In a world of moving images, photographs capture indelible moments in Trump’s assassination attempt

The photograph of a bloodied Donald Trump with his fist in the air and an American flag appearing in the background is quickly emerging as the central image of the Saturday shootingand it would not exist without a journalist who acted quickly and with a hunch.

Video of the attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania filled television screens before it was even clear what had happened. However, the work of Evan Vucci of the Associated Press, Anna Moneymaker of the Getty, and Doug Mills of The New York Times – whose photo captured apparent evidence of a bullet whizzing past Trump’s head – proved the enduring power of photography in a world driven by a deluge of moving images.

Vucci’s image, one of many he took on Saturday, could also have political implications from many directions — as is often the case with indelible images in the days and years after seismic events occurred.

“Without a doubt, Evan’s photo will become the definitive photo of the (assassination) attempt,” said Patrick Witty, former photo editor for Time, the New York Times and National Geographic. “It captures a range of complex details and emotions in a still image – the defiantly raised fist, the blood, the agents clamoring to push Trump off the stage and, most importantly, the flag. That’s what elevates the photo.”

The New York Post ran the photo on the tabloid’s front page on Sunday with a headline describing the former president as “bloodied but unyielding.” Time magazine put this on the cover. “A legendary American photograph,” wrote The Atlantic in the headline of a story about the image.

It all made one thing clear: after more than 175 years of photography, freezing a moment in time for posterity remains as powerful as telling it on video – and sometimes even more so.

Many news photographers, including the AP’s Gene Puskar, were on assignment at several locations near Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. Vucci was one of four positioned between the stage and the audience. Covering a political rally is a routine task that the Washington-based journalist has done hundreds of times; What hasn’t been said is the duty to be in position if history beckons as it did on Saturday.

When he heard pops, Vucci, who has covered combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he instantly knew it was gunfire. He rushed to the stage to Trump’s right, but his view of the former president was quickly blocked by Secret Service agents. He felt the agents were going to try to push Trump off the stage and into a vehicle on the other side, so he ran there.

From that position, he said, “everything opened up to me.”

Trump’s attempts to stand up and raise his fist gave Vucci a clear view of the former president. He said the blue sky and flag in the background are an important part of the composition. “I think that told the story of where we are now,” he said.

Witty, like some others, compared it to Joe Rosenthal’s AP photo of the U.S. Marines raising the American flag about Iwo Jima in World War II – an image so memorable to so many that it inspired a memorial.

“I think it will last and symbolize the times we live in,” said Ron Burnett, former president of Emily Carr University of Art and Design and an image expert.

The presence of the flag can prove to be a lightning rod, because it also makes the photograph a powerful political image – in line with the increased politicization of the US flag in the years following the 9/11 attacks. “It’s already one of the most iconic photographs in American history – and I suspect it will propel Donald Trump back to the White House,” wrote British journalist Piers Morgan in X.

Saturday’s photo with the full flag has been used 2,327 times, while the one without the flag has been used 1,759 times by AP customers, the news agency reported. Typically, the most used photo for an entire week is viewed 700 or 800 times.

It’s not hard to imagine the image of the flag being seen in Trump campaign ads or paraphernalia, just as the photo of his arrest in Georgia quickly did. At least one website already sold t-shirts with the photo.

“I can see it being used in a number of ways as part of the entourage of images that surround him,” said Burnett, who marveled at Trump’s ability to seemingly be aware of how everything would look in the midst of such a situation. a traumatic experience.

Vucci said the way the image is used in public discourse is not a cause for concern for him. “The way I see it, I was there and I did my job,” said Vucci, who won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for his work covering the demonstrations following the George Floyd shooting. “I kept a cool head and told the story.”

There was other impressive work from photographers on site. Getty’s Moneymaker, for example, captured an extraordinarily intimate image of Trump on the stage floor, taken through the legs of a Secret Service agent guarding him.

Mills’s photograph for The Times is part of a series showing Trump reaching for his ear after being hit. In one, barely visible unless the photo is zoomed in, is a band behind Trump’s head that likely illustrates the air displacement of a fast-moving projectile, according to a retired FBI special agent quoted in the paper. The Times did not discuss the matter on Sunday.

The agent, Michael Harrigan, told the newspaper: “Under the circumstances, if this didn’t show the bullet’s path through the air, I don’t know what would.”

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him on http://twitter.com/dbauder.