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AFP / Brendan Smialowski

The mittens

Saturday 23 January 2021

It’s the cult photo that broke the internet and launched a thousand memes. The picture of Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged, arms folded and wearing mittens at Joe Biden’s inauguration became the most viral image of the day – a global phenomenon in a social media universe often affectionate towards the independent Senator from Vermont.   

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AFP / Brendan Smialowski

Catching the bird

Friday 3 November 2017

It's not uncommon to see middle fingers raised to the motorcades of the US president, whoever that president is. But the one captured by Brendan Smialowski, a photographer based in Washington DC, quickly went viral, shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook alone. Below Brendan explains how he got the shot.

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AFP Photo / Fabrice Coffrini

Waiting game on a Swiss lake

Thursday 2 April 2015

"For the past week I have been with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Switzerland in the marathon search for a nuclear deal with Iran," writes AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski. "Covering negotiations like these is as much about official photo ops as behind-the-scenes moments and features. As the negotiations dragged on, the ops got fewer and fewer, then dried up completely. But a photojournalist can go hunting for other moments to illustrate the story."

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