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Here are 5 things I was looking at and loving this week:
Merry Christmas1, y’all. And, Happy Birthday, Jesus.
The New York Times’ 2025 Year in Pictures is a great reminder of the power of photojournalism.
I love music. So, I love Track Star. It’s feel-good social media content. You can watch shorter clips on IG and full clips on YouTube. This guy blew me away.
I also really love what Thoraya Maronesy is doing. It’s simple, she asks strangers in NY one question: “Can I Walk With You?” It’s such a basic journalistic premise… everyone has a story. She approaches people with such a sincere openness that it makes them want to talk. It’s a good lesson for everyone. You can listen via podcast or watch the videos on YouTube through her site.
Unless you’re totally offline, I’m sure by now you’ve seen Christopher Anderson’s photos of the Trump administration for Vanity Fair. At dinner this week, I had friends who are pretty far removed from journalism ask me about them, so I know they’ve been making the rounds. A veteran conflict photographer turned celebrity photographer, Anderson’s work is incredible. I even have a few of his books in my #photobook library. And if anyone from the White House comms team bothered to Google him before the shoot to see what his style is, they might have come across these tight portraits of people in politics from 2012 or his subsequent book called Stump, published in 2014. My take on these new VF photos is simple. There’s no such thing as objectivity in journalism, and of course, he knew what he was doing. I seriously doubt it was malicious. I think more than anything, it’s just real, and we’re just not used to seeing things as they really are in this day and age of filters and Photoshop. Assignments like this are a dance. The administration usually knows what it’s doing, too, and what sort of image or look it wants to project. It’s up to a skilled photographer to crack through that veneer and find something real. And Anderson did just that. He got it tight AND then he backed, and rather than tidying up and presenting everything as polished and pretty, he shows it exactly as it is. In this Q&A, his answers speak for themselves.
To those who celebrate. Happy Hanukkah or Happy Holidays to the rest of y’all. And for all of us… Let’s all celebrate surviving this year.
That Track Star dude's knowledge was UNREAL. I also just added most of those songs to my 80s Yacht Rock playlist.
Nik Anaya'a series and, even more so, Jeff Reiser's Christmas in America series, are excellent! Actually, I am in disbelief having just looked through Reiser's work. OMG. Reality is so interesting if not almost unbelievable. And while I had seen the IG post, I hadn't seen Stump or the NY Mag's "Family Politic" portfolio by Christopher Andersen. The difference between the visual content in color and black and white work is particularly telling. Thanks for sharing these and season's greetings!