well, we’re about an inch away from the biggest, most important election since who knows when, so i’m gonna spiel about it a bit (as a canadian). media and american politics – they’ve become one and the same, inseparable, almost synonymous. is media helping or hindering the campaigns, or both?

first there’s the presidential candidates using mainstream media advertisements to promote themselves and or to desecrate their opponents. on the other hand, there’s sarah palin being incessantly attacked by the press. she calls them out for being ruthless and in return, journalists call her out for her refusal to address them in the first place. even non-politicians are getting all caught up in this media crossfire – people are now finding other things to complain about, things like, to name a few, the lack of barack obama as an object of ridicule on saturday night live. sarah palin’s opportunistic cameo on weekend update and lorne michaels allowing her to do so. john mccain cancelling his appearance on david letterman to “fly to washington to save the economy” but instead doing an interview on cbs news.

throughout all this we can see how media is politics this election season, at least more so than ever before, but in a vehemently negative way. in this war of words and emotions we seem to have forgotten about the still moments, the contemplative moments where we realize that these candidates are all regular people too. callie shell addresses this factor particularly well in her photojournalist series on barack obama. i don’t see this as a “they would do this to idealize obama but they wouldn’t do this for mccain” thing… it’s just good, powerful photojournalism to me. and this makes me appreciate the photographs all the more.

i guess photography doesn’t clearly define itself as a form of ‘mainstream’ media because it is characteristically still, and stillness doesn’t exist in politics. it’s always about movement, about change and reform, about moving forward. through callie shell’s work, however, we are given access to privileged moments in which the fervour dies down and the election machine grinds to a halt. in these photos, all is quiet and ordinary on the road to the white house.