Situation Room (photo)

Situation Room

Situation Room ( German  " situation center " ) is a photograph of Pete Souza , the chief photographer of the White House , May 1, 2011 at 16:05 ( EDT was taken). It shows US President Barack Obama together with members of his national security team, including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , in a meeting room of the White House Situation Room that gives it its name . At the time of admission, the people present were informed of the course of Operation Neptune Spear , during which imPakistani Abbottabad Osama bin Laden , the founder and leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network , and four other people were killed by members of the US special unit DEVGRU .

The photo was published the day after it was taken under the name P050111PS-0210 on the Flickr image host along with eight other photos of Obama and other members of the government. Over the next few days, it appeared in many media outlets and was quickly elevated to icon status. Since the US government decided not to publish pictures of bin Laden dead, the photo became a symbol of the events of Operation Neptune Spear. Numerous journalists and scientists analyzed and commented on the photo. In addition, artists took it up in their works. In the Internet appeared numerous parodies, the photo became the Internet phenomenon .

Background, creation and publication

Pete Souza and Obama's image politics

Pete Souza at the Newseum , 2009

Pete Souza, who was the chief photographer of US President Ronald Reagan between 1983 and 1989 , met Barack Obama in 2005 as a newly elected Senator and from this time began to document his career with photographs. Among other things, he accompanied him on trips to seven different countries. In July 2008 he published the illustrated book The Rise of Barack Obama , which became a bestseller . The title page shows Souza's most famous photo from this time, in which Obama lightly walks up the stairs to the Capitol .

After the election as US president , Obama made Souza chief photographer of the White House. As such, on January 13, 2009, he shot the first official presidential portrait created with a digital camera. The pictures that Souza published of Obama over the next few years not only show him in official situations as president, but also give an insight into the Obama's family life. They were disseminated via social media such as Twitter and Facebook and above all via the image host Flickr. This differentiated Obama from his predecessors and led to the designation of his term as the "Flickr Presidency".

From Günther Haller's point of view, Obama always appears in the best possible light in Souza's photos. This aroused criticism that the White House was replacing independent photojournalism with propaganda , an allegation that was made against the George W. Bush administration in 2008 . US media found themselves increasingly excluded from reporting on relevant topics. Among other things, one criticized the fact that Obama's oath of office , which was made up due to formal errors, was only documented by Souza. The Associated Press , the most important news agency in the United States, had already criticized Obama's media strategy as autocratic during the 2008 election campaign and in 2013 believed that never before had a president controlled and limited access to the media so tightly. The editor-in-chief Kathleen Carroll therefore advised the media against accepting the publication of the White House uncritically. In November 2013, USA Today and The News Tribune announced that they would not publish official photos of the White House, except in very special cases.

Operation Neptune Spear

→ Main article : Operation Neptune Spear

Osama bin Laden was the founder and leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network. As such, he was held responsible for the terrorist attacks on the United States' embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1999 and the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , and was on the FBI's list of ten most wanted fugitives from 1999 . In 2007, a $ 50 million bounty was suspended for clues leading to his capture .

In August 2010, the CIA reportedly determined bin Laden's whereabouts in a suburb of the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. On April 28, 2011, a briefing took place with high-ranking members of the government in order to decide on a military operation. Because it remained unclear whether bin Laden could really be found at the determined location, some members of the government advised Obama against the action. Vice President Joe Biden was in favor of waiting for better information, probably for fear that failure could cost Obama and, with it, a second term in office. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recalled the failed Operation Eagle Claw , in which the 52 hostages in Iran were to be freed in 1980 and which was a great embarrassment for the United States. So he advocated killing bin Laden with a drone . A strong supporter of the operation was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is believed to have been instrumental in getting Obama ordered the attack on bin Laden's property on May 1st. It should be carried out by special forces of the Navy Seals .

Osama bin Laden's estate in Abbottabad, taken on May 4, 2011

There are various details about the exact timing of the operation. The times given below are based on research by Günther Haller, who gets his information from various publications on the processes. The information of Michael Kauppert based on the documentation Targeting Bin Laden of the History Channel based on 2011 are, however, shifted by about 30 minutes forward. On May 1 to 23:30 Pakistani time of started at the airport Afghan Jalalabad two with stealth technology equipped Black Hawk helicopters with 23 elite soldiers of the special unit DEVGRU , an interpreter and a dog on board. They were accompanied by two or three Chinook helicopters to provide fuel and possible military support. These landed in the desert after about two thirds of the way. At around 1:00 a.m., the two Black Hawks reached bin Laden's property. The original plan was to drop soldiers on both the roof of the property and the property and storm the building from two sides. However, it failed because one of the helicopters got into turbulence and crashed. The soldiers were not injured. The other helicopter then landed in front of the property. The soldiers blew their own way and stormed the property, divided into two groups. There was a brief firefight in an outbuilding in which Abu Ahmad al-Kuwaiti, a courier and personal confidante of bin Laden, and his wife were killed. In the main building, the American troops first shot a brother of al-Kuwaitis and a son of bin Laden before they met bin Laden on the third floor and killed him with two shots. Bin Laden died around 1:15 a.m. local time, which was 4:15 p.m. Washington time . There were various statements on the question of whether he had resisted. While it was initially said from the Pentagon that bin Laden had shot at the soldiers, this was later corrected. Now it was said that he was unarmed, but had resisted. In his book No Easy Day , however, a soldier involved in the operation presented it in such a way that bin Laden was deliberately killed without having had a chance to defend himself. After bin Laden was killed, the soldiers blew up the crashed helicopter to prevent the technology from falling into the wrong hands and returned to the military base in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's body was taken to a US Navy ship and buried in the sea.

In the Situation Room

While Operation Neptune Spear was taking place in Pakistan, Barack Obama was with members of his security team in the so-called Small Conference Room of the Situation Room , a complex consisting of several rooms in the west wing of the White House . There they received information from two different sources. Admiral William McRaven reported from Afghanistan, Leon Panetta , the head of the CIA, from the CIA headquarters in Langley . The people in the Situation Room should have been able to follow the events via both audio and video transmissions. What exactly they got to see has not been clarified and is the subject of speculation. According to Panetta, shortly after the soldiers landed and before the property was stormed, the transmission failed for 20 to 25 minutes. It is unclear whether only the helmet camera of a soldier or the transmission of a top view by a drone failed. In an interview with CBS , Obama stated that they could only watch what was going on outside the property. They are also said to have heard gunfire and seen lightning.

The photographer Pete Souza was also in the room. According to his own statement, he was in a corner where he could hardly move due to the large number of people in the narrow space. From there he shot almost all of the hundred or so photos that were taken in this room. What the people in the room were seeing at the time the Situation Room photo was taken is not fully understood. Shortly after the photo was published, many media assumed that they had witnessed the killing of bin Laden. In an interview published on NBC by Brian Williams with Obama, Clinton and Biden, among others, they stated, however, that they had seen the helicopter crash. The timing of this coincides with Günther Haller's research. Due to his differing information on the timing of the military operation, Michael Kauppert assumes that the people probably observed the demolition of the crashed helicopter.

publication

Play media file

Announcement of the killing of Osama bin Laden by Barack Obama

At 11:35 p.m. Obama stepped in front of the cameras and informed TV viewers of the death of the al-Qaida head. At the same time, the beginning of his speech was published on the President's Twitter account. The next day, May 2, at 1:00 p.m. Washington time, Situation Room was uploaded to the Flickr image host under the name P050111PS-0210 . On the same day, it was replaced by a different version, according to Flickr. A short time later it appeared on the website of the White House under the title Photo of the Day (: German of the day photo ). The caption read in both places:

"President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011."

"President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011, in the presence of members of the National Security Team."

This is followed by a list of the other people present as well as a note that a document classified as secret has been made illegible. Because the photo was taken by an employee of the federal government in the exercise of his or her duty, it is in the United States' public domain . According to the published EXIF data ( metadata of the picture), the photo was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II . No flash was used for the picture , the focal length was 35 millimeters, the exposure time was one hundredth of a second and the f-number was 3.5. An image editing with Adobe Photoshop in version CS6 for Macintosh had been made. The image resolution is 4,096 × 2,731 pixels. In addition to Situation Room , eight other photos were published on what happened in the White House in connection with the killing of Osama bin Laden. They show Obama's meetings with his team, the preparations for the public announcement of bin Laden's death, and the announcement itself. According to the sequential count in the names of the photographs, the nine pictures were selected from over 800 photos that Souza took on May 1st. On December 30, 2011, additional images from May 1 appeared on the White House's official Flickr photo stream. The first shot shows Obama preparing his speech on the death of bin Laden with Joe Biden and White House press secretary Jay Carney . The second image is a collage of nine photos showing Obama and his team at meetings. Apart from an excerpt from the first photo of the series published on May 2nd, none of the photos in the collage had previously been published.

The US government refrained from publishing photos of the dead bin Laden. This was justified by the fact that they could be misused for propaganda purposes and thus represent a threat to national security. This decision was criticized from various sides. For example, former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin called for the images to be published to deter other enemies of the United States. Others, like Senators Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman , saw the publication as an opportunity to dispel any final doubts about bin Laden's death. The organization Judicial Watch even sued the Freedom of Information Act to have the photos released. The lawsuit was unsuccessful because the courts were also of the opinion that the non-disclosure was in the interests of national security. In the course of the lawsuit, it became known that William McRaven, the head of the military operation, had asked everyone involved to destroy or surrender photos shortly after bin Laden was killed.

Description and individual analysis

Photo with information about each person

The photo shows 13 identifiable people. Six of them are sitting at a table, the seven others are behind it. Seated at the table, from left to right, are Vice President Joe Biden , President Barack Obama , Brigadier General Marshall B. Webb of the United States Air Force , Deputy Security Advisor Denis McDonough , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates . The people standing from left to right, the Chairman of the General Staff Admiral Michael Mullen , the National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon , the White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley , National Security Advisor to the Vice President Tony blinking , director for counterterrorism the National Security Audrey Tomason, President John O. Brennan's Counter-Terrorism Advisor, and James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence .

In addition to these 13 people, sections of three other people can be seen. In the picture below left you can see the back of the head, on the right behind Audrey Tomason a shoulder (due to the clothing and size of a presumably male person) and on the right edge of the picture you can see the crossed arms and the lower part of a man's yellow tie. He is said to be a CIA employee who is said to have contributed significantly to the capture of bin Laden and was only given his middle name John because of the secrecy of his identity in the media .

With the exception of Marshall B. Webb, all persons whose face can be seen look at a point to the left of the viewer. There are two screens on the wall facing you, as well as several digital clocks above that show the different zone times.

An inlaid gold strip is embedded in the rectangular table made of polished mahogany . This makes it look high-quality. In the middle there is a cable guide strip to which technical devices can be connected. On the table are four identical opened laptops from Hewlett-Packard in the places assigned to Joe Biden, the person sitting next to him on the right (not in the picture), Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates. Nothing can be seen on the two visible displays. Another laptop, which differs in shape from the others, stands in front of Marshall B. Webb, who is operating it at the time of the recording. Between Gates and Clinton's laptops are two different paper cups, the larger of which bears the US President's seal. There are two documents on Clinton's laptop, the top of which has been defaced. At the far right corner of the table there are files with a copy of the table and open glasses. It is not clear who owns these glasses; both Denis McDonough and Marshall B. Webb are possible candidates. There is also a plastic bottle with a white screw cap on the table in front of Obama. Between Biden and Obama there is a paper bag, a so-called burn bag , in which secret documents are collected and destroyed after use.

Although the light source cannot be seen in the photo, one can assume from the light collections that it is attached to the ceiling. There is probably another light source on the closed door that can be seen in the background, as Tony Blinken and Audrey Tomason are illuminated from above.

Hillary Clinton - The Emotional

Hillary Clinton in the Situation Room

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plays a central role in the media and scientific discussion about the photo: She is in the part of the photo with the greatest depth of field , which means that every lash, every crease and even the reflection of the monitors in her eyes can be seen. Besides Audrey Tomason, who can only be seen in the background, she is the only woman in the room and is the only person who shows her hands completely. They perform two opposite gestures. The left hand, on which a bracelet and her wedding ring can be seen, is holding a pen and lying quietly on a black notebook, which itself lies on a folder on her lap. This file folder says “Top Secret Codeword NOFORN” and “For use in White House Situation Room only” (German: “Only intended for use in the Situation Room of the White House”). NOFORN stands for “Not for release to foreign nationals” (German: “No transfer to foreign nationals”).

Her right hand has brought Clinton to her face, covering her mouth. The gesture plays the largest role in analysis and commentary on Clinton's appearance. This is exemplified by the title of the interdisciplinary workshop Hillary's Hand. On the political iconography of the present , which was organized in November 2011 at the University of Hildesheim and from whose contributions in 2014 an anthology of the same name emerged. Media comments, which appeared shortly after the photo was published, described the gesture as appalled, shocked, fearful, worried and tense. However, at a press conference in Rome on May 5, Clinton stated that although she could no longer remember the exact moment of the recording, the gesture was probably due to an allergic sneeze or cough. Much media questioned this statement, suspecting that Clinton was trying to prevent her emotions from being interpreted as weakness. Miriam Meckel commented ironically on Spiegel Online on May 6th that it could have been anything, "a cold, a cough, a broken leg, if necessary, just no feeling". The fears do not appear to have been unfounded. In 2013, for example, the right-wing radio presenter and activist Bryan Fischer accused her of having panicked in the Situation Room in contrast to the men (English: "freaked out"), and declared that he did not want to see such a person as president.

The comments on Clinton's right hand are many. In an analysis published in the New York Times on May 7, Ken Johnson referred to this image detail as punctum , a term introduced by the French philosopher Roland Barthes in his essay The Bright Chamber . Barthes describes it as an element that "shoots out of context like an arrow to pierce me". Michael Diers describes Clinton as the " pathos figure " of the picture. Her gesture, which he calls a “superlative of sign language” in the words of the art historian Aby Warburg , is a decisive guide when evaluating the image. Without them, the photo would be significantly less meaningful. Michael Schuster also sees Clinton's horror as evidence of the killing of bin Laden. In Boris Traues eyes, Clinton appears through her gesture as if she shrank from her own harshness, to which she was forced by the actions of others. In this way, photography takes up the "fear of one's own deed", a classic pathos formula in painting.

Various analyzes also describe political intentions that could be behind the publication of the photograph with this gesture by Clinton. Several commentators see the possibility that the photo was specifically published in order to portray Clinton, whom Obama had described as weak and hesitant and, unlike him, approved of the Iraq invasion, as weak and scary and thus to harm her. Others see the gesture as an opportunity to express empathy and humanity. From the point of view of Ulrike Pilarczyk, she freed everyone who was involved in the decision to kill bin Laden from the “ stigma of mercilessness”. Susann Neuenfeldt sees the gesture as a mediation between the American promise of democracy with the right to a fair trial on the one hand and the eye-for-eye policy in the USA 's fight against terrorism on the other. In doing so, it is entirely in the service of the democratic myth of the United States.

Barack Obama - The inconspicuous one

Barack Obama in the Situation Room

As President of the United States, Barack Obama is the most senior person in the room. However, photography does not express this high position. So none of the possible focussing of the composition is directed towards him, although he gets a certain aura from the intensified light reflections in the corner of the room, which fall on his strained face. He's not sitting on the executive chair, but in a corner of the room. According to Pete Souza, Marshall B. Webb offered Obama the executive chair when he entered the room. Since Webb was communicating with William H. McRaven via his laptop at that moment , Obama is said to have waived it and instead sat on a folding chair. Due to his stooped posture, the physically tall Obama appears significantly smaller than he is. As a result, he seems "conspicuously inconspicuous" for Aglaja Przyborski. Other commentators point out that an ignorant observer would probably not mistake Obama for the president in the picture. With this appearance Obama presents himself as a modest and unpretentious president who is concerned with the cause rather than his own image. This distinguishes him greatly from many of his predecessors, who often portrayed themselves as alpha animals . Instead, Obama appears in the photo as a team player who is interested in the opinions of his advisors and who is ready to delegate tasks according to skills. The photo shows in particular the difference between the public presentation of Obama and his direct predecessor George W. Bush . While the latter had often overly emphasized his masculinity, Obama was clearly more moderate and self-reflective in his rhetoric and habitus and thus represented a more intelligent, less simplistic form of public masculinity.

There are different opinions on Obama's facial expressions and posture. While Aglaja Przyborski describes his face as observant and neutral, he seems very tense to others. Ulrike Pilarczyk points out that a transverse fold can be seen above his chin, which is otherwise almost never visible in photos and indicates a strong tension. To Martin Schuster, Obama looks as if he is about to jump up and intervene. For Roswitha Breckner, too, he seems much more tense and emotionally involved compared to the other men in the picture. Due to its smaller and more blurred representation, however, his dismay appears to be set back, while that of Hillary Clinton is emphasized. Instead of his typical cheerful and optimistic attitude, Obama shows himself defensive in this picture and reveals signs of fear through his hunched shoulders. To Boris Traue he seems "withdrawn into the depths of a thoughtful self". For Gerhard Schweppenhäuser , on the other hand, Obama's sitting posture exudes not only concentration but also a relaxed aplomb. His face also shows signs of seriousness and skepticism through the slightly lowered eyebrows.

Obama's clothes also stand out. He's wearing a Nike sports blazer and a polo shirt underneath, making him more sporty than the other people present. Obama had played golf at Andrews Air Force Base on the morning of May 1 and had kept the clothes on when he returned to the White House. According to an investigation of official photos of the president by Ulrike Pilarczyk, this style of clothing is rather unusual for him. In the few shots that show him that way, Obama is either staged as close to the people or as someone who does his job, far removed from representation. This is why clothing creates an associative reference to closeness to the people and normality. In addition, for Horst Bredekamp, Obama's choice of clothes made the event “an inner necessity free of any staging pressure”. Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes and Stephan Ueffing admit that an impartial observer in Obama's clothes and the contrast to General Webb sitting next to him in uniform could see a symbol of the political loss of power over security issues compared to the military. On the other hand, it can be understood as an image-preserving symbol for Obama's progressive political agenda and his dialogue-seeking policy with the states of the Middle East . The superiority of the acting military over the observing politics, conveyed by the picture, is reflected in surveys, according to which, contrary to the facts, the population ascribes the decisive role in the operation to the military and not to the president.

The conspiracy theory was raised by opponents of Obama's that Obama was not even present in the Situation Room and was only added to the photo later. They considered Obama's small head size, his casual clothing and his line of sight slightly different from the others as indications of such manipulation. These speculations were boosted in 2013 by an interview with Reggie Love, Obama's close confidante, who claimed to have played 15 games of Spades during the attack with Obama, photographer Souza and Obama's collaborator Marvin Nicholson . These statements were not denied by the White House. However, Love did not give a specific time. This makes it possible that the card game only bridged the time until bin Laden was clearly identified.

Marshall B. Webb - The Doer

Marshall B. Webb in the Situation Room

Brigadier General Marshall B. Webb was deputy commanding general of the United States Joint Special Operations Command at the time of admission . He stands out from the rest of the people in the photo in a number of ways. He is the only one wearing a full uniform (Michael Mullen only wears a uniform shirt). In addition, his gaze does not follow the gaze of other people. Instead, he looks at the laptop in front of him, which differs in shape from the other four laptops. The device is less high, but wider. Furthermore, he is the only one next to Hillary Clinton who shows his hand. He uses it to operate the keyboard of his laptop, making him the only doer and not just a spectator. Through this active involvement and his concentrated, emotionally distant gaze, he creates a contrast to Hillary Clinton, who is emotionally involved but not actively involved in the action. In addition, its positioning in the photo makes Webb stand out. He is sitting at the front of the table in the largest chair. In addition, the geometric center of the picture lies exactly at the point of Webb's left breast, on which numerous medal clasps can be seen. So overall, he's much more conspicuous than Barack Obama. For example, among a group of students surveyed by Ulrike Pilarczyk, the men in the group were usually the first to notice Webb, while the women initially mostly saw Hillary Clinton's gesture. For Roswitha Breckner, Webb's prominent position raises the question of who the actors and who the audience were in the situation.

There are different assumptions about the specific action that Webb took during the recording. Ulrich Oevermann believes that broadcast control is possible due to the wide format of the laptop screen, while Horst Bredekamp suspects that Webb is in contact with the location of the mission. For Susann Neuenfeldt, Webb appears as the control point that directs the military action at the push of a button. Webb himself has refused to comment on his role during the mission or his thoughts during the video broadcast to journalists on several occasions.

Audrey Tomason - The Unknown

Audrey Tomason in the Situation Room

In addition to Obama and Clinton, Audrey Tomason, who is noticeably the youngest person in the photo, also received special media attention. What was particularly special was that her name was also unknown to the media until then. This has been a topic in the Washington Post and the Daily Mail, among others . The caption published on Flickr described Tomason as Director for Counterterrorism . At the request of The Daily Beast website , the White House press office announced that she works for the National Security Council. Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed this. Vietor later tried to downplay Tomason's importance. He wrote in an email to the Atlantic that at least half a dozen other people with a profile similar to Tomason were present in the immediate vicinity when the photo was taken. So there is nothing mysterious about her. The reports about her person led to an article about her being created in the English language Wikipedia , which has since been deleted.

Tomason plays a special role in image analysis. It is partially covered by the men standing in front of her and takes up the smallest area in the photo of all recognizable people. However, it is at the vanishing point , as the vanishing lines running along the edge of the table and the paneling meet exactly in your face. This makes her stand out and, like Clinton, is both hidden and focused.

The other people

Compared to Clinton, Obama, Webb and Tomason, the remaining people depicted received significantly less attention in journalistic and scientific analyzes. Their appearance is usually described as uniform. The descriptions range from tense, watching and determinedly waiting to controlled, petrified and unfeeling to cold, untouched and impenetrable. Due to their negative posture and the partially crossed arms, they appear to Susann Neuenfeldt as direct afterimages of the Cold War . The facial expression of Denis McDonough, who is sitting behind Clinton, is a little different. He looks visibly taken with his slightly open mouth. The Biden and Gates framing the photo on the left and right are both described as relaxed.

It is noticeable that the men keep their hands hidden from the camera. According to Martin Schuster, this gesture can be interpreted in such a way that they have nothing to do with the operation and wash their hands in innocence . Michael Diers suspects instead that they wanted to avoid signs of emotional upheaval and fit into the role cliché intended for them.

Defaced document

The documents on the laptop in front of Hillary Clinton

There are two documents on the keyboard of the laptop in front of Hillary Clinton. The upper of the two was made unrecognizable by pixelation, which is also indicated by the caption on Flickr. The document below is clearly visible, however. In addition to the coat of arms of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, it shows a SAR image of the northwestern part of bin Laden's property. With the help of the SAR scanning method, it is possible to take satellite images even at night and through clouds. In front of Joe Biden is a small excerpt from a document that resembles the document before Clinton.

By reducing the size of the pixelated document and comparing it with satellite images of bin Laden's property, it could be identified with a high degree of probability as a daylight photo of the property. According to Souza, he asked the CIA to remove the document from secrecy in order to be able to publish the photo unchanged. However, this was rejected by the CIA.

In various analyzes, the defaced document was perceived as an authenticity-enhancing detail. It gives the impression that the photographer happened to have photographed a highly explosive document, and thus contributes to the snapshot character of the photography. However, a possible staging is also being considered. So it seems unlikely to Ruth Ayass that such a secret document is lying openly on the table. She also sees the easily decipherable pixelation as an indication of a staging. Ulrike Pilarczyk sees it similarly and also cites the fact that aerial photographs of bin Laden's property have been published in other media. Ayass and Pilarczyk see the reason for a possible staging of the creation of evidence that the photography is really related to the mission against Osama bin Laden. So they are the only inner-picture references to Osama bin Laden. Pilarczyk also sees the possibility that the recordings will serve to present the performance of the American spy satellites and thus justify the enormous expenditure in front of the American taxpayers.

Overall analysis

Elliptical image of concealment and absence

Because of the common line of sight of the majority of the people and the resulting vanishing point outside the image, Situation Room is described in several analyzes as an elliptical image that only becomes complete when you add your own ideas. This creates tension in the photo. Jürgen Raab sees similarities with the so-called reaction shot , a setting common in films that shows the reaction of one or more people to an event that is outside the setting. While the facial expressions and gestures of the individual persons usually mutually confirm each other in these settings, very different reactions to what is seen can be seen in Situation Room .

In addition to the vanishing point outside the picture, Ulrike Pilarczyk sees a few other elements that make the act of concealment a subject of photography. The visible laptop displays do not show anything. A large number of people hide their hands or their visibility is prevented by the camera setting. This camera setting also ensures that the identity of three visible people cannot be determined. Clinton's right hand hides her mouth. The presidential seal on the wall is hidden by Thomas E. Donilon. In addition, the pixelated document and the burn bag between Biden and Obama are related to this issue.

Ruth Ayass describes the photo as a "picture of absence". In addition to the elements already mentioned by Pilarczyk, two other things lead to this assessment. On the one hand, photography is characterized by its largely lack of emotion. On the other hand, it lacks the representation of bin Laden's killing and the four other people, as well as the representation of the dead themselves.

Propaganda image

Seal of the US President with the motto E pluribus unum

The sociologist Boris Traue classifies Situation Room as propaganda in the sense of its definition by Talcott Parsons as non-rational influencing of the population. Some possible goals of this influence have already been set out in the individual analyzes by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As a further possible goal, various analyzes cite the moral and democratic legitimation of the killing of bin Laden, which is controversial under international law and the rule of law . For Ulrike Pilarczyk, the people depicted appear as "normal" people without airs, who, represented by coffee mugs and plastic bottles, have normal needs. In addition, their composition of men and women and a representative of a minority is the politically correct idea of ​​the American people. The picture shows the political sovereign , the people, drawn together in the hour of need and waiting for their own decision to be carried out, whereby the military mission should be democratically legitimized. For Roswitha Breckner, the photo also tries to make this mission appear morally legitimate through gestures of scruple and reluctance. For Jürgen Raab, too, photography legitimizes this and future irrational acts of violence and shows that the community does not break up despite the different reactions to the violence. In this way she represents the saying E pluribus unum (German for example: From many one ), which is part of the presidential seal that can be seen in part in the photo. For Ulrich Oevermann, the photo shows the US's thirst for satisfaction as a legitimate interest of the international community.

Ronan McKinney sees Situation Room as a counter-image to the images of the September 11, 2001 attacks . These attacks had exposed the idea of ​​the USA as a total world power as an illusion. The photo tries to restore this idea and also to change the public's memory of the attacks. If the events were previously remembered as traumatic, the photo allows them to be reinterpreted as a tragic but also calming story in which the "monster" was defeated in the end. Liam Kennedy points out that Obama himself made the connection between Situation Room and the 9/11 images in his announcement of the killing of bin Laden. In it, Obama pointed out, among other things, that the Americans had not chosen the fight, invoked a new national unity and made it clear that justice had been established through the killing. In doing so, on the one hand, he served the myth of “redemption through violence” and, on the other hand, promoted a new American exceptionalism . In connection with this speech, the photo promised the partial end of the violence that started in the 9/11 attacks.

In the absence of pictures of the killed bin Laden, Situation Room has become the symbol of the killing of the al-Qaeda leader. Various analyzes deal with the question of whether and how the photo proves this killing. Ulrike Pilarczyk regards the evidential value of the photo as precarious. In the picture there is neither an indication of how dramatic the situation depicted really was, nor that the photo was even taken on May 1, 2011. Other commentators point out that the evidence of the events in the photo is only indirect. Instead of witnessing the event himself, the viewer only sees the testimony of others, which means that he is given a conveyed testimony. Susana Pérez Barreiro, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes and Stephan Ueffing see the photo by an example of how the anthropologists introduced Allen Feldman concept of actuarial gaze (German about: "View of the risk experts", derived from an actuary ). This concept describes a cultural-political agenda which, among other things, emphasizes the knowledge and prognoses of experts and at the same time marginalizes the experiences of the individual. The photo shows its typical feature that recipients do not evaluate events themselves, but hand them over to institutions, in this case the US government.

A propagandistic intention of the photo also raises the question of a possible staging. In addition to the already mentioned pixelated document , Ulrich Oevermann as well as Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes and Stephan Ueffing see further signs of such a staging. The bright lighting of the room is more of a hindrance to tracking a transmission on a screen. In addition, the arrangement of the people is so favorable that almost every person can be easily recognized, which is more reminiscent of posed group photos. Oevermann points out in particular that the Gates and Clinton, who are sitting in the front right, have moved away from the table in a V-shape. This does not seem necessary for a better view of the people behind the screens, but it does allow the faces of Gates, Clinton and McDonough to be recognized. For Oevermann, however, these two points are hardly politically motivated, but rather are due to pragmatic conditions for a later publication of the photo. In contrast to this, Clinton's gesture, which is in the area of ​​the highest sharpness of the image, speaks for a possible staging. It cannot be ruled out that this is a mock reaction. In addition to the crisis nature of the situation, the strong emotional involvement of most of those present speaks against staging the photo, which is otherwise only possible through a very good acting performance.

War photography

For a long time it was customary in war photographs to depict people fighting, suffering or dying. Examples are The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa from the Spanish Civil War and The Terror of War by Nick Út from the Vietnam War . Since the Iraq war , reporting on wars in the United States has mainly been characterized by so-called embedded reporting , in which photographers and journalists are assigned directly to a combat unit and report on its operations. This also led to a changed representation of the victims in war photographs. According to the philosopher Judith Butler , “what and how we see” is restricted and “what is to be regarded as reality: what is perceived as existent to what extent”. On the one hand, Pete Souza is part of the group shown on Situation Room and on the other hand the victims of the war are missing from the photo, Ruth Ayass sees the photo as an example of this new strategy of war reporting. In such photos, which Ayass describes as "war photographs without war", an attempt is made to prevent sympathy for the victims through the absence of suffering.

Napoleon watches the battle of Borodino . Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin (1897).

On the other hand, Susann Neuenfeldt points out that Situation Room picks up on a classic genre of Western art with the general portrait. In these pictures the general is shown either directly in battle during the battle, like Alexander the Great on the so-called Alexander mosaic , or contemplating the battle from the horse or on a hill, like Napoleon Bonaparte in the paintings depicting the Napoleonic Show wars . As a result of the developments in war technology in the 20th and 21st centuries, the generals moved further and further away from the battle until they were completely isolated from it. This was also reflected in the images of the war, from which the generals mostly disappeared and were replaced, for example, by fighting soldiers or dead enemies. In Situation Room , according to Neuenfeldt, the generals are now returning to war photography "to see with their own eyes the fatal finale of their war policy." The photo, however, differs from classic war photographs and is more reminiscent of an execution scene in which the killing of the Spectators in the auditorium. Since the situation is similar to the everyday life of drone pilots who carry out fatal missions on other continents from home, Hans-Arthur Marsiske sees the photo as a symbol of significantly changed warfare, in which military robots play an important role.

Equality between women and African Americans

In an article posted on CNN's website three days after the picture , journalist John Blake lets various commentators have their say and concludes that the picture shows how attitudes in the US towards women and African Americans would change. According to blogger Cheryl Contee, black men have often been portrayed as a security threat in US history. With Obama, the picture now shows a black man as the “protector in chief” and is thus a good step towards changing the nation's opinion about black men.

For the political scientist Saladin Ambar, the photo also shows a changed role for women. To this end, he compares the photo with photos taken by the US government around John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis (see, for example, the photo by Cecil Stoughton ). No women can be seen on them and women only played a very subordinate role in the films for this event. In contrast, Situation Room presents Clinton and Tomason, two women at the center of power, and shows how far women have come in the meantime. For the sociologist Lori Brown, too, the presence of two women in the photo is remarkable. However, Clinton's gesture, interpreted by many as emotional, limits the positive influence of the photo on the image of women. Justin S. Vaughn and Stacy Michaelson see the gender-specific statements in the photo very differently. The photo reinforces Obama's masculinity while emphasizing Clinton's femininity. In doing so, it underlines the patriarchal nature of the US government. Ulrike Pilarczyk is critical of the stylization of Clinton and Tomason as icons of the changed gender relations. She pointed out that even under Obama's predecessors Clinton and Bush both women Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice were members of the foreign ministers. Megan D. McFarlane objects, however, that former female cabinet members were not depicted in the iconic images of the respective presidencies. Martin Schuster also sees the photo's statement on issues of equality much more critically than the CNN article. In his view, it shows that it is still very difficult for women, blacks and members of other minorities to get a high position in the presidential administration.

The other recordings from May 1, 2011

Situation Room was published on May 2nd in a series with eight more pictures from May 1st on Flickr. According to Ulrike Pilarczyk, this series, which is arranged chronologically, can be divided into two groups that differ in time, space and color. The first group includes the first four pictures, including Situation Room in the second position . They were all shot in the Situation Room complex of the White House, with the other three recorded in the large Situation Room. They are darker and blue tones dominate. The photos of the second group, which is introduced by the only photo in portrait format, are significantly lighter and warmer. The fifth and sixth photos were taken in the Oval Office , the seventh and eighth photos in the East Room, and the last photo in the Green Room . Obama's clothing also differs in the two groups. In the first group he is wearing the Nike sports blazer, in the second group he can be seen with a tie and suit.

The series begins with a picture showing Obama with National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon. He is sitting in the executive chair at the front of the table below the presidential seal. He appears as the determined president, who points with his finger where to go and looks into the future via the camera. This interpretation is supported by the caption, which says: "President Barack Obama makes a point [...]" (German for example: "President Barack Obama makes a point"). Obama's portrayal thus differs significantly from that in Situation Room , where he is seen as the receiving and not the instructing President. According to Ulrike Pilarczyk, the logic of the series gives the impression that the decision to deploy it was made at this point in time.

The third picture in the series is also dominated by Barack Obama. Although it can only be seen from behind, it takes up about a quarter of the picture due to the somewhat elevated position of the photographer and the use of a wide-angle lens . The other people, who seem negligibly small compared to Obama, pay ritual recognition to the president from Roswitha Breckner's point of view, despite a few skeptical looks. As in the first picture, Obama appears to be in control of the situation and clearly as the one in charge. Ulrike Pilarczyk points out that the representation of Obama arouses associations with Batman or Superman .

The fourth picture in the series shows Obama sitting in the executive chair in half profile . Like Clinton in the Situation Room , he has his hand on his mouth. According to Breckner, Obama's gesture gives the impression of controlled emotions and can be associated with restraint in a tense situation or concentrated reflection. In contrast, Clinton's gesture was interpreted as immediate or reflexive. In addition, the broad back of the armchair stages the power and strength of the president.

Pictures five and six show Obama in the Oval Office talking on the phone and preparing his speech on bin Laden's death. While the eighth picture in the series shows Obama at this address, the previous picture shows some members of the government watching Obama's speech. In the foreground sits next to Biden, Clapper, Clinton, Donilon and Mullen, who are already in the Situation Room , as well as the CIA boss Panetta. Blinken and Daley stand in the background. Obama was photographed from the bottom left during his address so that he appears in the center and slightly raised in the picture. In the background you can see the paintings of his democratic predecessors Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton , who, according to Pilarczyk, are outshone by Obama's figure of light, who is recommended for the hall of fame in American history. In contrast, the image of the members of the government was photographically weak and the portrayed appeared exhausted and lost without their president. In the ninth and final photo in the series, Obama shakes hands with Mullen in the presence of Clinton and Panetta in the Green Room.

• The pictures published on May 2nd. The times given are the recording times according to Washington time.
• 

  Obama together with Donilon (14:25)

• 

  In the Situation Room (16:05)

• 

  Obama with his National Security Team (20:03)

• 

  Obama listens to the discussion (20:44)

• 

  Obama Phones Before Announcement of Death Bin Laden (10:11 PM)

• 

  Obama edited his speech on the death of bin Laden (22:44)

• 

  Government members listen to Obama's statement on bin Laden's death (23:41)

• 

  Obama announces the death of bin Laden (23:42)

• 

  Obama shakes hands with Mike Mullen (23:45)

For Pilarczyk, the selection of the images in the photo series was intended to counteract the impression of a weak president that the Situation Room photo could evoke. The president appears to be decisive and dominant in the series and, unlike in the Situation Room , does not give the impression of a team player. Above all, the interplay of the seventh and eighth photos shows Souza's typical strategy of building Obama's image at the expense of his competition. Clinton, in particular, is not always favorably staged compared to the president.

The images published on December 30, 2011

Obama with Biden and Carney (23:15)

collage

On December 30, 2011, two more pictures were added to the pictures from May 1. The first shows Obama with Biden and his press secretary Jay Carney in the White House Presidential Secretary Office . Osama bin Laden can be seen on a television screen. Thus, the picture gives a face to the previously unseen opponent, without depicting him as a victim. In addition, the picture shows the president again as a team player, who does not, as suggested in picture six of the series, write his speech himself, but does not just read it. This balances out the restrained portrayal of the President in Situation Room and the rest of the series, which are heavily focused on the President.

According to Pilarczyk, this is also the impression given by the second picture, a collage made up of nine individual pictures . According to the photo comment posted on Flickr, it was intended to give people a better understanding of how meetings of historical importance with the President were conducted. The central component is a section of the first picture in the series, which shows Obama and part of the presidential seal. The other eight images, which had not previously been published, gave the impression that the decision on military action was the result of intensive deliberations and thus relativized Obama's Superman image created by the original series. Hillary Clinton seems to have slumped in contrast to her actual part in the mission.

Comparison with other pictures

John F. Kennedy and the Executive Committee

John F. Kennedy along with the Executive Committee

Susana Pérez Barreiro, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes and Stephan Ueffing compare Situation Room with one of Cecil Stoughton shot photo from 1962. It shows the US President John F. Kennedy with the during the Cuban Missile Crisis , founded Executive Committee at a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House one day after the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. At first glance, the two photos are very similar. As in Situation Room , a single, prominent gesture can also be seen in the picture from 1962. Maxwell D. Taylor , sitting in the front right, presses his left hand against his forehead, almost completely covering his face. This gesture, which expresses thoughtfulness and concentration, has a different effect on the viewer than Clinton's. This distance between the viewer and the people shown is supported by the people placed with their backs to the camera. In addition, the viewer is not invited to the table, as is the case in Situation Room due to the cut-off table. In addition, the people all looked in different directions, which means that there is no focus as in Situation Room . The authors see such a focus as a decisive factor for the iconization of an image. But they lead three other photos as examples: The Terror of War , the nine-year Phan Thi Kim Phuc after a napalm shows -attack, leap into freedom , on the escape of the policeman Conrad Schumann from East to West Berlin to can be seen, as well as the photograph of Hanns Martin Schleyer from his detention at the RAF . In contrast to these pictures, the focus in Situation Room is not an element of the picture itself, but is generated by the direction of the protagonists' gaze.

Ronald Reagan during the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi

Ronald Reagan at a briefing with the National Security Council on the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi

Sociologist Boris Traue compares the Situation Room photo with a photo from 1986 taken by then US President Ronald Reagan at a situation meeting with the National Security Council on the bombing of the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in the course of the operation , which was still taking place in the old Situation Room El Dorado Canyon shows. Reagan sits at a table with four other men and watches a military man pointing at a screen with aerial photographs. Like the photograph of May 1, 2011, this photo gives the impression that the President has for the moment surrendered his power to the technological control center and its operators. Such representations are characteristic of the briefing photography of the 20th century. Like Hillary Clinton in Situation Room , Reagan has a hand over his mouth in the photo. In contrast to Clinton, however, Reagan's gesture should be clearly interpreted as an expression of reflection on the presentation of the military.

George W. Bush and his "Mission Accomplished" speech

The sociologist Ruth Ayaß compares Situation Room with a photo of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush , which was taken exactly eight years earlier on May 1, 2003. It shows Bush on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego announcing the end of the war in Iraq . Thus, the two photos are closely related, as both show the US President in connection with a military action after September 11, 2001 . However, the photos differed from each other in essential points. Bush can be seen with a smile and a raised thumb, signaling positive feelings. He is also surrounded by a cheering crowd. Such emotions were absent in Situation Room , the sole gesture was more to cover up negative feelings than to show them. Bush's appearance was carefully staged and borrowed from the film Top Gun . The aircraft carrier had to be positioned in such a way that the light fell conveniently for photographs and that the San Diego coast could not be seen in the background. Bush, wearing a flight suit , landed on the aircraft carrier in a jet, although the proximity to the coast would have made it possible to land with a helicopter. In contrast, the open shirt collar, the paper cups and the crowd make Situation Room more businesslike. In the Bush photo, care was taken to include relevant symbols and emblems. So the seal of the president is on the podium completely in the picture and the extra on the bridge ( "Mission accomplished" German) is good to read attached banner with the text "Mission Accomplished". In Situation Room , however, the presidential seal is hidden. The controversial "Mission-Accomplished" banner indicates the successful completion of an order, while in Situation Room the completion of an action with an uncertain outcome can be seen. Last but not least, the positions of the presidents in the photographs differ significantly. While the photo is completely tailored to Bush and shows him as the main person in a central position, Obama is sitting on the edge in the middle of a collective in which he seems to be disappearing. This makes photography seem unpathetic and unheroic. According to Ayass, this would have continued in the rhetoric of the president at the announcement of bin Laden's death, which was factual and reporting. This clearly distinguishes them, for example, from Paul Bremer's speech after Saddam Hussein's arrest on December 14, 2003, with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." started.

Donald Trump in the Situation Room

Donald Trump in the Situation Room. Left to right: O'Brien, Pence, Trump, Esper, Milley and Evans

On the night of 26 to 27 October 2019, the US special unit led Delta Force in the Syrian city Barischa the operation Kayla Mueller from where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , leader of the jihadist - Salafist terrorist organization Islamic State , was killed. The US government then published two photos from the Situation Room of the White House, which, according to the caption, show Obama's successor Donald Trump as he observes the course of the military operation. The photos were taken by Shealah Craighead , Souza's successor as White House chief photographer. In both pictures, Trump is sitting at a table with other men; everyone looks towards the camera. One of the pictures shows Vice President Mike Pence , Secretary of Defense Mark Esper , National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien , Chief of Staff Mark A. Milley and Brigadier General Marcus Evans next to Trump . The second photo largely corresponds to a section of the first, with Evans missing. Shortly after it was released, various media comments came out comparing Trump's photos with Souza's photo from the Situation Room. While Souza's photo looked like an authentic film still and the people in the picture gave the impression that they were not even aware of the photographer's presence, Craighead's photos appeared posed. They looked as if the men had been specially seated at this table and asked to look seriously at the camera. The clothing also contributes to this, which, unlike in Situation Room , is very formal due to the suits, ties and uniforms. In addition, the comments underlined the positioning of Trump in the middle of the photos, which they interpreted, similar to Bush's "Mission-Accomplished" photo, as a symbol of how Trump's demeanor and political style differed from Obama's. The lack of women and members of minorities was also highlighted.

Rembrandt painting

The anatomy of Dr. Tulip

The heads of the cloth makers' guild

The art historian Michael Diers sees similarities in the composition of Souza's photography from the Situation Room to group pictures of Dutch baroque painting . In particular, he compares it to Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy of Dr. Tulp from 1632, which from his point of view not only resembles photography in structure but also in subject . The painting shows the doctor Nicolaes Tulp and seven spectators during an anatomy demonstration on a corpse. Among the similarities between the two images, Diers counts the selected image section as well as the flat and neutral image background. In both pictures the people appear concentrated in one half of the picture. While in Rembrandt it is the left half of the picture, in Situation Room it is the right half of the picture. In both pictures, a table surface can be seen in the middle, which has been cut out for the viewer to enter the picture. As in Situation Room with Clinton's right hand, in Rembrandt there is a single specially distinguished hand movement performed by Tulp. Like the documents before Hillary Clinton, papers are shown demonstratively in the painting. This is a list of names that was originally an anatomical drawing. Furthermore, the easily recognizable faces of several people standing close together, bathed in bright light, can be seen in both images. It is noticeable that nobody in the painting is looking at the corpse. Instead, they looked at the viewer or at the textbook in the lower right corner. Therefore, for Diers, the book can be viewed as an analogue to the invisible video screens in the Situation Room. Diers sees the crucial difference between photography and Rembrandt's painting in the objects on the tables. The laptops and paper cups appeared to be "dead" objects due to the lack of attention, but they did not replace Rembrandt's corpse.

Boris Traue sees similarities between the photograph from the Situation Room and The Heads of the Cloth Makers' Guild , another painting by Rembrandt from 1662. It shows five men sitting at a table, with another standing behind them. As in the photo, the men are looking at a point on the left as seen from the viewer. According to Traue, this invites the viewer in both pictures to take part in the meeting and to judge what happened for himself. Due to the broken seating arrangement, the group does not appear to be closed and basically allows additional people to be admitted.

reception

media

On the day it was published on Flickr, the Situation Room photo made it onto the websites of several major US media outlets. It appeared in Time magazine under the headline "Moment of Triumph". The New York Times presented a description of the photo that, from Ruth Ayass's point of view, used melodramatic poetry. The Times also went into other photos from the Flickr series. The Atlantic rated the photo as iconic on the day it was released . CNN chose the title "A photo for the ages?" On May 4th, which was later widely quoted, and stated that Situation Room could become the defining photo of Obama's presidency.

In German-speaking countries, the photo appeared in many newspapers on May 4th as a lead story. The Süddeutsche Zeitung showed an excerpt in which only the seated people could be seen and subtitled it with "Wage war between coffee mugs". The photo appeared in the FAZ under the title “ Public Viewing ”. This plays with the different meanings of this term in the German and English languages. While in German it describes watching a sporting event together, in English it describes the laying out of a corpse. In its May 6 issue, the FAZ came to the conclusion that the photo had a chance of a place in the history books, and is certain that the interpretation of it will never quite end.

The publication of the New York-based Orthodox Jewish newspaper Di Tzeitung attracted particular attention . She had published the photo on May 6 and retouched the two women Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason. For religious and moral reasons, the newspaper does not publish any pictures of women. The newspaper responded to the protests that followed with an apology in which Clinton was verbally honored and not publishing the photo was a better decision. Also Di Voch , another Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York, away Clinton and Tomason from the photo. In response to this deletion of women, a manipulation appeared on the Internet that removed all men from the picture. Another photo shows Clinton and Tomason in the Situation Room with Madeleine Albright , Oprah Winfrey , Golda Meir , Benazir Bhutto , Arianna Huffington , Margaret Thatcher , Aung San Suu Kyi , Condoleezza Rice , Janet Reno , Angela Merkel and Indira Gandhi .

science

Cover of the anthology The Political Image

Cover of the anthology Hillary's Hand

In addition to the great media attention, Situation Room was also subjected to an extensive scientific analysis. So found under the title Hillary's Hand. A two-day workshop on contemporary political iconography took place in November 2011, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on it. It was organized by the research group Materiale Kulturanalysen of the Herder-Kolleg and the method office of the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Hildesheim and offered eight scientists from Austria and Germany in the fields of sociology , art history , psychology , educational science and media theory the opportunity to present their analyzes. With image analysis and visual methods, the workshop took up popular research topics in the social sciences at the time. The aim was also to empirically compare the large number of different methods for analyzing images based on their application to a common research object.

Three of the speakers, Ulrike Pilarczyk, Aglaja Przyborski and Martin Schuster, continued their professional exchange and decided to publish their analyzes together. Complemented by a journalistic analysis by Günther Haller, they appeared in 2014 under the title Daspolitische Bild . The other contributions to the workshop appeared in a separate anthology under the title of the workshop in the same year. They were supplemented by five further scientific analyzes, an overview of the processes surrounding the image and a reflection on the methodological approaches of the other contributions.

art

Situation Room has also been picked up by artists. The installation May 1, 2011 by the Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar consists of two monitors of the same format, each of which is assigned a print. The right screen shows the photo from the Situation Room and the corresponding print an explanatory graphic published by the White House, which assigns their names to the people depicted. The screen and the print on the left are completely white. They should symbolize the missing image of the killed Osama bin Laden and enable the projection of the imaginary images evoked by the Photo Situation Room . According to Jaar, the events surrounding bin Laden's death are a case where the public is challenged to believe without seeing.

In his work Obscured Classified Document , the Dutch artist Willem Popelier isolated the defaced document on Clinton's laptop. As a result, the detail loses its context and comments on the display arrangement presented in the photo.

The play Situation Rooms by the Rimini Protokoll theater group , which premiered on August 23, 2013 at the Ruhrtriennale , offers viewers the opportunity to use a tablet computer to slip into the roles of different people whose lives are shaped by weapons. The 20 roles included a child soldier from the Congo, a Swiss arms manufacturer, an Indian fighter pilot and a Pakistani human rights lawyer. According to the creators, the title referring to the photo was found while working on the piece. For the makers, the photo is the symbol of a new kind of warfare from the desk.

In his video installation The Situation Room , the German performance artist Franz Reimer recreated the Small Conference Room as a backdrop. The image of a permanently installed video camera, which records the same section as the photo, is transferred to a screen that can be found in the same position as the screens in the conference room. Visitors can step into the scenery and thus become part of the photography themselves.

Internet

Barack Obama together with McKayla Maroney

After it was published on May 2nd at around 1 p.m., the photo received enormous clicks within a very short time. At 8 p.m. it had already been viewed around 600,000 times, and after 25 hours the click counter was around 1.4 million. According to Flickr, no photo had received so many clicks in such a short time. In a list of the most-viewed Flickr photos published in September 2014, Situation Room ranked fourth with over 2.7 million clicks, one position ahead of another picture by Souza from 2012 showing Obama together with gymnast McKayla Maroney . At the end of 2018, Situation Room had almost 3 million clicks. In comparison, the other images in the series from May 2 had significantly fewer clicks (between 290,000 and 570,000), the photos published at the end of 2011 were well below 100,000 clicks.

On May 6th, four days after the photo was published, an article on the photograph was created in the English language Wikipedia under the lemma The Situation Room . Although the article made it clear in its first version that there was still no official title for the photograph and that it was only published on Flickr under the name P050111PS-0210 , by choosing the lemma he established the title for the photo himself.

Despite a tip on Flickr banning the manipulation of photography, a multitude of mashups and alienations of Situation Room appeared on the Internet . Some show the fictitious extension of the room on the invisible side, at which almost all those present are looking. There are also replicas of the photo with Lego figures . A large number of collages added many prominent figures, creating hidden objects in the style of Where is Walter? . Several images take up the theme of computer games or first-person shooters . For example, the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was added to a picture with a Wii controller. Another gave Obama a gamepad . On another, Robert Gates' head was replaced by another one who wears headphones and whose facial expression shows approval. Next to it is “BOOM !!! HEADSHOT !!! "(German" Boom! Head shot! "). A transformation of the depicted people into superheroes from Marvel and DC has also been published. Obama appears as Captain America , Webb as Superman and Clinton as Wonder Woman , Mullen as Spiderman and Donilon as Batman . The third picture in the series, on which Obama can be seen oversized from behind, was also changed in this way, as Obama was given Superman’s cape . Other memes duplicated elements of photography. In one picture, Obama's head was mounted on all other bodies. Another added Clinton's right hand over his mouth to everyone but Webb.

literature

Anthologies

• Michael Kauppert, Irene Leser (Ed.): Hillarys Hand. On the political iconography of the present (=  cultures of society . Volume 11 ). Transcript, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2749-7 .
  • Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210. On the real and imaginary context of the Situation Room photo from May 1, 2011. pp. 11–27.
  • Ulrich Oevermann : A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. Image analysis using the methods of objective hermeneutics. Pp. 31-57.
  • Ruth Ayaß: A picture of absence. The photograph from the Situation Room as a contradicting pointing gesture. Pp. 59-77.
  • Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. On the imponderability of iconic power - or: What Hillary's hand is hiding. Pp. 79-103.
  • Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". A knowledge-sociological constellation analysis of visual action. Pp. 105-130.
  • Boris Traue: image of resonance and iconic politics. A visual discourse analysis of participatory propaganda. Pp. 131-156 ( academia.edu ).
  • Horst Bredekamp : The Situation Room of May 1, 2011. pp. 159–163.
  • Michael Diers : "Public Viewing" or the elliptical picture from the "Situation Room" in Washington. Pp. 165-185.
  • Katja Müller-Helle: Fragile Visibilities. Media Mechanisms of American Image Politics after 9/11. Pp. 187–201 ( uni-heidelberg.de [PDF; 7.5 MB]).
  • Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Pp. 203-219.
  • Gerhard Schweppenhäuser : The birth of pictures from the spirit of horror. "True pictures", ban on pictures and picture fetishism. Pp. 221-244.
  • Irene Leser: The Art of Seeing. A reflection of the methodical approaches to visual image analysis. Pp. 247-267.
• Aglaja Przyborski, Günther Haller (ed.): The political picture. Situation Room: One photo - four analyzes (= Ralf Bohnsack, Aglaja Przyborski, Jürgen Raab, Thomas Slunecko [eds.]: Sociological iconology: qualitative image and video interpretation . Volume 6 ). Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen / Berlin / Toronto 2014, ISBN 978-3-8474-0160-5 .
  • Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. Pp. 11-63.
  • Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image. Pp. 65-106.
  • Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. Pp. 107-136.
  • Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". Pp. 137-151.

Single item

• Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. An Analysis of Visual Discourses in The Situation Room . In: Anne Burkhardt, Klaus Sachs-Hombach (Ed.): Image. Journal for interdisciplinary image science . No. January 25 , 2017, p. 6–27 ( uni-tuebingen.de [PDF; 2.0 MB ]).
• Rafael Capurro , Hans-Arthur Marsiske : The moment of triumph. Email dialogue between Rafael Capurro and Hans-Arthur Marsiske about a picture . In: Rafael Capurro (Ed.): Homo Digitalis. Contributions to the ontology, anthropology and ethics of digital technology . Springer, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-658-17130-8 , pp. 55-73 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-658-17131-5_6 .
• Megan D. McFarlane: Visualizing the Rhetorical Presidency: Barack Obama in the Situation Room . In: Visual Communication Quarterly . tape 23 , no. 1 , June 1, 2012, p. 3–13 , doi : 10.1080 / 15551393.2015.1105105 (English, academia.edu ).
• Jothie Rajah: Law as Record: the Death of Osama bin Laden . In: Julen Etxabe, Mónica López Lerma (Ed.): No Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice . No. 13 , 2016, p. 45–69 (English, helsinki.fi [PDF; 573 kB ]).
• Christoph Schaden: Welcome to the Situation Room . In: European Photography . No. 89 , November 14, 2012, p. 67-69 ( issuu.com ).
• Safia Swimelar: Deploying images of enemy bodies: US image warfare and strategic narratives . In: Media, War & Conflict . tape 11 , no. 2 , 2018, p. 179-203 , doi : 10.1177 / 1750635217700850 (English).

Monographs

• Liam Kennedy: Afterimages. Photography and US Foreign Policy . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2016, ISBN 978-0-226-33726-5 , pp. 165–168 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Ronan McKinney: Picturing 9/11: Trauma, Technics, Mediation . Dissertation at the University of Sussex, Falmer 2013 (English, sussex.ac.uk [PDF; 4.6 MB ]).

Web links

Commons : Situation Room  - collection of images

• P050111PS-0210 on Flickr
• The Situation Room at Know Your Meme
• Phoenix: pictures of the story: “Obama / Trump in the Situation Room” on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Walker: Pete Souza on His Long-Term Photographic Partnership With President Barack Obama. In: Photo District News . October 22, 2013, accessed December 27, 2018 . 
2. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 12.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". 2014, p. 140.
4. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 12. Photo with time of recording .
5. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 15.
6. ^ Danny Groner: Barack Obama and the Flickr Presidency. In: US News & World Report . December 10, 2012, accessed December 27, 2018 . 
7. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 14.
8. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 16.
9. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 17.
10. ↑ USA Today, News Tribune Won't Publish White House Photos. In: Huffington Post . November 25, 2013, accessed December 27, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Usama bin Laden poster. In: FBI website. Accessed December 8, 2018 . 
12. ↑ tagesschau.de: 50 million US dollars for a tip ( Memento from March 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).
13. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 39.
14. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 43.
15. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 40–41.
16. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 28–32, 35.
17. ↑ Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, p. 20.
18. ↑ Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, p. 15.
19. ↑ ^{a b} Kimberly Dozier: Osama Bin Laden Dead: Raiders Knew Mission A One-Shot Deal. (No longer available online.) In: The Huffington Post . May 17, 2011, archived from the original on May 25, 2015 ; Retrieved May 29, 2019 (updated June 17, 2011). 
20. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 30–31.
21. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 31.
22. ↑ Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, pp. 17-19.
23. ↑ ^{a b} Lamar Salter, Alana Kakoyiannis, Noah Friedman: White House photographer Pete Souza reveals what it was like to be in the Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden. In: Business Insider . November 28, 2017, accessed December 8, 2018 . 
24. ↑ Phil Bicker: Pete Souza's Portrait of a Presidency. In: Time . October 8, 2012, accessed on December 8, 2018 (English, caption from Fig. 55). 
25. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 33–35.
26. ↑ Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, pp. 19–21.
27. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 51.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, p. 21.
29. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, p. 63.
30. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 71.
31. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 103-105.
32. ↑ Brian Montopoli: Obama: I won't release bin Laden death photos. In: CBS. May 8, 2011, accessed January 4, 2019 . 
33. ↑ ^{a b} Lucy Madison: Sarah Palin to Obama: Stop “pussyfooting” and release Osama bin Laden photo. In: CBS. May 4, 2011, accessed January 4, 2019 . 
34. ↑ Michael Diers: "Public Viewing" or the elliptical picture from the "Situation Room" in Washington. 2014, pp. 171–172.
35. ↑ Jothie Rajah: Law as Record: the Death of Osama bin Laden . 2016, p. 61.
36. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 52.
37. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 77.
38. ↑ Associated Press : Osama bin Laden's hunter: The secret CIA man NOT pictured in infamous Situation Room photo. In: Daily Mail . July 5, 2011, accessed December 8, 2018 . 
39. ↑ Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210 . 2014, pp. 13-14.
40. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 44.
41. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 83.
42. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 81.
43. ↑ ^{a b c} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 79.
44. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 45.
45. ↑ ^{a b} Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. 2014, p. 129.
46. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". 2014, p. 118.
47. ↑ ^{a b} Aglaja Przyborski, Günther Haller: Foreword. In: Aglaja Przyborski, Günther Haller (Ed.): The political picture. Situation Room: One photo - four analyzes. 2014, p. 7.
48. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Kauppert, Irene Leser (Ed.): Hillarys Hand. On the political iconography of the present. 2014.
49. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Kauppert: Briefing P050111PS-0210. 2014, p. 23.
50. ↑ Hillary Clinton in the Situation Room: No shock - allergy! In: Spiegel Online . May 5, 2011, accessed December 21, 2018 . 
51. ↑ Miriam Meckel: Debate about Hillary Clinton's gesture: Anxiety energy. In: Spiegel online. May 6, 2011, accessed December 21, 2018 . 
52. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 42–43.
53. ↑ Ken Johnson: Situation: Ambiguous. In: New York Times. May 7, 2011, accessed January 5, 2019 . 
54. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 67.
55. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Diers: "Public Viewing" or the elliptical picture from the "Situation Room" in Washington. 2014, p. 170.
56. ↑ Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". 2014, p. 149.
57. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, pp. 136, 149.
58. ↑ Ansgar Graw: Would Hillary Clinton Have Been Better Than Obama? In: www.welt.de, August 13, 2014.
59. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 95.
60. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 100.
61. ↑ Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? 2014, p. 210.
62. ↑ Bin Laden raid: 'Situation Room' photo airbrushed by White House. In: The Observers. May 16, 2011, accessed January 27, 2019 . 
63. ↑ Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. 2014, pp. 130-131.
64. ^ ^{A b} Ronan McKinney: Picturing 9/11: Trauma, Technics, Mediation . 2013, p. 40.
65. ↑ ^{a b c d} John Blake: What 'Situation Room Photo' reveals about us. In: CNN. May 5, 2011, accessed December 21, 2018 . 
66. ^ Megan D. McFarlane: Visualizing the Rhetorical Presidency: Barack Obama in the Situation Room. 2012, p. 10.
67. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 51.
68. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 99.
69. ↑ Greta Olson: Recovering from the Men We Loved to Hate: Barack Obama as a Representative of Post-Post September 11 White House Masculinity . In: Christian Klöckner, Simone Knewitz, Sabine Sielke (Eds.): Beyond 9/11: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Twenty-First Century US American Culture . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-62704-4 , p. 97–124, here: 117 (English, ssrn.com ).
70. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 80.
71. ↑ Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". 2014, p. 142.
72. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, pp. 86–87.
73. ↑ ^{a b c} Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 92.
74. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, p. 149.
75. ↑ Gerhard Schweppenhäuser: The birth of images from the spirit of fright. 2014, p. 224.
76. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 36.
77. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 84–85.
78. ↑ Horst Bredekamp: The Situation Room of May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 161.
79. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, p. 15.
80. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, p. 25.
81. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 37–38.
82. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 85.
83. ↑ ^{a b} Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. 2014, p. 125.
84. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 86.
85. ↑ Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". 2014, p. 114.
86. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 82.
87. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 74.
88. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 101.
89. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, pp. 42, 44.
90. ↑ Horst Bredekamp: The Situation Room of May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 162.
91. ↑ Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? 2014, p. 208.
92. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 45–46.
93. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 78.
94. ^ Sarah Anne Hughes: Audrey Tomason: Who is the Situation Room mystery woman? In: The Washington Post. May 4, 2011, accessed December 25, 2018 . 
95. ↑ Rachel Quigley: Who is Audrey Tomason? The mystery of the woman in the situation room photo. In: Daily Mail. May 5, 2011, accessed December 25, 2018 . 
96. ↑ Daniel Stone: Audrey Tomason: Situation Room Mystery Woman During Osama Raid. In: The Daily Beast. May 3, 2011, accessed December 25, 2018 . 
97. ↑ Alexis C. Madrigal: The Other Audrey Tomasons in the Situation Room. In: The Atlantic. May 10, 2011, accessed November 25, 2018 . 
98. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 50.
99. ↑ Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. 2014, p. 121.
100. ↑ Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". 2014, pp. 115–116.
101. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, pp. 82–83.
102. ↑ ^{a b} Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? 2014, p. 204.
103. ↑ Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? 2014, p. 209.
104. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 52.
105. ↑ Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". 2014, p. 144.
106. ↑ Torsten Krauel: What was veiled in Obama's Situation Room. In: The world . May 5, 2011, accessed December 26, 2018 . 
107. ↑ Justin Sink: WH photographer asked CIA to declassify Situation Room document. In: The Hill . December 22, 2014, accessed December 26, 2018 . 
108. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, pp. 63–64. Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 98.
109. ↑ Aglaja Przyborski: Power in the picture. 2014, p. 124.
110. ↑ Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". 2014, pp. 116–117.
111. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 101.
112. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, pp. 72–73.
113. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, p. 132.
114. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 99-100.
115. ↑ ^{a b} Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 94.
116. ↑ Jürgen Raab: "E pluribus unum". 2014, p. 123.
117. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 53.
118. ^ Ronan McKinney: Picturing 9/11: Trauma, Technics, Mediation . 2013, p. 60.
119. ^ Liam Kennedy: Afterimages . 2016, pp. 167–168.
120. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, p. 74. Horst Bredekamp: The Situation Room of May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 161.
121. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, pp. 21–22.
122. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, p. 18.
123. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, p. 43.
124. ↑ Ulrich Oevermann: A press photo as an expression of the archaic rachel logic of a hegemon. 2014, pp. 47–48.
125. ^ Judith Butler: Grid of the war. Why don't we lament every suffering . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-593-39155-7 , p. 67 . quoted in: Ruth Ayaß: An Image of Absence. 2014, p. 75.
     
126. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, p. 75.
127. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, p. 20.
128. ↑ Susann Neuenfeldt: The affected general, or: where in the world is Osama bin Laden? 2014, pp. 207-208.
129. ↑ Rafael Capurro, Hans-Arthur Marsiske: The moment of triumph. 2017, p. 61.
130. ↑ Justin S. Vaughn, Stacy Michaelson: It's A Men's World. Masculinity in Pop Culture Portrayals of the President . In: Justin S. Vaughn, Lilly J. Goren (Eds.): Women and the White House. Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics . University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2013, ISBN 978-0-8131-4101-5 , pp. 135–159, here: 137 (English, limited preview in Google book search).
131. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 102.
132. ^ Megan D. McFarlane: Visualizing the Rhetorical Presidency: Barack Obama in the Situation Room. 2012, p. 9.
133. ↑ Martin Schuster: The symbolic power of "not seeing". 2014, p. 145.
134. ↑ ^{a b c} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 91.
135. ↑ ^{a b c} Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 91–93.
136. ↑ ^{a b} Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, p. 93.
137. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 90–91.
138. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 93, 95.
139. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 95.
140. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, p. 103.
141. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 104-105.
142. ^ Susana Barreiro Pérez, Marcel Wolfgang Lemmes, Stephan Ueffing: Warlords and Presidents. 2017, pp. 18-20.
143. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, pp. 140–141.
144. ↑ Seth Cline: The Other Symbol of George W. Bush's Legacy. In: US News & World Report. May 1, 2013, accessed December 29, 2018 . 
145. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, pp. 69–72.
146. ↑ Annie Karni: 2 Photos of Tense White House Moments: Note the Differences. In: The New York Times . October 28, 2019, accessed April 25, 2021 . Arno Frank: Trump photo of Baghdadi killing: image loss. In: Der Spiegel. October 28, 2019, accessed April 25, 2021 . Robin Givhan: Trump's Situation Room photo is straight from a war movie - just how he would want it. In: Washington Post . October 28, 2019, accessed April 25, 2021 .     
147. ↑ Michael Diers: "Public Viewing" or the elliptical picture from the "Situation Room" in Washington. 2014, pp. 172-174.
148. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, pp. 141–142.
149. ↑ Michael Scherer: Moment of Triumph: 'Visual on Geronimo'. In: Time. May 2, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
150. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, p. 66.
151. ↑ Michael D. Shear: Images Show Tension and Intensity in Situation Room. In: New York Times. May 2, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
152. ^ Garance Franke-Ruta: Picture of the Day: Inside the Situation Room the Day bin Laden Died. In: The Atlantic. May 2, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
153. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 55.
154. ^ Alan Silverleib: Obama on Sunday: A photo for the ages? In: CNN. May 4, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
155. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, p. 65.
156. ↑ Michael Diers: "Public Viewing" or the elliptical picture from the "Situation Room" in Washington. 2014, p. 165.
157. ↑ Peter Münch: Where did Hillary Clinton go? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 12, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
158. ↑ Melissa Bell: Second Hasidic newspaper drops Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason. In: Washington Post. May 10, 2011, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
159. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, pp. 99–100.
160. ↑ Susanne Gmuer: perpetrators look so concerned. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. November 23, 2011, accessed February 3, 2019 . 
161. ↑ Irene Leser, Michael Kauppert: Foreword. In: Michael Kauppert, Irene Leser (Ed.): Hillarys Hand. On the political iconography of the present . 2014, pp. 7–8.
162. ^ René Tuma: Double review . In: Journal for Qualitative Research . tape 15 , no. 1–2 , 2014, pp. 263–267, here: 263 ( ssoar.info [PDF; 429 kB ]).
163. ↑ ^{a b} Katja Müller-Helle: Fragile Visibilities. Pp. 196-197.
164. ↑ Leonie Radine: Alfredo Jaar: 'May 1, 2011'. In: SCAD Museum of Art website. 2011, accessed December 30, 2018 . 
165. ↑ Katja Müller-Helle: Fragile Visibilities. P. 197.
166. ^ ^{A b} Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, p. 56.
167. ↑ Kaspar Heinrich: In the body of the soldier, in the soul of the war victims. In: Spiegel Online. August 21, 2013, accessed December 30, 2018 . 
168. ^ Günther Haller: The historical moment - a journalistic research. 2014, pp. 56–57. Nils-Arne Kässens: Franz Reimer - The Situation Room. In: artconnect. Accessed December 30, 2018 . 
169. ^ John Johnson: Situation Room Photo Shattering Flickr Records. In: Newser . May 4, 2011, accessed December 31, 2018 . 
170. ↑ Most Viewed Photos in Flickr - Surprising List. In: 121 clicks. September 23, 2014, accessed December 31, 2018 . 
171. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, p. 131.
172. ↑ Ruth Ayass: A picture of the absence. 2014, pp. 67–68.
173. ↑ Roswitha Breckner: Conference Room May 1, 2011. 2014, pp. 97–98.
174. ↑ Ulrike Pilarczyk: The anti-image . 2014, pp. 91–92.
175. ↑ Boris Traue: Resonance image and iconic politics. 2014, p. 147.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles in this version on February 24, 2019 .