2011

December 5, 2011 6:43 AM

The year in pictures - 2011
posted by caddis (42 comments total)

Leaving Malibu at an Amy Winehouse memorial is like leaving a shotgun shell at a Kurt Cobain memorial.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:52 AM on December 5, 2011 [12 favorites]

There are some great photos in there, but I think my idea of "powerful" and buzzfeed's must be very different. The sandstorm, the kenyan kid, the dead cow, the tornado and tsunami photos are all powerful. The photo of a phone off the hook in the NYSE and a photo of a photo of Amy Winehouse, not so much.

Don't get me wrong - I love the photos and I'll go through them again at home. I'm just nitpicking on the word 'powerful'...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 6:54 AM on December 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

So many great pictures. My favorite for the year, I think, is that one of the President and his staff in the situation room.
posted by jquinby at 6:55 AM on December 5, 2011

I'm voting for the two crazy kids making out in the middle of a riot.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:03 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

The contrast between 37 (Chilean soldier punches Chilean boy in head) and 45 (US soldier high fives Afghan boy) is pretty stark. I was wondering how they compiled this overwhelmingly US-centric, horribly biased list, before I realised that it's just one guy's picks. I think we can expect the Big Picture to do this better in a couple of weeks time.
posted by roofus at 7:08 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

This looks like someone went through all the biggest headlines of the year and picked photos for them, not all of which are actually powerful.
posted by swift at 7:11 AM on December 5, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm voting for the two crazy kids making out in the middle of a riot.

I could be wrong, but I thought the fact that the picture is, well, what it looks like has been debunked. Or was that just rumor?
posted by griphus at 7:14 AM on December 5, 2011

You've seen what happened before that Vancouver photo, right? (Warning: people getting beaten up.)

Here's more, from the couple themselves.
posted by Madamina at 7:16 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

"takes five"

?!?

Between that and "fist bump" I'm starting to think that people who work in the media have never before heard of people interacting using only their hands and have to take a wild guess what these gestures are called every time they have to describe one.
posted by Kattullus at 7:21 AM on December 5, 2011 [11 favorites]

I'm voting for making one big thread of "Best of"/"The Year in" links.
posted by pracowity at 7:22 AM on December 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

disaster porn
posted by edgeways at 7:30 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

KATTULLUS.
THAT WAS A PREMIUM COMMENT.
TAKE ME SOME FIVE RIGHT PROMPTLY!
OKAY!
posted by entropone at 7:38 AM on December 5, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm starting to feel bad for December with these "best of the year" lists all coming out early. It's not like anyone making next year's list is going to include the last few weeks of 2011, is it?

Remind me to never try to do anything cool in December.
posted by mediareport at 7:40 AM on December 5, 2011 [3 favorites]

Between that and "fist bump" I'm starting to think that people who work in the media have never before heard of people interacting using only their hands and have to take a wild guess what these gestures are called every time they have to describe one.

Terrorist fist jab, obviously.
posted by spitefulcrow at 7:44 AM on December 5, 2011

Remind me to never try to do anything cool in December.

Can you go back in time and tell my parents that?

Glares at upcoming birthday...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 7:45 AM on December 5, 2011

Oh noes! Is it really time to begin the "year in review" type stuff already??

I'm just sorta getting semi-comfortable with the idea of 2011. WTF.

Sigh.
posted by Skygazer at 7:57 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Reaction: Cry, cry, cry, smile, cry, cry, cry, chuckle, cry, okay, I'm done, this was a fucked-up year for humanity.
posted by angrycat at 8:04 AM on December 5, 2011

Did anything happen in the Arab world, this year? Around springtime, perhaps? If so, I guess it wasn't photographed.
posted by borborygmi at 8:13 AM on December 5, 2011

when is it NOT a fucked up year for humanity?
posted by entropone at 8:13 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

That suicidal Chinese bride picture #44, would make some great sort of image for a film or a book or a record. Maybe a Play.

The look of emptiness and calm is something else. The fact that you can see her breasts just above the neckline further makes it seem like she is completely coming apart.

I guess, I understand now why wedding gowns have such long trains...maybe?




Also, Joplin, Missouri #8 (and others): Holy f*ckballs. Whoa.
posted by Skygazer at 8:15 AM on December 5, 2011

borborygmi, image #12 is of the Square in Egypt during the uprising.
posted by MrBobaFett at 8:17 AM on December 5, 2011

The world is a sad and angry place.
posted by stormpooper at 8:22 AM on December 5, 2011

Yes, that picture of Harold Camping certainly is powerful. I cannot tell if it is the way he is holding his index finger up or the way he is talking, but he looks like a regular... oh, who is that guy who is always talking? Rory Calhoun, that is it. Like a regular Rory Calhoun.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:03 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I wish there were more "good news" pictures in such collections. We did have some good news in 2011, didn't we?
posted by kaat at 9:10 AM on December 5, 2011

We did have some good news in 2011, didn't we?

Maude Garrett, 54, of Wabash, IN, found five dollars in her winter coat after putting it on for the first time since last year.
posted by griphus at 9:12 AM on December 5, 2011

Did anything happen in the Arab world, this year? Around springtime, perhaps? If so, I guess it wasn't photographed.

12, 23, 35, and 39 all relate to the Arab Spring.
posted by yoink at 9:33 AM on December 5, 2011

I'll wait for Boston.com 's always stunning summary.
posted by Theta States at 9:38 AM on December 5, 2011

*** MY YEAR-END 'BEST OF' INCLUDES DECEMBER ***

or: Too soon!
posted by mazola at 9:49 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

Time's Person of the Year this year should really be Any Given Pepper-Spraying Cop. It was really that asshole's year pretty much worldwide.
posted by gompa at 10:03 AM on December 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

Images 46 and 47 that didn't make the cut were "Down Low" and "Too Slow" respectively.
posted by phirleh at 10:14 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I hear a time-lapse multiple exposure pic of "Cut the Pickle" and "Tickle Tickle" was on the shortlist but deemed insufficiently photojournalistic.
posted by gompa at 10:23 AM on December 5, 2011

The Year of the Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream Pepper Spray.
posted by stet at 10:35 AM on December 5, 2011

# 42 -- Gay soldiers walk in a gay pride parade -- is pretty happy news.
posted by feste at 10:38 AM on December 5, 2011

Best photos of the year 2011, from Reuters ("images that helped define the year"). 100 photos, including notes from the photographers.
posted by vidur at 10:59 AM on December 5, 2011

"I'm not dead yet." - 2011
posted by telstar at 11:38 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

But I always trust Buzzfeed to curate my "best of" lists!
posted by dhartung at 11:57 AM on December 5, 2011

(Actually, the javascript on that Reuters list is borked. If you skip around the numbering gets messed up.)
posted by dhartung at 11:59 AM on December 5, 2011

Re: #39

Golden gun? Gadhafi was a fucking Bond villain?
posted by asnider at 1:06 PM on December 5, 2011

A gold gun confuses me. Wouldn't the gold get mushy in response to the gun being fired? It just seems like a stupid thing to gold-plate. That, and maybe a frying pan, I dunno.
posted by angrycat at 5:04 PM on December 5, 2011

Leaving Malibu at an Amy Winehouse memorial is like leaving a shotgun shell at a Kurt Cobain memorial.

That was a couple of buses away from where I work, so I went up to have a look - I have a ton of photos which I'm sorting through at the moment, but the general flavour of the memorial and mementos were of that flavour. I wouldn't recognise a crack pipe, but there were definitely a few bongs left and several cans of Red Stripe.
posted by mippy at 7:57 AM on December 6, 2011

asnider: Golden gun? Gadhafi was a fucking Bond villain?

Between the golden gun, and the hot Ukranian (or was she Russian?) nurse and the Condi Rice scrape books and fixation, and the books of fiction (or was it poetry?), I feel Like Ghaddafi was a sort of sociopathic despot who only realized later in life that he was a geek. I wonder if he ever showed up in costume at a comic con or a trekky (or is it trekker?) confab?

Think of how much different things could've gone for him and the people he had murdered or totured, if he'd had a decent fantasy/sci-fi and book comic book collection, access to sci-fi TV/movies and RPGs/video games when he'd been a child or a teenager?
posted by Skygazer at 8:21 AM on December 6, 2011

It seems that each year there's a rush to in "year-end" lists so early that they're not even at the end of the year anymore.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 9:10 AM on December 6, 2011