10)From Beauty Speaks: Portraits of 31 Former Miss USA Pageant Queens, posted June 20, 2011.
Judi (Anderson) Harrison, 52
Year crowned: 1978
On how she got into pageants: "Someone followed me around at party and told me I had a beautiful smile and that I should try out for Miss Hawaii USA. He was a dentist. Back then, it was, what you see is what you get. I didn't have a coach or someone to tell me what to wear or what to say. I wore a muumuu type dress with leis that my mom had designed."
Photographed on June 18, 2011.Susan Anderson for TIME
After an epic news year, it’s hard to believe that LightBox is less than a year old. Since the New Year is a fitting time for resolutions and self-assessments, we wanted to look back at which posts our readers viewed the most in 2011.
We began LightBox with the idea of engaging readers in a dialogue about the culture of photography and educating people on how images are made. Herewith, a countdown of our most popular posts.
Please let us know what you’d like to see more of in 2012. We thank you for visiting the blog and look forward to your continued support in the New Year. Our resolution is to bring you even more great photography in 2012, and continue to inspire and inform you each day.
Cheers,
The Editors of LightBox
PS: Look out for a special New Year’s Eve post that will go live at midnight!
10)From Beauty Speaks: Portraits of 31 Former Miss USA Pageant Queens, posted June 20, 2011.
Judi (Anderson) Harrison, 52
Year crowned: 1978
On how she got into pageants: "Someone followed me around at party and told me I had a beautiful smile and that I should try out for Miss Hawaii USA. He was a dentist. Back then, it was, what you see is what you get. I didn't have a coach or someone to tell me what to wear or what to say. I wore a muumuu type dress with leis that my mom had designed."
Photographed on June 18, 2011.Susan Anderson for TIME9)From Below The Line: Portraits of American Poverty, posted November 17, 2011.
Eric, 3, lives with two siblings, their mother and grandparents in a trailer park for migrant farm workers in Firebaugh, Calif. His grandmother regularly walks two miles with him to pick up free food from the local community center to supplement the family’s $350/week income.Joakim Eskildsen for TIME8)From Afghanistan: The Photographs That Moved Them Most, posted October 7, 2011.
James Nachtwey, November 22, 2001.
"The carefully negotiated hand-over of the city of Kunduz might be as good a reference as any to comprehend the reality of peace agreements in Afghanistan. Located in the north, near Uzbekistan, Kunduz was the last major stronghold of the Taliban following its withdrawal from Kabul. It had been under siege by the Northern Alliance, and an agreement was forged in which Taliban fighters would surrender in exchange for safe passage, and the city would be occupied by the alliance.
For a couple of days, the Taliban began to drive out to their enemy’s lines and relinquish their weapons. On the appointed day, a large convoy of Northern Alliance troops moved forward. As it entered the city center, the remaining Taliban fighters opened fire from every direction. Chaos ensued. Both incoming and outgoing fire, from assault rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers was so dense and haphazard, one was as dangerous as the other, no matter which side you happened to be on. It was impossible to figure out where to take cover. Survival would be a matter of luck, and every moment carried the expectation of being hit.
When the shooting was finished, the dead and dying were scattered about the streets. This Taliban fighter had been shot in the stomach and was slowly and painfully slipping away. The peaceful hand-over was later trumped by the guarantee of safe passage, in which dozens of Taliban who had turned themselves in were suffocated to death in the shipping container that was supposedly being used to transport them to a secure location."James Nachtwey for TIME7)From 9/11: The Photographs That Moved Them Most, posted September 8, 2011.
Kent Kobersteen, former Director of Photography of National Geographic.
"The pictures are by Robert Clark, and were shot from the window of his studio in Brooklyn. Others shot the second plane hitting the tower, but I think there are elements in Clark's photographs that make them special. To me the wider shots not only give context to the tragedy, but also portray the normalcy of the day in every respect except at the Towers. I generally prefer tighter shots, but in this case I think the overall context of Manhattan makes a stronger image. And, the fact that Clark shot the pictures from his studio indicates how the events of 9/11 literally hit home. I find these images very compelling—in fact, whenever I see them they force me to study them in great detail."Robert Clark—INSTITUTE6)From TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2011, posted December 7, 2011.
With photography, it's always a moment. You get it, or you miss it. This was on the front lines near Ras Lanuf, Libya. It was near an oil refinery factory that was important for both sides—both the rebels and government. I took this picture on March 11, when Gaddafi's military could still fly, and they were flying around, dropping bombs on the rebels. It was really scary for everybody on the front lines—suddenly, you could hear the plane coming and the bombs hitting their targets. These men were the shabab, young people who weren't professional fighters and didn't have weapons or training. They're not rebels, but eager to be on the front lines. They're jumping because they heard the planes coming, so they're running around trying to find any place to hide, which is hard because everything is flat and exposed. You can see from the picture that none of them have any weapons—they were scared—and it was just an incredible experience to be there.Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME5)From The Protester: A Portfolio by Peter Hapak, posted December 14, 2011.
Ahmed Harara is a Cairo dentist who was blinded in one eye by a rubber bullet during clashes in January. In November, he was shot in his other eye. Now he is completely blind. "As they say in America, power of the people will change everything," Harara says.Peter Hapak for TIME4)From Our Beautiful Planet: Images from Space by an Astronaut Photographer, posted June 9, 2011.
Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. May 17, 2011
ESA/NASA3)From In a Private Light: Diana Walkers Photos of Steve Jobs, posted October 6, 2011.
Jobs sits in his Woodside, Calif., home in 1982.
Diana Walker for TIME2)From Revisiting 9/11: Unpublished Photos by James Nachtwey, posted September 7, 2011.
“Even as the sun was going down, firemen continued to fan out through the vast wreckage. By then, I’m sure they realized there was a slim chance of finding anyone still alive, but if they could find only one, they’d give it everything they had.”James Nachtwey for TIME1)From TIME Picks the Most Surprising Photos of 2011, posted December 12, 2011.
November 8, 2011. A sedated black rhino is carried by military helicopter away from a poaching area in the hills of the Eastern Cape in South Africa to a new home 15 miles away. The World Wildlife Fund organized the move of 1,000 rhinos, which are under threat from poachers across Africa because of the market value of their horns.Green Renaissance—EPA
