Pictures of the Year

Looking through the Pictures of the Year site was incredibly enjoyable; photojournalism is one area in which I wish I had more expertise and this reminded me of that. My other area of study at the University is art and that heavily plays into my appraisal of photography in newspapers, magazines, and of course, on the web. While I like photographs that are representational (after all, this is from a journalistic perspective), I truly appreciate when I see an innovative and, perhaps, abstract photograph published in the media. At its most basic (albeit, important) level photographs need to explain, illustrate, or support a story—but creating something that’s uniquely visually compelling is what sets the photos on this site apart.

Some of my favorites include Lance Iversen’s photograph of the nude yoga class (Newspaper>Feature Division>Award of Excellence). This is an outstanding and beautiful portrayal for a rather unusual story that would normally make readers cringe at the thought of doing yoga sans-clothes. The light quality highlighting the contours and muscles of the student makes it tasteful, as does the abstraction of the body’s position. And the photojournalist captures great negative space that complemented the figure; this could definitely be considered art as easily as it is outstanding photojournalism. Rodrigo Abd’s “Guatemala Gangs” is another noteworthy photograph; the red of the blood is so visually striking and the way in which the photograph was shot almost lends such a horrific even gracefulness.

I also can’t resist (post-Super Tuesday and all) to note Pete Souza’s photograph of Sen. Barack Obama climbing up the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Not only are all of the intricate architectural elements complementary and detailed (especially in black and white, creating really compelling figure-ground), but as far as a photograph’s capability for visual storytelling, this is practically a metaphor for conquering Washington.