, while a prayer sign directs people to a service for flood victims. How Denial Left Texas Children Defenseless Against the Climate Crisis readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial... 📷Sergio Flores Jr/Reuters

We've perfected the art of the unseen disaster. While Greece burns and Texas floods, our feeds fill with everything except the climate crisis spiraling out of control. It's not an accident. (Photo: Fedja Grulovic/Reuters) readingthepictures.media/p/how-denial...

File under: the growing wariness over social media. NYT “Op-Ed posters” (Photo: Marco Arguello/Connected Archives)

The “othering” of the immigrant—and life in the shadows. NYT “Op-Ed posters” (Photo: Natalie Arrué)

After virtual Gaza blackout, the forced famine is finally cracking US media. The lethal ubiquity of pots and pans. July 24, 26, 27th. NYT *Op-Ed posters.*

"We cannot say we did not know” carries the quiet weight of witness. The sign is small but its message is sharp: where images from Gaza are inescapable, denial is no longer an option. Echoing the language of past atrocities, it hints that history is watching—and so are we. (📷John Trotter/MAPS)

This Times Square billboard shows real Epstein legal docs, turning them into political messaging. The top hooks you, the bottom lays out the evidence. A girl’s glance at the camera cues how the public is dialed in—the conspiratorial Trump caught in a web of his own making. 📷 Vincent Alban/NYT

One mother's hospital photo shows what media hasn’t: our worst measles outbreak in years. While outlets use stock shots, her sick kids tell the real story—even as Trump's anti-vax crusader swoops in for funeral photo ops. readingthepictures.media/p/how-one-ph...

As Europe bakes: Not sure it would be a "pic of the week" if not for the climate emergency. These buried heads are becoming a denial theme. 📷 Tom Nicholson/Reuters. Young people jump into the Canal Saint-Martin on a sunny, warm summer day in Paris as an early summer heatwave hits France, July 2.

Latest art from Shoshibuya. All Trump all the time. Via: Coverjunkie

The Roosevelt quote is fascinating for Trump's unheard-of admission of failure and weakness. So much for empire, the Epstein affair has deeply riven him. The legs and feet are the best: I'm dirty.

During the '65 measles epidemic, LIFE didn't shy from making the vaccine's necessity visceral and immediate, publishing this cover of a pregnant woman with her powerful look of trust. Today's media needs to reclaim that stance. readingthepictures.media/p/how-one-ph... 📷 Co Rentmeester