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Reuters Photos of the Year, Aught Seven
December 18, 2007 4:21 PM Subscribe

Reuters Pictures of the Year, 2007.Some are NSFW. 109 striking images.

I'm fond of this one.

posted by milquetoast (61 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite

I liked this one. Really.
posted by Avenger50 at 4:35 PM on December 18, 2007

Great, now the robots have functioning saline ducts.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:37 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Slightly less snark: that would be perfect fodder for a caption contest, Avenger.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:37 PM on December 18, 2007

AFP's best pictures...
posted by Flashman at 4:39 PM on December 18, 2007

One man's fodder is another man's feelings.
posted by Avenger50 at 4:41 PM on December 18, 2007

That's gonna leave a mark.
posted by clevershark at 4:48 PM on December 18, 2007

Should've consulted those feelings before sending Jason Dunham to die, but whatever. If it's any consolation, I was moved by the photo as well. I apologize for political derailin' -- it's a powerful shot and when I suggested a caption contest, I was thinking more along the lines of: "What in the world could possibly be going through this human being's head at this moment?" and less along the lines of: "I totally missed Power Rangers this afternoon" but I guess I could've been more precise.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:49 PM on December 18, 2007

Should've consulted those feelings before sending Jason Dunham to die, but whatever.

I don't want to derail either (so why am I?), but you're begging the question by assuming he didn't.

Anyway, carry on.
posted by Avenger50 at 4:57 PM on December 18, 2007

Great composition.
posted by lostburner at 4:59 PM on December 18, 2007

The celebrity pictures -- the ones of the people we're told to look at all the time, and yes, Madonna and Posh, I'm talking to you -- are the least interesting choices. The photos of regular people and inanimate objects (burning bike) are much more compelling. My .02.

Thanks, milquetoast.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:01 PM on December 18, 2007

Posh Spice Picture of the Year. [NSFW ads]
posted by Armitage Shanks at 5:08 PM on December 18, 2007

You want a caption contest? I've got your caption contest.
posted by lostburner at 5:19 PM on December 18, 2007

at least i don't have to wait for the pictures to load on dlisted.

seriously.. what's up with the monolithic flash slide shows?
posted by ianaces at 5:22 PM on December 18, 2007

Awesome, thanks for sharing.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:22 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love the similarity between these two.
posted by miagaille at 5:43 PM on December 18, 2007

Obviously this guy is cosplaying as one of these.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:47 PM on December 18, 2007

some pretty good shots, too many paparazzi photos, but what can you do. Plenty that where included because of their newsability, not their quality of the photo, but enough that really pop to make it worth the time.
posted by edgeways at 5:57 PM on December 18, 2007

Personally, I think this picture would work in this demotivational poster, but my photoshop-fu is lacking...
posted by jkaczor at 6:00 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Very cool.

Interesting that so many are of fires or trains.
posted by rottytooth at 6:21 PM on December 18, 2007

Ah, the tears of a clown.
posted by sparkletone at 6:49 PM on December 18, 2007

That's gonna leave a mark.

Begging for a FAIL caption.
posted by sparkletone at 6:57 PM on December 18, 2007

In my mind, I wonder if perhaps Bush is crying for all the damage he's done to his office, his country and the world. But that'd be giving him much more credit than anything he's ever done would imply he deserves.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 7:04 PM on December 18, 2007

It seems a little crass to bash Bush over a photo taken of him shedding a tear at a ceremony honoring a soldier "killed when he jumped on a grenade to save fellow members of his Marine patrol."
posted by punishinglemur at 7:06 PM on December 18, 2007

That very famous Bush photo has always struck me as one of the most evil-looking in his collection. It sure does not look "sad" to me, despite the captioning it always receives.

I can't quite place why, though. Something about the eyes?
posted by rokusan at 7:19 PM on December 18, 2007

It seems a little crass to bash Bush over a photo taken of him shedding a tear at a ceremony honoring a soldier "killed when he jumped on a grenade to save fellow members of his Marine patrol."

Well, hardly. It was a stupid, avoidable war. Bush and his cronies have routinely downplayed the many thousands of funeral services of killed soldiers. They have generally refused to attend military funerals, they have refused permission for photographers to document soldiers' caskets arriving on American soil and so on and so forth - essentially, they've done their best to avoid acknowledging these deaths much at all. It strikes me as somewhat crass for Bush to garner *any* sympathy when he's been unrelentingly unrepentant about this and other tragedies for which he deserves much of the blame. He lied and lied and lied to substantiate a war which never should have occurred, while many much worse (in sheer numbers, if nothing else) human tragedies continue unabated.

Maybe he was crying from guilt about all this. Or maybe he cried because he wasn't offered such a heroic death, since he skirted his own military duties. Maybe it's the realization that if there is a hell, that's where he's going - because of deaths like this. Who knows.

I've nothing against the soldiers. I've got loads of sympathy for those affected by this war - both US military and innocent civilians. I've survived a war (barely) myself. Had Bush been 'bashed' a little more forceably when lying and leading America into all sorts of nastiness the first few times around, perhaps no one would have been mourning this soldier. He needn't have died.

Bush deserves much worse than he's getting.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 7:26 PM on December 18, 2007 [11 favorites]

punishinglemur: It seems a little crass to bash Bush over a photo taken of him shedding a tear at a ceremony honoring a soldier "killed when he jumped on a grenade to save fellow members of his Marine patrol."

It's like watching a serial killer cry over his victims. Yes, it's all very sad. Perhaps you shouldn't have murdered them.
posted by Mitrovarr at 7:31 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've always thought that the quality of an online photo collection is marked by how often one's desktop background is changes while browsing the pictures.

I'm up to five switches thus far. Burning Bike FTW, for now.
posted by EatTheWeak at 7:31 PM on December 18, 2007

I wish they'd publish higher res-photos so more detail could be seen.
posted by aerotive at 7:42 PM on December 18, 2007

Here are some larger versions.
posted by milquetoast at 8:03 PM on December 18, 2007

Where the fuck have they been hiding these, then? Seriously, I spend a good chunk of each night flicking through Reuter's picture feeds looking for good stuff, and I've seen about five of these before.

I'm guessing these great ones are what the photogs find later on review, while they just blurt out the obvious ones straight to the wire, but if that's the case, it's a damn shame.
posted by bonaldi at 8:24 PM on December 18, 2007

Wow, I would have totally made it past image #3 if Reuters weren't total assholes and decide to put a distracting, ugly, flashing ad in the right hand corner, and on top of that made it impossible to resize the browser without rendering the captions outside of the frame. Reuters? More like Neuters, amirite?
posted by SassHat at 8:34 PM on December 18, 2007

There was a great quote in a Thomas Friedman editorial last week.

"Some things are true even if George Bush believes them"

I'll admit, my first thought upon seeing that photo of Bush's tear was quite cynical. For a moment, I went as far as to wonder if there was a bottle of saline solution or something in his pocket.

But that's not really fair, is it? Yes, this man's presidency has been a disaster. Yes, his entire policy platform seems centered on criminal indecency. But we really don't know anything about his inner world, do we?

Imagine yourself in his position for a moment. By his conduct, we have every reason to believe he's an utter reptile. But I can't help wondering what it must feel like to be him sometimes. His country despises him. His party is a shambles. Everything he's tried has turned to shit. Over a million Iraqi citizens have died due to his blundering war, not to mention almost 4,000 American soldiers. If all of this had happened due to your directives, due to your listening to Dick Cheney and his ilk, can you imagine the crushing, impossible guilt that would hound you, morning to night?

Maybe his current callousness is all that's keeping him sane. Perhaps that photo truly did catch him in a vulnerable moment, when he could avoid thoughts of his responsibility no longer. We just can't know for sure.

So yeah, my first instinct is to doubt every movement this man makes. If he told me the sky was blue, I'd want a second opinion. But maybe, just maybe, he manages to be human for a couple painful minutes a day. So as much as it pains me, I'm giving W. the benefit of the doubt on this one. It extends no further than the borders of that photo, of course.
posted by EatTheWeak at 8:39 PM on December 18, 2007 [3 favorites]

But I can't help wondering what it must feel like to be him sometimes. His country despises him. His party is a shambles.

This is my point. The guy's still a human being, clearly with emotions. C'mon now. Everything is a lie? Even the man's tears? Give me a break.
posted by Avenger50 at 9:42 PM on December 18, 2007

that was, all told, a pretty unremarkable collection of photos. which is kind of weird, since this was a pretty remarkable year.
posted by CitizenD at 10:00 PM on December 18, 2007

This one was taken by the photographer of my band, who works for Reuters. He says someone from the news desk sent him an email some time after saying, in the most non nonchalant "I loved your pictures of the women with the burkas at the Carnival. I sent it to Steve and he loved it too." Nice full circle, no?
posted by micayetoca at 10:05 PM on December 18, 2007

Maybe his current callousness is all that's keeping him sane. Perhaps that photo truly did catch him in a vulnerable moment, when he could avoid thoughts of his responsibility no longer. We just can't know for sure.

That's true, but we can sure speculate! The "the guy's still a human being" defense is a bit pathetic, particularly when one considers that:

1) Every person is a human being, but some human being choose to lead lives of reckless and evil destruction, ruled by hatred, intolerance and a vicious quest for power. Dubya's one of them. I've no doubt that any number of historical baddies (take your pick) cried real tears from time to time. It's irrelevant, though. They were still baddies.

2) The "still a human being" idea is a far more generous position than Bush has extended to many thousands of people. In this small case, I'm playing by his rules. Usually I'm quite generous in my sympathy.

3) Even as a "human being," I think it's sadder that he might have felt true sorrow at the loss of this soldier (despite his own culpability) than guilt at the continuity of his own twisted and damaging actions, ideologies and manipulations and their results.

In fact, I'd say that my position re: this Bush photo is actually a more generous one than Avenger50's. I am allowing for the existence of a George W. Bush who has the potential for self-examination that would allow him some ruinous guilt for his atrocities, which is a bit more than the rather simplistic idea that he's "just" sorry for this soldier. But you're right - maybe he isn't intelligent to be capable of that level of guilt, horror and shame . . . maybe he was just "sad" because he was in a sad place full of sad people, much in the same way that my dog pouts when I'm in a nasty mood.

Yeah, that's probably it.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 10:27 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Actually, he's crying over our collective meta-inability to let Avenger enjoy a nice Hallmark moment free of political guilt, but whatever. I'm sure Bush thought of crying over my brother-in-law's coffin, too, but realized there wasn't a camera crew present.

Oh wait, that's because he specifically ordered there be no camera crew present.
But whatever, enjoy your photo-op, dude.

"God" knows Bush did.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:53 PM on December 18, 2007

Dee - Continuing to assume the Bush possesses the capacity for self-reflection, I nearly feel bad for him when I think of him laying awake in the small hours of the morning, certain beyond any self-delusion that history is sure to remember him as a monster. Whoever you are, that has to royally fuck with your head.

But I can't spare him any meaningful pity for long, as being monstrous was, in the end, the Decider's choice alone.
posted by EatTheWeak at 10:54 PM on December 18, 2007

The rest of the photos are just lovely, though.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:56 PM on December 18, 2007

I swear I'm not trying to spam this thread, but I found this photo especially excellent, and deserving special mention.
posted by EatTheWeak at 10:56 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

joe lisboa: whatever, whatever, whatever, dude. I'll be Hallmark, you be whatever.
posted by Avenger50 at 11:49 PM on December 18, 2007

I can have a laugh at those who were senseless enough to ever vote for GWB, particularly in the last election - how foolish they were. And I guess, if I really thought about it, if I were one of those voters, I'd have to bear some of the guilt for all the damage he did, in nearly every arena of life.

That photo of Bush crying - I've spent a lot of time looking at it. It's startling. It is the portrait of a man utterly powerless, despite being the most powerful man on Earth. He looks haunted. In fear for his mortal soul. If he were a man of moral integrity, I would be concerned that his obvious despair might lead to suicide, à la Adolf and Eva. Perhaps what will occur will be that some psychosomatically-induced cancer will one day simply eat him alive from the inside out. It's easy to believe, looking at that photo, that he could will it to happen. Ironically, as EatTheWeak implies, his persistent exclamations that he is the Decider spare me from having to care very much. He made it damn clear every step of the way that it was all up to him. Idiot.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:58 PM on December 18, 2007

There was a great quote in a Thomas Friedman editorial last week.

Wait, you lost me there.

Obligatory link to Matt Taibbi's magnificent evisceration of "the peculiar genius of Thomas L. Friedman."

(Just doing my patriotic duty as a citizen of an English-speaking country.)

Feel free to now resume the illuminating discussion of whether or not the worst president in American history, whose one truly impressive feature is his spectacular capacity for public disingenuousness, got caught in a moment of naked honest humanity at some exceedingly rare and highly choreographed memorial to the one soldier in several thousand this disgrace to humanity bothered to "honour."
posted by gompa at 12:31 AM on December 19, 2007

Children in Indonesia are having far too much fun. Someone should put a stop to this.
posted by Abiezer at 12:37 AM on December 19, 2007

joe lisboa: whatever, whatever, whatever, dude. I'll be Hallmark, you be whatever.

This is why we shouldn't allow sign-ups so close to the holidays. The kids hit the eggnog and all bets are off.
posted by joe lisboa at 12:50 AM on December 19, 2007

Children in Indonesia are having far too much fun. Someone should put a stop to this.

Oh yes, this one's definitely my favourite so far.
posted by ceri richard at 1:19 AM on December 19, 2007

This is why we shouldn't allow sign-ups so close to the holidays. The kids hit the eggnog and all bets are off.

No Joe, I just disagree with you. You've said what you're going to say and dismissed it as Hallmark and now it's all better for you. That's fine. People are going to disagree with you.

Also, you say "whatever, dude" a lot. Also, I love eggnog. Cheers!
posted by Avenger50 at 1:58 AM on December 19, 2007

gomba - Please don't confuse my finding ten words Friedman wrote interesting with my being a Friedman fan. At the paper I work at, we run his editorials and Cal Thomas' on the same day. It makes for an insane Opinion page that's quite difficult to proofread. Friedman has an interesting idea every now and then, but I don't go clipping his columns, you know?

I can't say one way or another if Bush's tear in that photo was genuine or not. Nor can I say for sure what might have caused him to shed it. Nor can anyone who jumped all over Avenger50. That's a function of both Bush's well-known dishonesty and the impossibility of truly knowing his mind. Yeah, it's possible the whole thing was staged. But that assumes Bush possesses enough acting talent to shed tears on demand.

The picture got me wondering about his level of self- and historical awareness. Defending the guy is the last thing I wanna do, but I would love to know what really bothered him. Remember that footage of him from 9/11, sitting frozen with those kids while the Twin Towers came down? The impression I got from his expression was that he was in over his head and he knew it. I work myself into a fair amount of anxiety wondering what my friends think of me. If I had to worry about posterity's opinion, I think I'd go nuts. Again, there's no way to know for sure, but I'll bet Dubya's pretty tormented. It's deserved torment, make no mistake, but what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall when he's crying into Laura/Condi's lap about what a disaster the presidency he stole has turned out to be.
posted by EatTheWeak at 1:59 AM on December 19, 2007

Just wanted to congratulate the OP on figuring out permalinks to the photos from the klutzy flash interface - I could never figure it out when I saw this linked elsewhere a couple of days back.
posted by your mildly obsessive average geek at 1:59 AM on December 19, 2007

There was a great quote in a Thomas Friedman editorial last week.

Let me repeat that that's not something you hear every day.

"Some things are true even if George Bush believes them"

Here Friedman is borrowing a line from Orwell, who wrote that some things are true even if they appear in the Daily Telegraph.
posted by Mocata at 6:29 AM on December 19, 2007

Re Bush crying, I imagine he just had a sentimental rush of feeling about notions of soldierly honour and so on. I imagine, too, that in his head he feels that history will vindicate him, that his political enemies are to blame for everything that's gone wrong, and that people have the wrong idea about him because of the media, which he reckons is biased against him - if people had unmediated access to him, they'd see that he's a good man trying to the right thing for his social class (which in his mind is the same thing as his country). I imagine that he is filled with self-pity and whines a lot.
posted by Mocata at 6:40 AM on December 19, 2007

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YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE BUSH FREE PART OF THIS THREAD

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posted by sgt.serenity at 7:19 AM on December 19, 2007

Camels are cool.
posted by Mister_A at 8:04 AM on December 19, 2007

Genius juxtaposition in the series of this and this.
posted by nicwolff at 8:35 AM on December 19, 2007

The guy's still a human being, clearly with emotions.

Tom Snyder: Did you cut, uh, Hinman’s ear off?
Charles Manson: Hell .…yes. Yeah.
Tom Snyder: Why‘d you ... How’d that feel when you cut his ear off?
Charles Manson: Uh, I felt bad about it.

posted by octobersurprise at 10:06 AM on December 19, 2007

i sorta like that bush, what kind is it?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:39 AM on December 19, 2007

Also, you say "whatever, dude" a lot.

I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings. Maybe you can cry about it and then we can take a picture and everyone wins, "dude." Enjoy your membership. And the 'nog.
posted by joe lisboa at 12:06 PM on December 19, 2007

Fucking OW! Get some Neosporin on that!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:15 PM on December 19, 2007

The military ones always make me so sad. There is too much suffering in this world, and I don't think it's for the right reasons.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:32 AM on December 20, 2007

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Reuters Photos of the Year, Aught Seven December 18, 2007 4:21 PM Subscribe

Reuters Photos of the Year, Aught Seven
December 18, 2007 4:21 PM Subscribe