Relive 2010 Through the Year in Pictures - and Look Ahead to 2011
The Year in Pictures is a venerable and always interesting editorial concept. Having started my career at Time Magazine in the Picture Department, I'm always drawn to those compilations — and to the process of choosing, a difficult one winnowing down the immense collection of marvelous pictures taken by many of the best photographers in the world.
Photographers always have to be there. There's no sitting behind a desk at a computer and creating some fabric of news from that vantage point. The person with the camera has to be on the scene to capture the moment, whether they sort through the results for the prized frame themselves or an editor does at a distance. Now it's possible to scan and send pictures digitally; years ago it was a struggle to get film on planes, boats or cars to reach a lab, an editor and, finally, have unknown editors making final selections. Regardless of new technologies and systems to send the pictures, the trek (and talent) to photograph the event, the gathering, the individual, still is necessary whether the subject is just around the corner or thousands of miles away.
Start with the Year in Pictures at the White House: The Year in Photos: 2010. Pete Souza, Director of the White House Photography Office, introduces a new photo gallery of his favorite shots from the last year.
Travel abroad with the BBC Year in Pictures (Note: there's a warning about some pictures might be found disturbing) and The New York Times Year in Pictures.
Finally, Magnum Photos — the great photo agency — looks ahead by celebrating such 2011 events as the 50th Anniversary of JFK's inauguration on January 6th, 40 years since the divorce of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller and15th year anniversary of the last northeast blizzard. In February, the 80th anniversary of James Dean's birth, March 21's World Poetry Day and Yuri Gagarin's first space flight in April. May brings the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides.
And at last, New Year's Eve Celebration pictures.
But before we leave this year, take a listen to NPR's Science Friday with Ira Flatow. The program's Year in Science may not be illustrated but always well worth a listen: From the Gulf oil spill and the earthquake in Haiti to the creation of synthetic life and the Icelandic volcano, many science stories made headlines in 2010.
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