SEASONS GREETINGS
December 29, 2014 4:51 AM   Subscribe

 
I never get tired of these "best photograph" posts.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 5:30 AM on December 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


If you saw that "Season's Greetings" image as a shot in a fictional movie, you'd say "the director should have thought twice before s/he put such thudingly heavy-handed and unrealistic symbolism in there," but as usual real life is weirder and more horrible than fiction.
posted by octothorpe at 5:35 AM on December 29, 2014 [11 favorites]


That last picture, of Miliband eating a bacon sandwich, was such a dickish picture to take.
posted by MartinWisse at 5:49 AM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]


Can someone explain the importance of the bacon sandwich picture? Thanks. I assume this is a toffee-nosed politician looking foolish trying to eat a lower-classes sandwich, like New York City's Mayor de Blasio eating pizza with a fork?
posted by kinetic at 5:58 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]




The photo is just a politician looking silly - puncturing someone's image control.

Everyone likes bacon sandwiches.
posted by Lorc at 6:12 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


I wish a lot more of the photos had a simpler explanation of what they were - we hear all about how the photographer got this picture and this one, but what I want to know is "who ARE the people on the boat that are all looking up and why are they there," and "where is that cafe that the photographer waited outside for six hours and what was that woman running from".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:13 AM on December 29, 2014 [5 favorites]


Is it just me, or do the Kilic photos look over processed--which I generally think of as a no no in photojournalism? I've seen quite a few shops in my time, and I'm getting an over tone mapped vibe from his stuff. Images are great, though. I can't get enough of the photo of the year posts.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:14 AM on December 29, 2014


Also, re the bacon sandwich - is there not some kind of "hmmmm, I thought he was Jewish though" angle?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:14 AM on December 29, 2014


Most of these are really great, and as an enthusiastic amateur photographer I feel such great conflict. Many of them are images of terrible things, things that I want to not occur, and things I'd probably rather not experience, even second hand. But at the same time, very powerful images that I'd be happy to produce.

The last picture, that bacon sandwich one... it's just an OK photo. And it's the kind of thing I honestly try to avoid. Some of these photos walk the line between art and exploitation.
posted by RustyBrooks at 6:16 AM on December 29, 2014


I love the year-end photography wrap-ups. This year seemed less impressive than some previously, though the events themselves were plenty dramatic. I guess I'm getting old, because in the "portraits" link I far preferred the shots of people who were a bit older and whose faces had more character, like this one of Mackenzie Crook.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:18 AM on December 29, 2014


On a smaller scale...
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:26 AM on December 29, 2014


Maybe I'm jaded beyond redemption, but my reaction to most of the pics in that first Guardian link is pretty much "Meh." There was a sameness to most of them that seemed to diminish the impact of any individual shot.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:32 AM on December 29, 2014


EC, the photo of the woman running from the café is from the recent hostage situation in Sydney, Australia. The photo with the boat is of just one of the many dangerous migrant crossings from North Africa to Italy.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:34 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


I think the subject matter in many(not all) of the photos was well worthy of being in a year end review, but many of the actual photos where pretty eh to average in terms of quality of the photograph.

(not entirely sure why the hail storm one was included by either metric)
posted by edgeways at 6:39 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ed's Bacon Sarnie was one those stories where the (not that great) photo was the story (when politics was high on the news agenda leading up to the European Elections). And of course the right wing press loved it as it fits right into their 'Ed looks weird therefore is weird*' narrative

*and yeah there is a definite touch of an antisemitic dogwhislte
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:40 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


I enjoyed the groniad link.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 6:56 AM on December 29, 2014


The bacon sandwich thing is The Stupidest Scandal. It is bizarre to me that anyone cares what someone looks like eating a sandwich.

I felt the same way when Marco Rubio was laughed at for daring to be thirsty on TV in 2013, and I hate Marco Rubio.

GRAR IT IS NOT NEWS AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.
posted by kyrademon at 7:15 AM on December 29, 2014


I'm glad Metafilter is here to tell me what is and isn't great photography. A guy sits for hours waiting for the right moment and happens to get it in focus and exposed properly and we say Meh.

Also, he doesn't even look weird eating the sandwich. Michelle Bachmann eating a corn dog, now that's comedy.
posted by fungible at 7:41 AM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]


Thanks for posting these. I too love end-of-year photography galleries.

For my money, the SEASONS GREETINGS shot is the picture of the year, but there are lots more that could be worthy (still working my way through all the links!). They're less topical, but this picture of a South Sudanese cattle herder is beautiful and this one of Zulu maidens (NSFW) is very striking. There's something I like about the light in this photo of people in a favela watching the World Cup on television. This photo, from the funeral of a Kachin Independence Army officer, is, er, can I say 'striking' twice? Seriously, that picture tells at least a dozen different stories. (I had also never heard of the the Kachin conflict before now.)
posted by daisyk at 7:51 AM on December 29, 2014


Oh, and I meant to say that I really like the hail picture!
posted by daisyk at 7:52 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh, my god, and still in his seat! I cannot imagine the terror in his last moments.

I'm not linking to it, but it's in the batch of TIME Magazine's Photos of the Year. And I can't believe the Oscar selfie, which to my understanding was an in-broadcast ad for Samsung, is even considered on the same level of importance.
posted by droplet at 8:15 AM on December 29, 2014


The bacon sandwich thing is The Stupidest Scandal.

Stupider than NYCity's mayor De Blasio eating pizza with a knife and fork????
posted by IndigoJones at 8:55 AM on December 29, 2014


When it's big, wet and sloppy, that's how you've got to do it.
posted by Flashman at 9:02 AM on December 29, 2014


I don't get it at all. It looks like a guy eating a sandwich. Is there some proper British way to eat a sandwich that I don't know about? Should his pinkies be extended?
posted by octothorpe at 9:06 AM on December 29, 2014 [4 favorites]


Na, it's just the press taking him down any old way they can. You'd think maybe some people think they have some reason to be scared of him?
posted by glasseyes at 9:49 AM on December 29, 2014


If you saw that "Season's Greetings" image as a shot in a fictional movie, you'd say "the director should have thought twice before s/he put such thudingly heavy-handed and unrealistic symbolism in there," but as usual real life is weirder and more horrible than fiction.

I would have loved to send that photo as a holiday card to my more complacent family and friends. My picks for photos of the year are all Ferguson-related ones (that last one is by Whitney Curtis for the NYT) (more excellent images here).
posted by sallybrown at 10:20 AM on December 29, 2014


Wow, the night shot of the Korean peninsula from space really tells a story.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 11:19 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]




I felt the same way when Marco Rubio was laughed at for daring to be thirsty on TV in 2013, and I hate Marco Rubio.

To be fair, he wasn't laughed at for being thirsty, he was laughed at for being so incredibly awkward about getting that glass of water.

The firenado photo.. I refuse. Did not happen. Tornadoes are frightening enough and now we have to worry about literal Biblical pillars of fire? Nope nope nope.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:47 PM on December 29, 2014


...where are the actual photos, TIME? (Also... 'poured over'? Really? Augh.)
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:49 PM on December 29, 2014


The title "Best photographs of 2014 – in pictures" deserves an award all by itself.
posted by uosuaq at 2:50 PM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


*and yeah there is a definite touch of an antisemitic dogwhislte

Indeed.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:38 PM on January 1, 2015


Deslide those slideshows!
posted by craniac at 11:09 PM on January 4, 2015


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