Video by Newsweek

MANILA — The fight over access between reporters and any White House can sometimes seem more like an exercise in First Amendment theory than practical reality: Is it really that important for the news media to get a glimpse of, say, a carefully choreographed photo op at an international summit before being led back out in a matter of minutes?

Actually, yes, it is, as New York Times photographer Doug Mills illustrated over three days on President Trump's trip to Asia.

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© (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) President Donald Trump, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, right, speaks to reporters at a meeting during the ASEAN Summit at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017, in Manila, Philippines. On Friday, Mills was part of the small group of traveling “press pool” members shadowing Trump in Danang, Vietnam, when he tweeted a “photo” of a black box to protest the White House's decision to shut out the pool from any coverage of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings.

“This is what our coverage ... looks like today,” he wrote in the tweet. “Blank. No coverage.”

[New York Times photographer tweets ‘photo’ of black box to protest White House coverage blackout]

On Monday, Mills got his revenge at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit here with Trump in Manila. Admitted with the pool for a few minutes to observe the annual ritual of the ASEAN leaders' “family photo,” Mills snapped a quick frame that spread quickly through social media after he posted it online.

.@realDonaldTrump joins other leaders in a handshake with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, right, during the opening ceremony of the 31st ASEAN Summit pic.twitter.com/mfqTU8AmUr — Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) November 13, 2017

Is that Medvedev who isn't playing along and, actually, emerges as the winner? https://t.co/1zBIXcLjz7 — David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) November 13, 2017

Critics of the media, perhaps including Trump himself, might point to Mills's photo as evidence that the “mainstream media” is out to undermine the president in an unfair and biased manner. Surely there were many other frames Mills could have chosen that made Trump look more distinguished. Yet Mills and other pool photographers published the awkward ones.

Photos of the day: the leaders cross-arm handshake series at the ASEAN summit in Manila via @AP pic.twitter.com/58r59ByUra

Photos of the day: the leaders cross-arm handshake series at the ASEAN summit in Manila via @AP pic.twitter.com/58r59ByUra — Arden Farhi (@ArdenFarhi) November 13, 2017

In fact, what Mills's photo does is make a strong case in answer of how this post began — the question of why the access of the independent press matters even on staged photo-ops or seemingly trivial events. In ways both subtle and stark, Trump's awkward grimace reveals the messy reality of high-stakes geopolitics that an airbrushed official portrait of the ASEAN “family” would gloss over.



Just take a look down the line of leaders and their expressions. That's Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev confidently refusing to play along with the rest of the global order; and that's Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in the traditional white Barong Tagalog and a sly grin. Maybe we're reading too much into all of it, but photos like these can help remind us that there are different motivations and different levels of comfort on the world stage at play behind the scenes.

And also, aside from all that, these kinds of handshakes are never graceful to pull off.