“This is not to say that news images have no obligation to tell the truth, or no informational value — only that their truthfulness and informational value are necessarily situated and contingent rather than absolute.”

Each year, more and more people are able to tune into major world events from their own homes. Photojournalists are tasked with creating unforgettable images that make an immediate impact, provide crucial visual context, and remain as unbiased as possible. Photographs are often our first and longest impression of a news event—we see the image before the headline as we scan our social media feeds, and images can be disseminated faster than journalists can write. Long after we’ve forgotten the details of a particular feature, the feeling of a powerful image remains.

A painstaking selection process ensures that The Times’s annual visual review highlights the biggest news events and strongest images.

Media bias usually has to do with what’s in the frame–not whether or not there is one.

Ironically, the photo was shot by a woman staff photographer for the New York Times, Erin Schaff, who thought to get slightly behind the diplomats to photograph the gaggle of photographers from the other side. The photographers, about 27, or almost all of them that are visible in the photo, seem to be white males. There may have been a few minorities or other women in the group, but it’s hard to tell.

As soon as the White House announced the death of Bakr al-Baghdadi and released this picture, the Trump and the Obama Situation Room photos became historical twins. People have flocked to social media to draw comparisons. Given this is what we do, here is our first pass comparison. We will probably be updating this post, especially to consider if the photo was staged. If it was, though, it only brings those points and comparisons below into stronger relief.

There’s been discussion on Facebook recently about the value of photography awards versus other means of promoting photography such as books. Criticism has been laid that photography awards that charge an entry fee are money-grabbers. That may be true of big international awards that attract thousands of entries by promising global exposure for a select few. The odds in these competitions are like a crapshoot, ridiculously slim.

Thirty years ago this week I left China after what was intended to be a week-long stay in Beijing had stretched to 59 days. As a reporter for The Associated Press based in Tokyo, I had gone to Beijing to help with the coverage of the state visit to China by Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the then Soviet Union. But that assignment quickly morphed from covering the historic mending of the three-decade-old Sino-Soviet split to the AP’s 24/7 reporting from Tiananmen Square covering the student-led protests that culminated in the Chinese army’s violent assault on the demonstrators in the square.

On Tuesday, June 25, Rosa Ramírez was filmed at home in San Martín, El Salvador. Ramírez stands by a doorway in a small interior. She is distraught, and her large brown eyes glisten in the glare of camera lights.

“The last message he sent me was Saturday. He said, ‘Mama, I love you.’ He said, ‘Take care of yourselves because we are fine here.’ ”