The Big Picture blog has three posts of the year in pictures, celebrating photography of all styles and subject matter this year. From war to nature, the profound to the mundane, getting a great shot is what photographers strive for.
Theyear 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look backover the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections wereheld in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down whileothers escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weavingtogether into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story,120 photographs over three days. Please watch for part 2 and part 3 tomorrow and the next day. (40 photos total)
Theyear 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look backover the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections wereheld in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down whileothers escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weavingtogether into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story,120 photographs over three days. Please watch for part 2 and part 3 tomorrow and the next day. (40 photos total)
VertieHodge, 74, weeps during an Inauguration Day party near Martin LutherKing, Jr. Blvd. in Houston on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 after PresidentBarack Obama delivered his speech after taking the oath of office,becoming the first black president in the United States. (APPhoto/Houston Chronicle, Mayra Beltran) #
Agroup of Common Cranes gather in dawn light, on their night-roost on alake in the German state of Brandenburg, close to Berlin September 26,2009. From September to November tens of thousands of Cranes use therural area close to the German Capital for a stopover during theirmigration from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to their winteringquarters in Spain. (REUTERS/Thomas Krumenacker) #
Soldiersfrom the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensivepositions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Talibanpositions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province, inthis May 11, 2009 file photo. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, TX, farleft was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from hissleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right isSpc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, LA and Jordan Custer of Spokane, WA,center. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) #
Aman walks his dog through Observatory Hill near Sydney on September 23,2009 as Australia's biggest city is shrouded in an eerie blanket of reddust. Sydney's cars and buildings turned orange as strong winds blewdesert dust across the city, snarling commuter and air transport andprompting a warning for children and the elderly to stay indoors. (GREGWOOD/AFP/Getty Images) #
BrazilianFormula One driver Felipe Massa of Scuderia Ferrari is carried from hiscar after being struck in the head by a piece of bodywork that fellfrom another car during the qualifying session at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod near Budapest on July 25, 2009. Massa was airliftedto hospital and underwent surgery on his fractured skull. (TAMASKOVACS/AFP/Getty Images) #
APphotographer Emilio Morenatti takes pictures as he is carried on astretcher out of the University of Maryland Medical Center's R AdamsCowley Shock Trauma Center to be transferred to the Kernan Orthopaedicsand Rehabilitation Hospital in Baltimore, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2009.Morenatti, whose left foot was amputated after a bomb blast inAfghanistan, was transferred Tuesday to a rehabilitation hospital inBaltimore, where he will be fitted for a prosthesis. (AP Photo/EnricMarti) #
Arescuer holding a two-year-old child tries to close a window on thegirl's suicidal father who is trying to jump from the eighth floor ofan apartment block in Chengdu, Sichuan province, July 7, 2009. Rescuersmanaged to distract the man while another snatched the girl and broughther to safety. The man, who later tested positive for drugs, wasarrested and taken into custody, according to China Daily.(REUTERS/China Daily) #
Demonstratorscharge through a street in London during protests to coincide withThursday's G20 summit meeting April 1, 2009. Demonstrators clashed withriot police and smashed bank windows in Britain's financial centre onWednesday ahead of a G20 meeting in protest against a system they saidhad robbed the poor to benefit the rich. (REUTERS/Dylan Martinez) #
Australiansurfer Mark Visser surfs an 11 m (36 ft) wave at Cow Bombie, near theWest Australian town of Gracetown, 280km (174 mi) south of Perth,Australia in this photograph obtained September 28, 2009. Theorganisers claim that Visser had caught one of the biggest waves inAustralia for 2009. (REUTERS/Calum Macauley/Handout) #
Rowsof 7.62 mm bullets are shown, ready to be shot by Afghan National Armyrecruits as part of their daily training at the Kabul Military TrainingCenter in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 19, 2009. A massive effort isunderway to train thousands of new troops to join the fight against thevicious Taliban-led insurgency. But the task is hobbled by the lack ofmentors and high levels of illiteracy among the recruits. (APPhoto/Emilio Morenatti) #
Awoman shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote at a pollingstation in Sonapur, about 50 km (31 miles) from Guwahati, the majorcity of India's northeastern state of Assam April 23, 2009. Millions ofIndians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, voted in the largestdemocratic election in the world. (REUTERS/Utpal Baruah) #
Handoutpicture released June 8, 2009 by the Brazilian Navy showing diversrecovering a huge part of the rudder of the Air France A330 aircraftlost in midflight over the Atlantic ocean June 1st. At the time,seventeen bodies had been recovered from the Atlantic where an AirFrance jet came down. (AFP/Getty Images) #
Thebody of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader VellupillaiPrabhakaran is carried on a stretcher through a group of Sri Lankansoldiers at Nanthikadal lagoon, near the town of Mullaittivu innorthern Sri Lanka May 19, 2009. Sri Lanka's army chief said TamilTiger leader Prabhakaran's body was found on Tuesday, and Sri Lankan TVstations aired video of what appeared to be his corpse, with the top ofits head blown off. (REUTERS/Stringer) #
Amental patient named Totok reacts as he is given a shower at the Galuhfoundation house in East Bekasi, outskirt of Jakarta, Indonesia onOctober 23, 2009. The Galuh foundation house has housed more than 285underprivileged mental patients since it was founded in 1982 by GenduMulatip. (REUTERS/Beawiharta) #
Arecently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico borderfence expansion project crosses previously pristine desert sands atsunrise on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico,California. The new barrier between the US and Mexico stands 15 feettall and sits on top of the sand so it can lifted by a machine andrepositioned whenever the migrating desert dunes begin to bury it. Thealmost seven miles of floating fence cost about $6 million per mile tobuild. (David McNew/Getty Images) #
Militaryand forensic experts inspect the body of a man who was killed outside anightclub in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on August 31,2009. A man was handcuffed to a fence and shot several times by drughitmen outside a nightclub, according to local media. The assailantsalso left a warning message, known as "narco mensaje", at the site ofthe shooting. (REUTERS/Alejandro Bringas) #
Sixteen-month-oldAubrey Melton reaches for her father SSG Josh Melton as she views hisremains with her mother Larissa before his funeral service June 27,2009 in Germantown, Illinois. SSG Melton, who was serving inAfghanistan with the Illinois National Guard, was killed in Kandaharduring an IED attack June 19. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
More links and information
2009 in photos (part 2 of 3) Part two of The Big Picture Yearender (2009)
2009 in photos (part 3 of 3) Part three of The Big Picture Yearender (2009)
