Hottest Month On Record
ReutersA dog is seen on a swimming board at dog beach and bar in Crikvenica, Croatia during July, 2016, which has been marked as the hottest month in recorded history. Whether you believe that global warming is just part of the earth’s cycle or a manmade nightmare, the facts are what they are: The earth is warming up.
Attack On Turkish Wedding Party
A shocking photo that brings the reality of loss home. Dozens and dozens of Graves are prepared as family and friends attend a funeral for the victims of a suicide bombing. The terror happened at a wedding celebration in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, Turkey in August of 2016.
A Critical Emergency
Reuters
Here we see a man as he clings to the top of a vehicle, moments from certain death. He was barely rescued in time by the U.S. Coast Guard from the devastation of flooded streets in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina leveled the city in 2005.
Photographer’s commentary: I arrived in New Orleans three days after the hurricane struck, and was flown via a Coast Guard four-seat airplane from Alexander, Louisiana to the U.S. Coast Guard Station in New Orleans. Unable to see anything other than the death and destruction visible through the open door, we began circling and descending and suddenly I saw a man, dressed in khakis, tennis shoes and shirtless, looking desperately toward us from the top of the van in rising flood water. With the helicopter rotating closer, he rolled to his side and clung to the top of the vehicle. Moments later a rescue swimmer loaded him into a basket and he was raised into the helicopter. We then flew to Louis Armstrong Airport, where he was placed on a stretcher and provided medical attention. It was odd to see someone, six days after the hurricane struck, sitting on top of the van, a tall can of Budweiser beer and a broom nearby, visible in other pictures that were filed. When he entered the helicopter, he asked of my camera, “What’s that?”
The Great Recession
Reuters
A group of staff members are summoned to a meeting room at the Lehman Brothers offices in the financial district of Canary Wharf in London in September of 2008 during the the days after stock market crash and financial crisis. It’s not everyday you get to see the actual moment when the stuff hits the fan.
The Face Of Grief
Reuters
A woman reveals her intense grief as she’s unable to find her 4-year-old daughter while standing upon the ruins of her child’s destroyed school. The Sichuan province of China was devastated by a major 8.0 earthquake on May 17, 2008 that left 70,000 people dead, 18,000 more missing, and an incredible 374,176 injured.
The Color Of Nature
Reuters
The Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights as most people know them are one of the world’s most beautiful natural events. In this image we see an ash plume from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano from April 22, 2010.
Photographer’s commentary: “The ash cloud brought the greatest disruption to European air travel since World War II, and the only way to get to Iceland was to fly from North America. I travelled overnight, arriving at Keflavik airport at 6:30 a.m. on April 17. In a rented car I drove east towards the ash plume on the horizon. The scale of the assignment had begun to sink in, and I realized it would require careful thinking, rather than instant reaction. For images of the eruption itself I was dependent on the weather. The plume would be invisible if it was overcast, and if the wind died the ash would turn to a haze. For a photograph of lightning flashing inside the ash cloud I had to wait for several hours on a washed-out road, and physically hold my shutter open for more than two minutes.”
Opposites, But Also Similar
ReutersThe Olympics are awesome because the world gets to see people from every country in the same place at the same time. One of the things that is so special is that we also get to see that we’re not so much different than each other. Here, Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany compete in the preliminary beach volleyball event. The stark contrast in this photo is a thing of beauty.
Making A Splash
Olympic swimmer Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania competes in the 100m breaststroke. While she didn’t medal in the event, this photo captured people’s imaginations from around the world.
The Look Of Fear
thisisinsider
The eyes of this woman describe the scene perfectly as she screams at a special evacuation policeman after the forces took over the roof-top of a synagogue in the Jewish Gaza Strip settlement of Kfar Darom in Gush Katif settlements bloc in 2005.
Photographer’s commentary: “One of the most hardcore spots of “resistance” against the forces coming to evacuate the settlers was this settlement called Kfar Darom. The settlers and many of their supporters were barricaded on the roof of the synagogue and the picture was taken after special forces came to take them down in containers lifted by cranes. Before it happened I spent a week getting to know the people so that I could get their permission to go with them onto the roof. I think the power of this picture is that this situation is quite bizarre as on one hand it shows the boiling point of something that had been building up for months and was supposed to explode but on the other there was no violence at all; just some strange moments because at the end of the day there was very much of a feeling of brotherhood on both sides.”
Refugee
thisisinsider
An immigrant crawls on the beach after his arrival on a makeshift boat on the Gran Tarajal beach in Spain’s Canary Island of Fuerteventura on May 5, 2006.
Photographer’s commentary: “I heard about a makeshift boat carrying migrants from Africa was on its way to the beach at Gran Tarajal, south of the island of Fuerteventura so I rushed there. When I arrived, the migrants, who risk their lives trying to reach European soil in flimsy boats, were being treated by members of the Spanish Red Cross who were providing them with clothes and water. They were exhausted from their perilous journey. The strength of this image is that it shows the contrasts in our society: on one side of the photograph you have people who seem to be enjoying the sun on the beach and on the other a man crawling through the sand after risking his life at sea.”
Remembrance
A young woman visits her dead brother. Lesleigh Coyer, 25, of Saginaw, Michigan, lies down in front of the grave of her brother who served with the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The grave of Ryan Coyer is at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, he died of complications from an injury sustained in Afghanistan.
All Hail
MSNBC
North Korea is a country of contrasts. The people have little to nothing and must show unending love and reverence to their tyrannical leaders, as this photo illustrates. As the city lays in the dark under a government controlled blackout, one light remains. A portrait of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-Sung is illuminated on the side of a building in the capital Pyongyang early on Oct. 5, 2011.
Help
Reuters
More than 1,600 people were killed and the lives of 12 million more were disrupted by intense flooding in the Punjab province in Pakistan in August of 2010. Flood victims attempt to grab the side bars of an army helicopter full of supplies. These desperate Pakistanis threw themselves at the helicopters as more heavy rain was expected.
Gulf War
Oil fire fighters from “Boots and Coots” attempt to douse an oil-well fire after the Saddam Hussein regime set fire to the oil wells of Kuwait ablaze on March 30, 1991.
Photographer’s commentary: “The workers were trying to contain the flames with a shield and tube when a blast of heat blew off the helmet of one of the workers.The flames seem to dwarf the workers, who look almost helpless as they struggle against what looks like the very flames of hell.To get access to the fires we had to drive through a lake of oil created from the wells. Once we got there, the heat was so intense that you we could not get close. A slight change of wind and we’d be covered in choking fumes.It was 1991, the pre-digital age, and I was using Nikon F3P to transmit the picture. I had to return to my hotel room, process film, make a colour print, stick a paper-typed caption on the print and use a drum transmitter to send the picture. Initially we transmitted pictures on our satellite phone – which was as big as a large trunk suitcase that two people had to carry as it was so heavy.”
Freedom
Reuters
Nelson Mandela, accompanied by his soon-to-be ex-wife Winnie, walks out of the Victor Verster prison near Cape Town after spending 27 years in apartheid jails on Feb. 11, 1990. By the time they were divorced in 1995, the world got a glimpse of a man stuck with a gold-digging, power hungry woman who was cheating on her husband.
Fukushima
Reuters
On March 13, 2011, the world watched in horror as a a mega-earthquake rocked Japan. Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama. It was the biggest earthquake to ever hit Japan as it also triggered a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path.
A New Home
Reuters
Fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, refugee’s walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar Mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in 2014. The Islamic State, which had declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, prompted tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians to flee for their lives during their push to within a 30-minute drive of the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
A Piece Of Cinematic History
May 25, 2016 – A man holds an item that all Star Wars fans would love to own: a replica of Darth Vader’s melted helmet from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Located in the Propshop headquarters at Pinewood Studios near London, Britain, workers construct replicas that eventually will be available for sale to the public.
Rock N Roll Can Never Die
The late Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister of Motorhead lead a life that epitoized the rock n roll lifestyle. The hard-living, hell-raising frontman of British heavy metal band Motorhead, died in 2016 at age 70 after recently being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.
Fallen Hero
One time funny man Bill Cosby fell hard from his lofty heights in the comedy hall of fame. The one time cuddly Mr. Huxtable from the Cosby Show has since become the face of a monster. Pennsylvania prosecutors said that Cosby has been charged with sexual assault in connection with an incident in 2004.
Fighting ISIS
August 04, 2016 -Fighters of Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government fire a rocket at Islamic State fighters in Sirte. ISIS continues to find support throughout the middle east regardless of growing international forces assembling to help freedom fighters.
Big Sur Burnout
The remains of what was once a motorcycle sits in front of a destroyed home after the Soberanes Fire burned through just north of Big Sur, California, July 31, 2016.
Buzz Aldrin
Astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) July 20, 1969.
Madman or Genius?
Donald Trump takes the stage during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 2016.