2012: A Year of Deja Vu

4 minute read

In an age that, in many respects, is defined by photography, with millions upon millions of pictures being made every single day, it’s close to impossible for a photographer to produce a wholly original image. Someone—somewhere—has no doubt shot a similar photo from a similar angle in a similar way. Avoiding photographic clichés in such an environment, when everything is a cliché, becomes more and more difficult by the minute.

Then there are those times when the similarities between two (or more) images can be simply and even thrillingly uncanny.

Sometimes these similarities are purely coincidental; but occasionally, photographers purposefully return to a past subject and location to take a similarly composed photograph.

In 2011, Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder flew to Japan to record the devastating effects of the previous December’s tsunami and earthquake. One year later, he returned to the exact same spots as his previous photographs to show the progress made during recovery. Fellow Associated Press shooter Steve Rauke has photographed the dignified transfers of numerous U.S. servicemen at Dover Air Force base since 2009, serving as a constant reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made by our troops abroad.

Photographer Camilo José Vergara has photographed the poorest and most segregated communities in urban America for more than four decades, using photography as a way to understand and appreciate the spirit of those places and record neighborhoods as they change (or don’t change) over time.

But photo-driven déjà vu can take one by surprise, too. Triggered by images’ composition or content, pictures of divergent subjects in similar images can often seem like far more than mere coincidence. Unlikely connections in disparate photos can nag at us, even when the images are made years or many miles apart. And, of course, photographers working in different countries or on separate continents can have no idea that they’ve made an image nearly identical to another taken somewhere over the horizon, or on the other side of the world.

Perhaps our contemporary, collective déjà vu is trigged by the news cycle’s constant hunger for images. Photographers, after all, do sometimes document annual events — at the same time and place, year after year— as if nothing at all has ever changed, or ever will change, at that location.

Documentary photography, meanwhile, raises its own breed of déjà vu. Photojournalists often travel together and work side by side at the same event, documenting the same moment—seeing the same things, taking the same pictures. Even when working independently, photographers are not immune to conscious (or subconscious) mirroring, and the 20th century has provided a litany of masters—Cartier-Bresson, Klein, Evans and Frank come to mind—who have influenced entire generations of image makers. After all, we all want to pay homage to our forebears and our heroes. Is it so surprising when, paying tribute, we veer into imitation?

Even the most celebrated of photographers are not immune to this sincerest form of flattery.

In the book published alongside the Yale show “Walker Evans and Robert Frank,” Tod Papageorge writes of the influence of Evans’ American Photographs on Frank’s The Americans.

“Many of the matched photographs reproduced here obviously, and remarkably, echo one another; they demonstrate that, to a significant degree, Frank used Evans’ work as an iconographical sourcebook for his own pictures.”

With this gallery, TIME embarks on an anthropological dig through our collective visual memory, unearthing images from the last twelve months that awakened in us that singular, familiar sense that we’ve seen them somewhere before. Haven’t we?

The first 11 images in this gallery are taken on different dates by the same photographer — sometimes days, months or even a year apart. Left: July 1, 2011. Right: June 22, 2012. Kashmiri Muslim women pray as the head priest, unseen, displays a holy relic believed to be a hair from the beard of Prophet Mohammed, at the Hazratbal Shrine, on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. Dar Yasin—AP
Left: Feb. 8, 2011. Right: Feb. 8, 2012. College students watch a cheerleader at a rally in Tokyo. About 1,500 students from business schools attended the rally to boost their morale ahead of their job hunt.Kim Kyung-Hoon—Reuters
Left: June 8, 2011. A South Korean K1 tank fires smoke shells during a joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. in Paju, near the inter-Korean border. Right: June 25, 2012. South Korean Marine Corps' amphibious vehicles take part in a landing operation in the sea off Taean. Jung Yeon-Je—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Feb. 15, 2012. Right: Oct. 23, 2012. Italy's Member of the European Parliament Licia Ronzulli takes part with her daughter in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.Vincent Kessler—Reuters
Left: Nov. 1, 2011. Right: Nov. 1, 2012. A view of Nueva Esperanza cemetery during the Day of the Dead celebrations in Villa Maria, Lima. Each year people visit the cemetery, one of Latin America's largest, to honor the dead.Enrique Castro-Mendivil—Reuters
Left: May 14, 2012. A Kashmiri Muslim woman prays as a head priest, unseen, displays a relic, believed to be a hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad, during special prayers on the death anniversary of Abu Bakr Siddiq, the first Caliph of Islam at Hazratbal Shrine, on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. Right: June 18, 2012. A Kashmiri Muslim woman prays as a head priest, unseen, displays a relic, believed to be the hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammad at the Hazratbal Shrine on the outskirts of Srinagar, India.Mukhtar Khan—AP
Left: May 30, 2012. Right: June 19, 2012. An Afghan boy pushes a wheel on a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan.Ahmad Jamshid—AP
Left: Oct. 16, 2012. Right: Oct. 18, 2012. U.S. President Barack Obama walks to Air Force One at JFK Airport in New York City.Jason Reed—Reuters
Left: March 7, 2012. Right: March 30, 2012. Visitors react to the rotor wash of the Marine One helicopter as President Barack Obama takes off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.Charles Dharapak—AP
Left: June 18, 2012. Right: Oct. 22, 2012. Palestinian boys look through a hospital window at the bodies of Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip.Mohammed Salem—Reuters
Left: June 19, 2011. Right: June 20, 2012. A group of Afghan refugee youths are silhouetted against the sunset in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. Anjum Naveed—AP
The next 18 images feature different subjects captured in a similar aesthetic by different photographers. Left: April 12, 2011. A woman mourns as pigeon passes her at an entrance to the Oktyabrskaya station of the Minsk subway. Right: July 10, 2012.A dove flies over Cardinal Eugenio de Araujo Sales coffin, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro for 30 years, during a funeral service in Rio de Janeiro.Sergei Grits—AP | Marcelo Sayo—EPA
Left: June 14, 2011. A man stands next to a bronze component of a statue of Alexander the Great and his horse, Bucephalus, on the main square in Skopje, Macedonia. Right: May 8, 2012.A passerby photographs one of the dismantled pieces of 'Forever Marilyn', a sculpture by Seward Johnson, as it is prepared for removal from Pioneer Court in Chicago, Ill. Robert Atanasovski—AFP/Getty Images | Scott Olson—Getty Images
Left: March 9, 2012.A member of the Crystal Palace diving club dives during a training session in London. Right: June 2, 2012.Yu Wen competes during the 2nd China Pole Dance semi-final in Tianjin municipality.Stefan Wermuth—Reuters | Jason Lee—Reuters
Left: Nov. 7, 2011.People walk along the "Avenue of the Baobabs," a famous natural reserve in western Madagascar, near Morondava. Right: April 3, 2012.Supertrees which serve as vertical gardens stand tall in the almost completed 'Gardens by the Bay' in Singapore. Aline Ranaivoson—AFP/Getty Images | Wong Maye-E—AP
Left: March 30, 2011.Graduating students hold hands during their graduation ceremony at Rokugou junior high school in Sendai, Japan. Right: April 6, 2012.Two Catholic nuns hold hands during the Good Friday procession on the Via Dolorosa, retracing the route Jesus Christ walked to his crucifixion in Jerusalem. Yasuyoshi Chiba—AFP/Getty Images | Oliver Weiken—EPA
Left: Jan. 12, 2012. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is seen through a door before giving a press conference with Algerian Foreign Minister at the State Department in Washington, D.C. Right: Sept. 26, 2012.A painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and representing Mona Lisa is pictures behind a curtain during a preview presentation in a vault in Geneva, Switzerland.Jewel Samad—AFP/Getty Images | Denis Balibouse—Reuters
Left: May 1, 2011. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with other members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. Right: May 19, 2012.Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David, Md. Pete Souza—The White House
Left: Jan. 7, 2012.A demonstrator with the Occupy Movement rallies outside the presidential debates at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Right: Feb. 8, 2012.A man smokes a cigarette as he walks through a shaft of sunlight in 5-degree-Fahrenheit weather in Moscow. Eric Thayer—Reuters | Anton Golubev—Reuters
Left: Feb. 11, 2011.Kashmiri Muslims watch as an unseen priest shows a relic believed to be a hair from the beard of the Prophet Muhammed at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar. Right: May 13, 2012.Supporters of German soccer champions Borussia Dortmund celebrate their team during a parade through the streets of Dortmund, Germany.Tauseef Mustafa—AFP/Getty Images | Ina Fassbender—AFP/Getty Images
Left: July 6, 2012.Women wearing nylon masks chat as they rest on the shore during their visit to a beach in Qingdao, Shandong province, China. Right: Aug. 10, 2012.Women perform a show and record a video in support of Pussy Riot at Ostia Beach, near Rome, Italy. Aly Song—Reuters | Eidon Press—Zumapress.com
Left: May 17, 2011.A 22-year-old woman in a wedding gown is grabbed by Guo Zhongfan, a local community officer, as she attempts to kill herself by jumping out of a seven-story residential building in Changchun, China. Right: Oct. 16, 2012.Ivory Coast fans are evacuated onto the field as Senegalese supporters rampage in Dakar during Ivory Coast's African Cup of Nations qualifier against Senegal. China Daily/Reuters | Seyllou—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Aug. 24, 2012.The shadow of French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon falls on a wall during a meeting as part of the summer congress of the Left Party (Parti de Gauche) held in Saint-Martin-d'Heres, France. Right: Sept. 8, 2012.Shadows of South Korean KPOP girl group "Wonder Girls" is cast on the wall as they perform at their "Wonder Girls Wonder World" concert in Singapore.Jeff Pachoud—AFP/Getty Images | Wong Maye-E—AP
Left: March 1, 2012.The body of a man killed in a suspected drug-related execution lies along the path where he was shot in Acapulco, Mexico. Right: Oct. 13, 2012.A Free Syrian Army fighter illuminates the body of an unknown man killed by Syrian Army artillery shelling in the cemetery of Aleppo, Syria.John Moore—Getty Images | Maysun—EPA
Left: March 14, 2012.Iranian schoolgirls listens to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressing MPs during a parliamentary session in Tehran. Right: March 14, 2012.A pupil writes on the blackboard as he attends a math lesson at a local school based in the remote Russian village of Bolshie Khutora.Atta Kenare—AFP/Getty Images | Vasily Fedosenko—Reuters
Left: Jan. 23, 2012.Indonesian ethnic Chinese pray during Lunar New Year celebrations at Dharma Bakti temple in Jakarta, Indonesia. Right: Oct. 18, 2012.Two Syrian rebels take sniper positions at the heavily contested neighborhood of Karmal Jabl in central Aleppo, Syria. Dita Alangkara—AP | Javier Manzano—AFP/Getty Images
Left: March 11, 2011.A dead woman lies under a blanket near the stairs of her destroyed home in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, after Japan's biggest recorded earthquake hit its eastern coast. Right: Oct. 21, 2012.A Syrian man sleeps in the basement of a building for protection from Syrian government forces during shelling in Aleppo, Syria. David Guttenfelder—AP | Manu Brabo—AP
Left: May 30, 2012. The new headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. Right: Sept. 28, 2012. Construction cranes are seen from Jersey City, N.J., as they rise above clouds and rain at 1 World Trade Center in New York.Frank Rumpenhorst—Picture Alliance/DPA | Mel Evans—AP
Left: Feb. 12, 2012.A horse falls down as it pulls a skier during the "Kumoterki" race in Bukowina Tatrzanska, near Zakopane in southern Poland. The "Kumoterki" race, which marks the end of the annual Highlanders' Festival, is a competition involving riders, two on every sledge, pulled by horses. Right: Sept. 28, 2012.Afghan wrestlers compete in an impromptu ring arena in a field outside Herat. Kacper Pempel—Reuters | Aref Karimi—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Jan. 31, 2012. An artwork of a taxidermied Jack Russell terrier entitled "I'm Dead (2010)" is displayed during a media viewing of artist David Shrigley's first major UK exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. Right: Feb. 15, 2012.An Indian man pretends to be dead as he lays on a stretcher during a disaster drill to check the preparedness of various agencies in the event of a major earthquake in New Delhi. Olivia Harris—Reuters | Kevin Frayer—AP
The next 20 images depict the same subject taken at different times by different photographers, often days, months or a year apart. Left: May 2, 2012.Egyptian riot police eat ice cream while securing the courthouse where ex-President Hosni Mubarak received a verdict in his trial for charges related to the death of protesters in Cairo, Egypt. Right: Dec. 3, 2012.Riot policemen eat their lunch as they stand guard outside in front of Egypt's top court during a protest for supporters of President Morsi in Cairo.Manu Brabo—AP | Nasser Nasser—AP
Left: Dec. 20, 2011. Right: June 3, 2012. President Barack Obama sits aboard Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington.Haraz N. Ghanbari—AP | Joshua Roberts—Reuters
Left: Sept. 19, 2011.With one for each congressman in Brazil, 594 green brooms have been placed on Copacabana beach as a protest against corruption in Brazilian politics. The group Rio de Paz (Peace Rio) put up the brooms. Right: July 10, 2012.Members of Rio de Paz place brooms at Copacabana Beach as a form of protest—a total of 81 brooms symbolize the number of senators in Brazil.Fabio Motta—Agencia Estado/Zumapress.com | Sergio Moraes—Reuters
Left: Jan. 16, 2011. Right: Jan. 16, 2012. A man rides a horse through a bonfire in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain. Locals who own a horse ride through the village and pass through or next fires lit on the streets in honor of San Anton, the patron of the animals.Felipe Trueba—UPPA/Zumapress.com | Jasper Juinen—Getty Images
Left: April 24, 2011. Right: Oct. 9, 2012. North Korean soldiers look through a window at the Military Demarcation Line in the DMZ in Panmunjom, South Korea.Jeon Heon-Kyun—EPA
Left: Feb. 12, 2012.Riot police officers try to extinguish flames from a petrol bomb thrown by protestors outside the Greek parliament in Athens. Right: Sept. 26, 2012.A riot police officer is helped by a colleague after falling during clashes near Syntagma Square during a 24-hour labor strike in Athens. Thanassis Stavrakis—AP | Yorgos Karahalis—Reuters
Left: Oct. 28, 2012. Right: Oct. 31, 2012. Mirrors reflect the shattered buildings of the Karm al-Jabel district in Aleppo, Syria, after heavy fighting. Narciso Contreras—AP | Javier Manzano—AFP/Getty Images
Left: May 5, 2011.A boy plays with a tennis ball in front of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Right: May 1, 2012.Children play cricket on the demolished site of Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.Akhtar Soomro—Reuters | Mian Khursheed—Reuters
Left: Jan. 13, 2012. Right: Oct. 12, 2012. Tourists enjoy the weather and sun on the beach of Giglio Island near the stricken cruise liner Costa Concordia.Francesca Baldi—EPA | Max Rossi—Reuters
Left: Nov. 1, 2011. Right: Nov. 19, 2012. Hindu devotees take part in worship on the bank of Ganges river during the Chhath festival in Patna, India. During this ancient Hindu festival, rituals are performed to thank the Sun god for sustaining life on earth.Aftab Alam Siddiqui—AP
Left: Aug. 1, 2011. Right: Aug. 10, 2012. A devotee covered in motor oil takes a rest during celebrations honoring the patron saint of Managua, Santo Domingo de Guzman, in Managua, Nicaragua. Oswaldo Rivas—Reuters | Hector Retamal—AFP/Getty Images
Left: May 17, 2011. Right: June 4, 2012. Buddhist devotees carry candles while encircling a large Buddha statue during Vesak Day, an annual celebration of Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, at a temple in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok.Chaiwat Subprasom—Reuters | Dennis M. Sabangan—EPA
Left: Aug. 20, 2012. Right: Oct. 27, 2012. Indian Muslims offer prayers in the ruins of the Feroz Shah Kotla Mosque in New Delhi, India.Kevin Frayer—AP | Tsering Topgyal—AP
Left: June 11, 2011. Right: May 26, 2012. Pilgrims ride horses next to the shrine of El Rocio in the province of Huelva, southwest Spain.Marcelo del Pozo—Reuters | Javier Diaz—Reuters
Left: March 6, 2012.Newt Gingrich speaks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. Right: March 8, 2012.Rick Santorum speaks at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.Evan Vucci—AP | Ozier Muhammad—The New York Times via Redux
Left: Aug. 24, 2012.First lady Michelle Obama poses for pictures after speaking at a fundraising lunch for the charity Girls Inc., in Omaha, Neb. Right: Oct. 15, 2012.First Lady Michelle Obama greets students and supporters during a campaign visit to Ohio Wesleyan's Branch Rickey Arena in Delaware, Ohio. Nati Harnik—AP | Neal C. Lauron—MCT/ABACAUSA.com
Left: March 5, 2012. Right: March 14, 2012. The conductor of a military band rehearses prior to and during the opening ceremony of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.Jason Lee—Reuters | Ng Han Guan—AP
Left: May 28, 2012.Kalashnikov assault rifles hang on the wall as Free Syrian Army (FSA) member Abu Fida (29) watches the TV news at the FSA facilities in Mera, Syria. Right: Aug. 26, 2012.A Syrian rebel sleeps after returning from fighting in Aleppo, at rebel headquarters in Marea.Vedat Xhymshiti—EPA | Muhammed Muheisen—AP
Left: Jan. 6, 2012. Right: Jan. 22, 2012. Devotees cross a newly constructed and temporary bridge made for Magh Mela festival on the Ganga River in Allahabad. Strdel/AFP/Getty Images | Rajesh Kumar Singh—AP
Left: Jan. 29, 2012.Children dressed as Mahatma Gandhi take part in a peace march in Kolkata. Right: Oct. 2, 2012.Indian students dressed as Mahatma Gandhi assemble for the Ahinsa Dandi Yatra in Ahmedabad.Rupak De Chowdhuri—Reuters | Sam Panthaky—AFP/Getty Images
The remaining photographs feature similar images of similar subjects by different photographers. Left: May 24, 2012.A boy with his face painted in the colors of the Syrian opposition's flag takes part in a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad outside the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan. Right: May 27, 2012.A member of a dance group wearing colored contact lenses takes part in the "Karneval der Kulturen" (Carnival of Cultures) parade through Berlin's Kreuzberg district.Ali Jarekji—Reuters | Johannes Eisele—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Aug. 14, 2012.Supporters of Mitt Romney are seen reflected in a teleprompter during a campaign rally at Ross County Courthouse in Chillicothe, Ohio. Right: Oct. 26, 2012.Members of the crowd are reflected in a teleprompter during a speech at a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images | Brian Snyder—Reuters
Left: Feb. 9, 2012.A resident looks out from a peephole at the entrance of an illegally-occupied building before being evicted in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil. Right: June 17, 2012.A boy looks through the window of a polling station during the second day of voting in Egypt's presidential election, in Giza, south of Cairo. Yasuyoshi Chiba—AFP/Getty Images | Ahmed Jadallah—Reuters
Left: June 3, 2012.Royal rowbarge Gloriana leads man-powered craft towards Westminster Bridge during Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames in London. Right: June 7, 2012.Bavarian inhabitants pray on boats as they take part in a Corpus Christi procession on Lake Staffelsee in Seehausen, Germany. Stefan Wermuth—Reuters | Michaela Rehle—Reuters
Left: May 5, 2011. Right: June 20, 2012. Akasha, a two-year-old female Bengal tiger, dives after a chunk of meat thrown into her pool at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif.Nancy Chan—Six Flags Discovery Kingdom/Reuters | Justin Sullivan—Getty Images
Left: May 17, 2012.A village boy leads his goat past a parched pond on the outskirts of the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar. Right: June 27, 2012.A Pakistani woman walks on a dry bank that provides water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi.Biswaranjan Rout—AP | B.K. Bangash—AP
Left: April 20, 2012.A dead donkey lies partially covered by wind-swept sand in an area of desert where villagers take dead animals to avoid the smell and potential for disease affecting them, near Dala, Chad. Right: May 29, 2012.The dead carcass of a donkey is buried in the sand in the village of Taboit in Mauritania.Ben Curtis—AP | Susana Vera—Reuters
Left: May 2, 2011.Crowds celebrate on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House after President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Right: Nov. 6, 2012.Obama supporters celebrate his re-election victory outside the White House.Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME | Riccardo Savi—Polaris
Left: Aug. 29, 2012.The words and numbers 'Revolution 69', symbolizing the year Muammar Gaddafi came into power, are seen on a donkey in Ras Lanuf, Libya. Right: June 21, 2012.A donkey stands in a field near a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. Esam Al-Fetori—Reuters | Muhammed Muheisen—AP
Left: June 25, 2012.Members of the media take pictures and videos of the home of Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying in Hong Kong. Right: Oct. 13, 2012.The shuttle Endeavour moves along Crenshaw Drive as people in cherry pickers take photos in Los Angeles, Calif. Vincent Yu—AP | Wally Skalij—Reuters
Left: June 15, 2011. Right: Sept. 26, 2012. A gust of wind lifts Pope Benedict XVI's mantle during his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican.Alessandro Bianchi—Reuters | Vincenzo Pinto—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Sept. 16, 2012.Protesters laugh and take pictures next to a burned Japanese national flag during an anti-Japan protest in Wuhan, China. Right: Oct. 9, 2012.Demonstrators burn a flag emblazoned with a swastika during a demonstration against the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in central Athens.Reuters | Yannis Behrakis—Reuters
Left: May 22, 2012.A boy slides down into a swimming pool as the sun shines in the northern German city of Hameln. Right: July 5, 2012.A swimmer cools off on the ten-story-high body slide at the Water Park of America in Bloomington, Min.Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty Images | Richard Sennott—Minneapolis Star Tribune via ZUMAPRESS.com
Left: Oct. 5, 2012.Akoe Tchakponou covers her face in chalk powder in an attempt to lessen the effects of tear gas as protesters clash with police in Lome, Togo. Right: Oct. 9, 2012.A demonstrator looks on during clashes with riot police in Athens. Daniel Hayduk—Reuters | Aris Messinis—AFP/Getty Images
Left: March 2, 2012.The water of the Grone stream has turned green after a fire in Goettingen, Germany. Chemicals were set free due to a fire at a storage facility in Grone and washed into the stream by the extinguishing water. Right: July 9, 2012.A white river is seen in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. The Quxi river looks white due to more than 100 kilograms of natural latex being discharged by a nearby factory and carried by water spilled from sewage pipes. Stefan Rampfel—DPA/Landov | ChinaFotoPress/ZUMAPRESS.com
Left: Oct. 24, 2012.People lays flowers during the inauguration of the "Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under National Socialism" in Berlin. Right: Oct. 24, 2012.Guests, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are reflected in the memorial to the estimated half million Roma and Sinti murdered by the Nazis during World War II during the unveiling ceremony in Berlin.Thomas Peter—Reuters | John MacDougall—AFP/Getty Images
Left: June 8, 2012. A man stand-up paddle surfs as a Mexican navy ship patrols the bay waters in San Jose del Cabo in Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Right: June 16, 2012.A man stand-up paddle surfs as a Brazilian navy ship patrols the coast of Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro.Fernando Castillo—AP | Christophe Simon—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Feb. 29, 2012.Lady Gaga looks out from the window of her vehicle at Harvard University, where she launched her Born This Way Foundation in Cambridge, Mass. Right: Sept. 17, 2012.Britain's Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, smiles to locals through the car window as she departs the cultural village in Honiara, Solomon Islands.Brian Snyder—Reuters | Daniel Munoz—Reuters
Left: June 8, 2012.An Egyptian protester, wearing pictures of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser on his head, attends a demonstration at Tahrir Square in Cairo. Right: Aug. 18, 2012.A supporter of President Obama wears a photo of herself meeting the president on a hat while listening to him at a campaign event in Rochester, N.H. Nasser Nasser—AP | Luke Sharrett—The New York Times via Redux
Left: Sept. 25, 2012.Miners stand on the side of a highway blanketed with stones to block traffic on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia. Right: Oct. 2, 2012.Riot police stand on a street sprayed wet by water cannons and fire tear gas as they chase Bahraini anti-government protesters in Manama, Bahrain.Juan Karita—AP | Hasan Jamali—AP
Left: April 8, 1993.On her way home in Sarajevo, a Bosnian woman rushes down an empty Sarajevo sidewalk, past war-destroyed shops, in one of the worst sections of the so-called 'Sniper Alley.' Right: Sept. 14, 2012.A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo.Michael Stravato—AP | Marco Longari—AFP/Getty Images
Left: Oct. 7, 2012.Air Force One casts a shadow over The Forum in Inglewood as it prepares to land in Los Angeles. Right: Oct. 16, 2012.The shadow of Air Force One is seen as it approaches John F. Kennedy International Airport, en route to Hempstead, N.Y. and a presidential debate.Carolyn Kaster—AP | Larry Downing—Reuters

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com