There’s a great article in U.S. News & World Report on the photograph that won that Pulitzer prize in 1976, The Soiling of Old Glory. The article is an interview with Louis Masur, a professor of American culture at Trinity who’s written a book on the photograph. Incredibly, I’d never seen this image before–but it’s a fine example of the way a photograph can seem to convey information immediately, when actually the composition is highly misleading. Masur points out, for example, that the man holding the flag has no intention of spearing Ted Landsmark, the black lawyer under attack; nor is the man holding him trying to restrain him. For the full story, click here.
Image © Stanley J. Forman.
