A protester in Sanabis, Bahrain, was engulfed in flames when a shot fired by a police officer hit a gasoline bomb in his hand during clashes between antigovernment demonstrators and security forces.
What initially struck me with this photograph was the sheer vibrancy of the flames. It isn't very often--at least, for me it isn't-- that you see these sort of explosion-induced flames in any sort of real world situation. My attention was immediately drawn to the hovering ball of fire, and it wasn't until after that I noticed the pair of legs emerging below it. To me, this was what made the photo absolutely stunning in the most horrific way. No matter how long you look at that ball of fire, you can't discern a human figure within it, but given the legs still safe from flames, you know that there has to be someone inside. I think this photo conveys an emotional appeal to the reader, especially given the story behind it. This photo shows a man's destructive devices turned against him, quickly destroying him instead. I think that in some sense, this photo is a really startling way of showing us how our lives can change in an instant.
Staff Sgt. Zebadiah Thomas, of C Company, 3-7 Infantry, watched a stairwell as his squad checked the rest of the house for a fleeing suspect.
The composition of this photo was what really got me. The vivid and colorful flowers pop against the white of the walls, and then in the middle of it stand a soldier with his gun raised. You can't really get more opposition than that. In general, flowers are symbols of beauty, life, and peace. The first time I looked at this image, I immediately thought of how hippies used to put flowers in the guns of soldiers, and in some ways, I feel like this photo is doing the same thing. Juxtaposing an image of war against one of life creates a sense of tension within the photograph, like they don't belong within the same room. I think this photo is an intimate one because not only are we given a look into someone's private residence, but we are also given a look into this one soldier's moment as he completes his duties. I think I want to know if the soldier understood the irony of the situation, too.
At least 10 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
I know there's a lot of people out there who think black and white photos are more powerful or compelling than color images, but honestly, it's photos like this that make me think otherwise. There's so much that photojournalists accomplish with the color composition of their photos, and most of the time it's photos like this that grab my attention. What stuck out to me was the way the color of the flames match the color of the woman's clothing, and the way the bright white of the ground contrasted with the dark smoke rising from the car. This is both an intimate and emotional image. We can't see the woman's face, but by her posture, we can tell that she's grieving and in disbelief of the devastation that has just occurred. By capturing the wreckage, the photographer makes an emotional appeal to the reader, and in capturing this woman in such a heartbreaking moment, the photographer brings the reader closer to the subject.
A cloud of smoke and ash fills the sky after the eruption of the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile. The eruption, which began May 2, spewed incandescent material and blasted ash some 20 miles into the Andean sky, forcing authorities into a complete evacuation of the area.
By this point, I've realized that all of the photos I've chosen are images of things that I just wouldn't see in everyday life-- and let's face it, everyday life wouldn't make such an interesting photo gallery. Anyway, that's why I picked this photo. It's just so incredible, and unlike anything I've ever seen. I love that way the sunlight breaks through the huge cloud of smoke and ash, the way the cloud divides the image, and the way the houses at the bottom are so untouched by the event happening right behind them. This photo touches on the emotions of the reader because it gives us a scope of the power of nature, and how it can create something so awe-inspiring, but at the same time, so incredibly destructive.
Disputed Presidential elections in December of 2007 led to a months-long explosion of violence throughout Kenya's western Rift Valley. Initial political protests aroused latent ethnic, economic and land disputes, shattering the relatively stable east African nation with some of the worst violence since independence in 1963. As rioting and tribal killings intensified in the provincial capital of Nakuru, looters were caught and beaten by private security guards in the weeks after the elections.
I looked at the photo gallery that this image was featured in, but no matter which other pictures I looked at, my mind kept coming back to this one. If I may play the part of the broken record, again it's the colors that really stand out in this one. Surprise, surprise. I guess that's just kind of my thing. In this picture, it's the way the blood in his mouth and the whites of his eyes stand out against the dusty brown all around him. This is an extremely intimate and emotional photo. It captures this man in a moment of absolute terror, the subject of a harsh act of violence that most of us will never have to endure. Personally, it leaves me wondering what happened to the subject of the photo. Did he live, or was his fate much worse than what's pictured in this photograph?
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