Trump Assassination Picture: An Iconic Image is Born
Yvan Cohen
Wed Jul 17 2024
The coverage of the assassination attempt against former President Trump was one of those moments when photographs reveal their unique power.
Associated Press (AP) photographer Evan Vucci's image of Donald Trump, taken moments after an assassin's bullet clipped his ear, is surely a picture for the ages.
His face bloodied, Trump punches the air. His expression is one of defiance and resilience. Around him, the dark suits of his secret service detail form a protective wall. The agents' faces frozen in adrenaline-fueled expressions of fear and concern. Above them an American flag flutters serenely against an azure sky.
Interestingly, and perhaps this is part of its power, Vucci's picture echoes one of the most famous war photographs in American history: 'The fall of Iwo Jima' by Joe Rosenthal, which depicts US marines raising the American flag in 1945.
The Fall of Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal / Associated Press
What is it that makes these images, and other iconic pictures like them, so memorable? What sears these images into our collective consciousness, when so many others fade into oblivion?
Without doubt, both these pictures represent powerful moments of triumph: in Iwo Jima it was the culmination of a bloody battle, in Trump's case it was his triumph (if one can call it that) over death.
In both, there is a sense of overcoming adversity. Indeed, there is an almost propagandist, quasi-nationalist, feel to the positioning of the flag in these pictures; placed atop a triangular composition, triumphant and aspirational.
The compositional references are undoubtedly (if not deliberately) classical. Eugene Delacroix's famous 1830 French revolution painting of 'Liberty Leading the People' (Liberte Guidant le Peuple), draws it visual power from the same triangular structure. Leading the viewer's eye upwards, towards the French flag.
Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix, 1830
Of course, timing matters too. The most memorable images are created in, and encapsulate, momentous times.
Vucci's image of the Trump assassination attempt was captured at a time when America is bitterly divided, when the spectre of polarization erupting into violence is real, when Americans are on the verge of choosing between some form of political continuity or plunging headlong into radical systemic change.
Surely no other medium could as powerfully communicate such broad and deep narratives in a single frame.
Though videos are in many ways more immediate and real-seeming, their impact often feels dissipated by the volume of visual information they deliver: sound, movement, action. Moving pictures bring moments to life, filling in the gaps that the still image leaves to our imagination.
When you look at a photograph, your attention is entirely invested in a single instant. You are thus left to imagine what happened in the moments prior to, and after, the picture was taken. It is these moments, imagined but unseen, which help give the photograph its unique power.
Powerful we know they are, but do these iconic photographs tell us the truth?
One answer might be that they tell 'a truth' or 'somebody's truth'. The very nature of a two-dimensional representation; the compositional choices made by the photographer, the elements included and excluded, the angle at which an image is shot. All influence our perception and colour our understanding of what we see.
As Magritte so presciently reminded us with his realistic painting of a Pipe entitled 'This is not a Pipe', we are not seeing reality, we are looking at a representation of reality.
“The Treachery of Images” Painting by Rene Magritte, 1929
Photographs are invested with the technological prowess of transforming real events into two dimensional images. This gives them the power of witness. We look at photographs and instinctively (at least until AI erupted onto the scene) we tell ourselves 'this actually happened'.
At one level the photograph informs, at another it acts on our emotions, and imaginations. It blends information with art.
In Vucci's image we are invited to share in the intimate moment after a man narrowly escapes death. We can only imagine the emotions of the characters we see in that photograph. And yet, Vucci's picture is not just information. It is politics too.
A master communicator, Trump instinctively understood the visual value of the moment. In an act of courage and political genius, he pushed himself above his protection agents and punched his fist into the air, shouting “fight, fight, fight”. Perhaps more than any other American politician, Donald Trump understands the power of a photograph. This, therefore, was an image created by both Evan Vucci and Donald Trump.
If Evan Vucci's image is set to become one of the landmark images of history, it will doubtless also be co-opted into the violent political vortex, replete with conspiracy theories and venom, that is modern American politics.
Written by Yvan Cohen | Yvan has been a photojournalist for over 30 years. He's a co-founder of LightRocket and continues to shoot photo and video projects around South East Asia.
Cover image by Evan Vucci / Associated Press
To read more helpful articles on photography, check out our blog page.
Join our growing photographer community at LightRocket and get powerful archive management and website building tools for free!
