Donald Trump raised-fist photographs

A crop from Vucci's photographs, depicting a bloodied Trump being escorted away by Secret Service agents with a raised fist and an American flag in the background

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The American photojournalist Evan Vucci captured photographs of Donald Trump with a raised fist shortly after an assassination attempt near Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. Having heard the initial barrage of shots, Vucci rushed towards the stage to photograph Trump being escorted off stage by Secret Service agents.

The photographs were reposted widely on social media, being appraised as a resilient public image of Trump amidst the 2024 presidential election. Several critics hailed Vucci's work, including its composition, display of color, and use of sharp angles, as among the finest works of photojournalism.

Background

"It was a situation where that vast experience absolutely does [prepare you]. To have that experience behind you sort of allows you to remain calm. It wasn't the first time I was in that situation. So I was able to keep my head, I was able to think. I was able to compose pictures. I think all of us were there and we just stayed in the moment, stayed on the story. In my head, I just kept saying to myself, 'slow down, slow down. Compose, compose.' Okay, what's gonna happen next? What's going on here? What's going on there? Just trying to get every angle on it."

–Vucci on how his prior work affected his photography of the assassination attempt.

At a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, former US President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president in the 2024 United States presidential election, was shot in an attempted assassination. Evan Vucci, the Associated Press's chief photographer in Washington, D.C., was one of four photographers stationed in a buffer area near the stage. He had covered Trump for years and had photographed hundreds of political rallies, and had covered the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He previously won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 as part of an AP team covering the George Floyd protests. Seeing United States Secret Service agents rushing towards Trump, Vucci ran to the stage and began photographing. "I knew it was a moment in American history and it had to be documented", he said of the attempted assassination.

Composition

Evan Vucci's photographs depict Donald Trump moments after an assassination attempt. His right fist is raised in the air and there is blood on his face. He is surrounded by United States Secret Service agents, one of whom stares at the camera. A US flag waves in the background in front of a blue sky. In some of Vucci's photographs, Trump's mouth is open as he yells "Fight!" In others, Trump's lips are pursed. An uncropped version shows Trump holding a "Make America Great Again" hat in his left hand.

A published analysis from Sara Oscar for The Conversation said that "[in order] to understand exactly what it is that makes this such a powerful image, there are several elements we can parse; [...] The agents form[ing] a triangular composition that places Trump at the vertex; [...] The agent draw[ing] us into the image, he looks back at us, he sees the photographer and therefore, he seems to see us; [...] Set against a blue sky, everything else in the image is red, white and navy blue. The trickles of blood falling down Trump’s face are echoed in the red stripes of the American flag which aligns with the republican red of the podium." Oscar noted Vucci's knowledge of "the importance of retaining a sense of photographic composure in being able to attain 'the shot', of being sure to cover the situation from numerous angles, including capturing the scene with the right composition and light.

Reception

Vucci's photographs were widely shared on the internet, along with a video depicting Vucci running across the podium. Republicans and Trump's allies circulated the photo immediately after the event; some had used the photo as "an opportunity to tout conspiracy theories and stoke political tensions". The photographs appeared on newspaper front pages in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.

Writing in The Washington Post, Philip Kennicott described a closed-mouth photograph as "strongly constructed, with aggressive angles that reflect the chaos and drama of the moment, and a powerful balance of color, all red, white and blue, including the azure sky above and the red-and-white decorative banner below. Trump seems to emerge from within a deconstructed version of its basic colors." Kennicott wrote that "It is a photograph that could change America forever", comparing it to the Zapruder film and the 1988 image of Michael Dukakis in a tank. "Vucci's photo will create a reality more real than reality, transforming the chaos and messiness of a few moments of peril onstage in Pennsylvania into a surpassing icon of Trump's courage, resolve and heroism", Kennicott wrote. He described it as "Densely packed with markers of nationalism and authority — the flag, the blood, the urgent faces of federal agents in dark suits", and predicted that it will encourage more political violence.

The Spectator's Fraser Nelson shared a similar sentiment, saying "[any critic] would have instantly recognised that this is a once-in-a-generation photograph – an image that will become one of the most potent in American politics and history", and hailed Vucci's work as "photojournalism at its most powerful ... the image will be remembered as one of the most important political photographs ever taken".

Jason Farago of The New York Times compared the photographs to Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People and John Singleton Copley's The Death of Major Peirson. He wrote that they conveyed a different message from video: "[T]he fist had a more warlike aspect, suggesting fearlessness and indomitability". Noting that the photographs quickly became used in Internet memes, Farago said that "image of authority also invites its own parody; that is the secret of its strength".

Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker wrote of an uncropped closed-mouth photograph, "It is already the indelible image of our era of political crisis and conflict." He noted that "some of the elements in Vucci's image are familiar from the countless others of Trump", and concluded, "It is an image that captures him as he would like to be seen, so perfectly, in fact, that it may outlast all the rest."

Tyler Austin Harper of The Atlantic, describing one of the open-mouth photographs, wrote that it "became immediately legendary", and "However you feel about the man at its center, it is undeniably one of the great compositions in U.S. photographic history." Harper predicted that the photograph would be used in campaign merchandise and advertisements, and that the image will help Trump win the election. Harper wrote, "I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that the photo is nearly perfect, one captured under extreme duress and that distills the essence of a man in all his contradictions."

Yudhajit Shankar Das of India Today anticipated Vucci's work as a "defining photograph of US history", and noted that his prior work photographing in war-torn Iraq likely absolved him of fear of bullets. Das mused that Vucci's work could "act as the Napalm Girl" of the 2024 election. The Daily Telegraph's Roland Oliphant felt that "[Trump] could not have looked more like an American hero if he tried", and called it "a product of world-class photojournalism – and also, perhaps, of Trump’s innate political instincts."

Carla Bleiker of Deutsche Welle described one of the closed-mouth photographs as an "image for the history books". She compared it with Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, writing, "Trump's raised fist and his facial expression, accentuated by the blood splatters across his cheek, can be read as an declaration of defiance in the face of adversity", in an "'I'm still standing'-gesture". Bleiker compared the US flag that is the centerpiece of the Iwo Jima image to the US flag in the background of Vucci's image, noting the flag's importance as a cultural image to Americans, especially conservative Americans.

Jeremy Barr wrote in the Post that one of the open-mouth versions was "sure to go down in the pantheon of American photography". Geordie Gray wrote in The Australian that one of the open-mouth photographs was "destined to become one of the defining images of our time", describing it as "perfectly composed". Ashima Grover in Hindustan Times described an open-mouth photograph as a "legendary American photo for posterity". Timothy Garton Ash said on social media that the photograph would "change the course of history of the world" One photo, an open-mouthed one, will be used as a cover for the August 5, 2024, issue of Time magazine.

See also

• Mug shot of Donald Trump
• Public image of Donald Trump
• List of photographs considered the most important

Bibliography

Press

• Barr, Jeremy (July 15, 2024). "'I have to do my job': Photojournalists capture images of Trump shooting". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Bleiker, Carla (July 14, 2024). "Photo of bloodied, defiant Trump takes on patriotic meaning". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Cortellessa, Eric (July 13, 2024). "Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting". TIME. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Donastorg, Mirtha (July 14, 2024). "The photographer who captured this iconic image recounts the moment shots were fired at Donald Trump". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ISSN 1539-7459. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Frazier, Kierra; Herszenhorn, Miles J. (July 13, 2024). "Photo of bloodied Trump fist pumping immediately spotlighted by his allies". Politico. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Gray, Geordie (July 15, 2024). "How AP photographer Evan Vucci captured this defining news image of our era". The Australian. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Grover, Ashima (July 15, 2024). "Story of Trump's iconic image after the failed assassination, video captures how Evan Vucci got the shot". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Harper, Tyler Austin (July 14, 2024). "A Legendary American Photograph". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Oliphant, Roland (July 14, 2024). "Bloodied face, fist raised in defiance: how this image may win Trump the US presidency". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.

Commentary

• Das, Yudhaji (July 14, 2024). "Trump shot, Evan Vucci shot him again, for a history-changing photo". India Today. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Farago, Jason (July 16, 2024). "Still Images Define an Attack and its Aftermath". The New York Times. pp. A17. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
• Kennicott, Philip (July 14, 2024). "A powerful photograph that could change America forever". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Nelson, Fraser (July 14, 2024). "Evan Vucci's Trump photo will define (and perhaps shape) history". The Spectator. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Oscar, Sara (July 15, 2024). "Elevation, colour – and the American flag. Here's what makes Evan Vucci's Trump photograph so powerful". The Conversation. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Wallace-Wells, Benjamin (July 14, 2024). "The Attempt on Donald Trump's Life and an Image That Will Last". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.

Interviews

• AP photographer at Trump rally describes moment when shots were fired. Associated Press. July 13, 2024. Archived from the original on July 14, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• AP photojournalist on what it was like documenting the Trump rally shooting. Associated Press. July 14, 2024. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
• Hear from photographer who captured viral photo of Trump injured at rally. CNN. July 14, 2024. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
• Milstein, Kara (July 15, 2024). "Behind the Cover: Interview With the Photographer of the Trump Image". Time. Archived from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.