viz.

(Photo Credit:  Pete Souza, White House Photographer, via TPM)

The Obama administration is currently debating whether or not to release photos of Osama bin Laden's body, though it is looking more and more likely that they will.  I can understand the arguments from both sides of this issue, though I suspect that anyone inclined to a see a conspiracy in all of this will not be deterred by such evidence any more than hardline birthers were deterred by the release of the long form birth certificate. 

As the debate about bin Laden's image wages on, however, the photo above, taken by White House photographer Pete Souza, is rapidly becoming the iconic image of this story.  It depicts the President, the Vice President, and members of the national security team--including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates--in the White House Situation Room as the op was unfolding on a live feed broadcasted to the White House by the SEAL team.  I imagine that this will be a defining image in the history of photojournalism for its ability to capture a mood.  Though we have no idea what was happening at that moment, the tension and stress in the room is absolutely palpable, the gravity of the situation immediately real. 

The other reason for this image's iconic status, I suggest, is that given the context in which it appeared, it is an absolutely masterful piece of visual rhetoric.  "These are the protagonists of this story," it seems to say, not Congress, not Donald Trump, not John Boehner, not even bin Laden himself.  These are the people who make the decisions and feel the weight of unimaginable responsibility, it suggests.  Considered alongside the Obama's eye-rolling release of his long form birth certificate and the mocking of people like Donald Trump at the White House Correspondants Dinner, this photo suggests that certain media figures and Republican presidential hopefuls have been chasing trivialities and ephemera while the President and his team have been engaged in serious business.  It would not suprise me at all if this photo starts turning up during the 2012 Presidential campaign.