"The photo [of space shuttle Endeavour] was an unexpected hit that I took from almost 35,000 ft. over Florida, flying from New York City to Palm Beach with—of all things my—iPhone 3GS, and tweeted it out upon landing," says Stefanie Gordon. "I didn't realize the impact of the photo or the rounds it was making in social media until a few hours later when I looked at my Twitter mentions and all the personal messages I was receiving on Facebook. Next thing I knew, I was being interviewed by media outlets from all over the world, and my photo was on almost every evening news program. I am still in search for that perfect job that many thought would be offered to me after the photo caught fire."Stefanie Gordon—AP
Spontaneous snapshots. Intimate moments. Unexpected exposures. There was no one formula for this year’s most viral photographs. Most were based on news events, such as the death of longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi—but these photos ended up becoming the news themselves. They shocked us. They awed us. They inspired us to feel. But the most powerful feeling was the impulse to share.
The best viral images of 2011 are those we found flooding our email inboxes and Twitter feeds this year. One thing weaves the images together: each photographer netted a once-in-a-lifetime picture. From Royal Wedding mania and a bloodied despot to an utterly unexpected leopard on the loose, photographers both professional and amateur brought us the scenes of unpredictability and chaos that gripped our world over the past 12 months. As shocking as the subject matter is the simplicity of some images. A few came from mobile phones. Most were snapped without a thought of—or time to handle—composition or lighting. One was even taken by a man who would be dead minutes later.
Given that the Internet is a notoriously fickle beast, it’s impossible to predict which photos will score a hit. Here, LightBox looks back on the photos we couldn’t help but share. —Nick Carbone
Seconds after taking this picture of his smiling family outside his Manila home, in the early hours of New Years day, councilman Reynaldo Dagsa was shot dead. The police did not have to look far for evidence of the killer's identity. The assassin and his accomplice had inadvertently been photographed in the background of the last image taken by the politician—his gun directly aimed at his victim—from behind a parked car, the barrel highlighted by the camera's flash.
Amid the traditional exploding firecrackers Dagsa's relatives had not heard the gunshot that killed him-- they simply saw him collapse after he was hit. He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. Later when they looked at the photo he had taken of them, his family realized that the 35-year-old Dagsa had photographed his own murder in the act.
The photograph, taken just after midnight on 1 January, was released by Dagsa's family on 4 January. It was published on the front page of The Philippine Daily Inquirer and then quickly went viral. The picture also led to the arrest of two suspects, gunman Michael Gonzales and accomplice Rommel Olivia. Dagsa Family—Handout/ReutersThe intimate close up, literally touching, cell phone image of two holding hands brought a national issue down to the simplest of forms. The hands belong to astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords. The photograph taken on Jan 9, 2010 was the first to be released by the Giffords family after she was shot in the head at point-blank range by gunman Jared Loughner at a public meeting outside a supermarket in Tucson. Prior to the shooting Giffords had been depicted on Republican Sarah Palin's website between the crosshairs of a gun sight. "When people do that they have to realize there are consequences to that action," Giffords stated at the time. Her recovery has been closely tracked by the American public, and Giffords was even there to witness her husband's Endeavour space shuttle launch on May 16, 2011.U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office—Handout/ReutersThe world celebrated the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton with parades and parties, but for one key participant, the festivities were a little too much. Three-year-old Grace Van Cutsem, one of the bridesmaids, could not handle the roar of the crowd beneath the balcony at Buckingham Palace and covered her ears to block out the noise. The photo of her reaction became an instant internet sensation, rapidly morphing
into a meme for all occasions. Readers of websites like Buzzfeed
pasted her into their own photos, A Tumblr page was created
while others used her face as the
focal point of videos posted to Youtube.Dylan Martinez—ReutersUploaded to the White House's official Flickr feed on May 2, the day after the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death, this photo accrued over 1.5 million views in its first 38 hours on line, according to the website, TechCrunch. Readers focused on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's reaction, leading her to answer one reporter's query,
"Those were 38 of the most intense minutes..I have no idea what any of us were looking at at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken....I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs," she said. "So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever." The image proved popular for the photoshoopers of the internet, as a variety of pop figures, as well as faces both familiar and obscure, found their way into the scene.Pete Souza—The White House/ZUMA"The photo [of space shuttle Endeavour] was an unexpected hit that I took from almost 35,000 ft. over Florida, flying from New York City to Palm Beach with—of all things my—iPhone 3GS, and tweeted it out upon landing," says Stefanie Gordon. "I didn't realize the impact of the photo or the rounds it was making in social media until a few hours later when I looked at my Twitter mentions and all the personal messages I was receiving on Facebook. Next thing I knew, I was being interviewed by media outlets from all over the world, and my photo was on almost every evening news program. I am still in search for that perfect job that many thought would be offered to me after the photo caught fire."Stefanie Gordon—APConservative blogger Andrew Breitbart published this photograph of Congressman Anthony Weiner on his website, Bigjournalism.com, from where it spread across the internet.
Breibart posted the image in response to Weiner's denials that he had tweeted a lewd pictures of himself on Twitter. Because of its graphic nature, the photo was not widely reproduced on mainstream media websites (and will thus not be re-printed here), but this subsequent shot, showing a shirtless Weiner seated in front of a computer, gained wide currency at the same time. Apparently sent by Weiner to a Texas woman a few weeks before the more explicit image became public, it, too, first surface on Breitbart's site and increased the pressure on Weiner, who subsequently acknowledged sending the images and on June 16 announced his resignation from Congress.BigGovernment.com/APWhen the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanely Cup finals to the Boston Bruins on their home ice on June 15, local fans took out their frustration in the streets, by rioting, looting and setting fire to cars. During the rampage, Getty photographer Rich Lam captured this image of one couple laying on the ground, seemingly engaged in a romantic moment. The surprising juxtaposition and its metaphorical resonance—make love, not war—made it an internet sensation in the days after it was released.
At first, it was suggested that the photo was a fake, but Lam was able to provide before and after frames that disproved that; but even after the fact, he was not entirely sure what he had witnessed. "It was complete chaos," he said. Eventually, it became clear that the young woman, later identified as Alexandra Thomas, had been knocked down by the surging
crowd. Her boyfriend a 29-year-od Australian named Scott Jones had come to her aid. Part of comforting her, the couple explained on a Today show appearance a few days later, was a brief kiss.Rich Lam—Getty ImagesOn July 19 and 20, hundreds of websites, featured an extraordinary series of photos of a frightened leopard that had strayed into the small Indian village of Prakash Nagar, mauling at least five people. After failing several times to tranquilize the animal, forest rangers captured it and took it to a veterinary center, where it died from injuries sustained during its rampage.Diptendu Dutta—AFP/Getty ImagesThe iconic photo to come from the London riots was taken by Amy Weston, a photographer with the London-based WENN photo agency. She had heard that there were fires in the Church Street area of Croydon on August 8 and headed that way. “By the time I drove toward it, I could already see the fires from my windscreen,” she says. “There were six or seven people screaming and crying outside, and they looked like they lived at the flats that were burning. A man in a white shirt was screaming that a girl was at the window and that she was ready to jump. He ran toward her, but riot police had appeared and pulled him back, and they went to her instead.”
Weston then made the photograph that quickly went viral on Twitter and landed on the front pages of many major British newspapers on Tuesday morning.
“As soon as she dropped, the crowds pushed back and there was no way to see what happened to her. I remember hearing people screaming that there were more people in the building,” Weston says. “The crowds started getting angry with each other, with one group blaming another group for starting the fire.”
Weston says she feared for her safety after taking the dramatic photograph. “I couldn’t get to my car, so I had to walk, wrapping my camera in my clothes to avoid being mugged."Amy Weston—WENN.comRumors and uncertainty surrounding the fate of Muammar Gaddafi began to circulate on the morning of October 20, 2011. This cell phone photograph taken by AFP/Getty's Philippe Desmazes was the first image of Gaddafi, taken after his capture, to come to the attention of Time's photo editors that morning. It showed the dictator wounded but certainly alive.
Similar video stills followed as the rumors began to build that Gaddafi was dead--a fact confirmed hours later by the NTC, and by a photo showing Gadaffi's lifeless body with what appeared to be a bullet wound to his temple.
The official line on the day that the dictator had died, was that he had been killed in crossfire, when his convoy came under attack (during a gun battle) as he was being driven/transported from his hometown of Sirt—where he had been captured earlier that day. Later cell phone and video images-- including close up footage allegedly showing Gaddafi's execution—began to bring this account into question.
Over the next days many more images of Gaddafi's body—as it lay on display in a freezer in Misrata—were distributed by the news agencies. One of the final grainy shots shows the dead dictator's corpse surrounded by hands, each holding a cell phone recording a personal trophy shot.Reproduction Philippe Desmazes—AFP/Getty ImagesOn Friday 18 November, Campus police at the University of California at Davis nonchalantly used pepper spray against students who sat peacefully on the school's quad to protest tuition increases. Online video and stills show the officers standing over the protesters and spraying them repeatedly at point blank range. "It was such an
intense feeling. It felt like acid was being poured on our faces" said 21-year-old student Sophia Kamran who was among those targeted. Two officers involved in the incident were later placed on administrative leave—while a task force has been put together to address the incident and the results of a report are awaited.
The episode at UC Davis followed controversial police deployments of pepper spray over the preceding days--- on 17 November against Occupy Portland participants in Pioneer Courthouse Square, and in another instance on 15 November when dozens of people including a pregnant woman and an 84-year-old activist were doused during the Occupy Seattle protests. Amidst much online debate, stills and footage in each case went viral--including this image from California by Wayne Tilcock. The YouTube video of the UC Davis incident alone reached more than 1.3 million views that weekend--while a number of creative and humorous reworkings of the images were also widely shared online.Wayne Tilcock—The Enterprise/AP
