Life Stories: Seeing The End

Since we're effectively "seeing the end" of 2010 today, I thought it would be an appropriate way to close out the year with the delightful story of 103-year-old hospital volunteer Lucille Pacaud produced by Phil Carpenter.

Naisi Zhao: The Mormon Missionary

A convert, Ms. Zhao, 21, has spent eight months proselytizing in Chinatown for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  An audio slideshow by Miki Meek and Todd Heisler.

The Congo's Children Of Rape

View Robin Hammond's compelling photo essay on the lost generation of babies growing up in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Unicef Photo Of The Year 2010

The winners of this year's Unicef Photo of the Year contest have been announced in Berlin. The prize is awarded to outstanding photos that best depict the personality and living conditions of children.

Approximately 4 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran and are now trying to settle down again in their home country. Among these refugees was the family of eight-year-old Akram shown in the image above by Majid Saeedi. His family had looked for shelter in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and Akram tried to make money by collecting scraps on a rubbish dump in the city. While rummaging through the rubbish, he accidentally touched a non-insulated cable, which caused severe burns. Both his hands and arms had to be amputated. Akram’s family have now returned to Kabul and he received arm prostheses thanks to the help of the International Red Cross

The Execution

A man executed but saved by the Amnesty Inernational petitions signatures...your signature is more powerful than you think.

2010: The Year In Pictures

Memorable images from 2010 as published in The New York Times.  In the image below by Damon Winter, a body lay on the sidewalk in Port-au-Prince on January 14 covered in dust from a collapsed building.

Santa Safari

Fred Conrad went on safari this season to track down the true Santa Claus. He found whole herds of them, but which one was real? Finally it dawned on him that everyone he’d seen was the real Santa, because Santa is whomever we want him to be.

Take Care

Take Care offers a glimpse into the life of Virginia Gandee, a 22-year-old woman who lives in Staten Island, New York.

At first glance one is struck by Virgina's bold appearance; her bright red hair and the dozen tattoos that canvas her body. When she was 15, Gin left home to marry a 20-year-old she met online. Two years later, she was a teenage mother. Today, Gin is raising her daughter as a single mother and pursuing her dream to become a nurse.

Take Care is a story about family, choices and reconciliation.

Memorable Moments Of 2010: Sports

The images in this New York Times Lens album remind us that once divorced from greed, drugs, nationalism and corporate machination, sports are about human capacity, performance and endurance.  Photo below by Chang Lee.

Education In The Mangroves

Since the end of World War 2, the world has lost approximately 50% of its mangroves, mainly as a result of destruction by humans for coastal developments.  Found mainly in the tropics and subtropics, mangroves are a unique species of trees and shrubs that thrive in saltwater. They are valued for their ability to protect coastlines, harbor wildlife and have a nutrient base on a par with the rainforests.  

Photographer and videographer Sean Gallagher travels to South-East China to report on a project aiming to save the remaining pockets of mangroves in China, on assignment for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The Travel Photographer's Best Of 2010

Today I found out that I have been accepted into The Travel Photographer's Kolkata Cult of Durja photo expedition/workshop to be held in the Fall of next year.  What better way to celebrate than to present a slideshow of The Travel Photographer's best images of 2010.

Unexpected, Unusual, Underexposed: The Most Surprising Images of 2010

Images you might have missed but should see now from Time Magazine.

Prayers Of The Disinherited

While depictions of conventional middle-class religion are widely visible, rarely seen are the sacred worlds of society’s marginalized: the outcasts, the fallen, those that have been labeled “other” - ironically, those for whom religion was first formed. “Golden States of Grace” aims to give image and voice to some of those whom are active parts of our nation’s diverse religious landscape, but who because of the world, society, or their own actions, may have been silenced, and now worship as a means of finding refuge, family or of forging community.

Using California as the lens, “Golden States of Grace”, posted on the socialdocumentary.net website, highlights eleven marginalized communities at prayer in eight different faith traditions. Through photographs, oral histories, and actual prayer, this work represents groups who are reinventing time-honored modes of worship, pushing their respective traditions into the 21st century. 

Kumb Mela Sadhus

Ken Hermann is a freelance photographer from Denmark who posted a gallery of sadhu portraits on the Behance Network.  I remember photographing similar Hindu holy men during my trips to Nepal and being mesmerized by their captivating stare.

Tibetans In India

Christian Bobst is a documentary photographer based in Switzerland.  Christian produced a slideshow about Tibetan refugees who are living in exile in India where they are allowed to have their own administration, schools, temples and medical system. 

Home On The Water: Louisiana's Disappearing Coast

Long before the BP oil spill, the environment and residents of southeast Louisiana have been exploited and abused. In this multimedia piece, Kael Alford describes her five year journey to document the coast of Louisiana and the devastating impacts that the oil and gas industry has had on the environment and communities there. She describes the attachment residents feel toward their landscape and heritage.

El Rey: East Los Angeles' Mariachis

This is a delightful mini documentary featuring Mariachis musicians in East Los Angeles produced by Drea Cooper and Zackary Canepari. The piece features Mariachi musicians who gather on corners of the streets of East Los Angeles looking for work, whether in birthday parties, in cafes, restaurants, quinceañeras, weddings and the like.

Echolilia: A Father's Photographic Conversation With His Autistic Son

Timothy Archibald's eldest son was born in 2001 and diagnosed with autism five years later.  At that time, Timothy began making photographs as a way to find some common ground and attempt to understand his son.

The Best Photos From The Pages Of Time 2010

A gallery of images that shaped our world.  The image below from the Port-au-Prince cemetery was photographed by Shaul Schwarz.

Tracking Smugglers

Border agents in New Mexico rely on tracking skills borrowed from Native Americans to intercept drug smugglers who cross the border on foot. It's a 75-mile walk to a drop point on Interstate 10.

Underneath The Surface: Modern Day Slavery From Phnom Penh To Portland

Underneath the Surface chronicles the journey of a young woman’s discovery of a sex trafficking ring in a Cambodian orphanage, and the sex trade in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Her passion for raising awareness of trafficking compels her to travel to Cambodia and come face to face with the sex trade. Armed with the realization that sex slavery is a worldwide epidemic that occurs even in the U.S., she is determined to make a change.

Children Of Darfur

Award-winning photojournalist Ron Haviv has produced images of conflict and humanitarian crises, including Darfur, that have made headlines from around the world since the end of the Cold War.

Grave Digging For Mugabe

On the same day that President Robert Mugabe declared cholera did not exist in Zimbabwe, photojournalist Robin Hammond secretly entered a hospital teeming with men, women, and children fighting for life, many on the verge of succumbing to the infection.

All My Enemies

Battle lines between rival gangs and ethnic groups are resulting in a movement of people and a new formation of the old problem of gang violence.  Watch this video by Ron Haviv, a photojournalist with VII.

DR Congo: The Forgotten War

Ron Haviv's look at life in Eastern Congo and the work of Doctors Without Borders' attempt to make a difference.

Climbing a Thousand Hills

In May 2009 Phil Carpenter went to Rwanda to teach journalism and take a look at how Rwanda had changed in the 15 years since the 1994 genocide.

Circumambulation

Circumambulation of temples or deity images is an integral part of Hindu ritual. It is also practiced in Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.  Watch the following video by Robert van Koesveld, a high school art teacher living in Perth, Australia. 

A Forgotten Existence

In the remote countryside of Vietnam, lies small populations of people with disabilities from Leprosy.  Having survived a history of persecution, they were exiled and forgotten. These people live a difficult life with little funds and contact from the outside world.

Burma Through The Lens Of Andrea Burman

Andrea Johnson is an award-winning photojournalist serving the wine and spirits, food, and travel industries. Over the last decade, she has produced a compelling body of work for corporate, advertising, editorial, and fine art clients around the globe. Take a look at her photographs of Burma in the above movie, which she made earlier this year.

Digital Camera Magazine's Photographer Of The Year 2010 Competition

Digital Camera magazine's Photographer of the Year 2010 competition attracted more than 114,000 online entries from 123 countries. The overall winner and the winning images in each category will be announced on December 7 on Digital Camera magazine’s sister website, www.PhotoRadar.com. In this picture gallery, a sampling of some of the short-listed images is published. 

Southern Sudan: A Shaky Place

In the photo below, passage to manhood is literally incised on Majiek Gai Chan's face. Because Sudan's civil wars have claimed so many men, scarification is now performed on boys in the Nuer tribe as young as 12, instead of the traditional 15 to 18.  View the rest of the  images by George Steinmetz for National Geographic.