November 22, 2007

In the new issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Louis Masur, the renowned scholar who heads up the American Studies program at Trinity (Connecticut) College, has a fascinating piece, “How the Truth Gets Framed By the Camera,” in which he calls Watching the World Change “insightful and moving.” (Masur teaches the book in two of his classes.)

In the context of the term “the devious lie of the snapshot”--a phrase coined by Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker--Masur presents a lengthy discussion of Hoepker’s September 11 photograph, below, which was first published in the U.S. in 2006 (in Watching the World Change) and emerged on the cultural radar thanks to a pivotal column by Frank Rich, of The New York Times, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Interpretations of the photograph and heated exchanges were then posted on blogs and on news and media-related Websites.

I encourage readers to absorb Masur's essay. To revisit the back-and-forth about Frank Rich's original column on Slate, Gawker, The Washington Post, The New York Times online, etc., CLICK HERE and HERE and HERE.