That Merkel Photo Is More Like a Meme Than a Renaissance Painting
The viral image from the G7 summit is powerful, but it also resembles something mundane: Yanny vs. Laurel.
What do you see in the now-famous photograph of Angela Merkel and Donald Trump at the G7 Summit? Perhaps you see a woman leader, in a room full of men, scolding a petty man refusing to cooperate. You might see a bold U.S. president patriotically defying those who would stand in the way of what’s best for the United States. You might see one more indicator of the West’s decline as a unified political force.
Most importantly, what you saw, whatever it was, is part of a larger trend: Geopolitical contention is frequently expressed through the language of online visual media. Merkel’s team, which posted the photo to Instagram, offered a generally staid description——but the image jumped out for its composition, soft
