The Year That Was: A Web-Wide Survey of the Top Photos of 2016
A “best of” list of the best of lists!
Merry week after Christmas! Happy week before New Year! This is the time when we spotlight various best-photos-of-the-year lists from around the web. In the past we have dribbled them out throughout the week while we rest up and prepare ourselves for the year to come. But this year we have gathered the lists into a single post and curated some of the images that speak to the state of the art in photography. The two sites who do this kind of thing the most avidly are Time and the Atlantic, and they are well represented here. We’ve got top news photos from Time and the Atlantic, as well as Time’s best portraits of the year and the Atlantic’s look back at 2016 in volcanic eruptions.
Not to be outdone on that front, Time has the best weather photos of 2016. Both have a visual history of the year, but the Atlantic’s is nicely divided up chronologically. Time has also chosen an Instagram photographer of the year.
Widening our horizons, we have National Geographic’s selects from 2016. Sports Illustrated has the sports pictures of year. The New York Times and ABC weigh in as well.
Starting tomorrow and continuing through Friday we’ll be looking back at the top PPD posts from the 2016.
TIME: Top 100 Photos of the Year
According to one estimate, some 14 trillion photos were snapped in 2016. Time’s remarkable editors have chosen the top 100. It was the year in which the world confronted the rise of nationalism and populism, from Brexit to Trump, police shootings and civil unrest in the US. Here: Christopher Morris of VII photographed Trump supporters in New Hampshire.
The Atlantic: The Year In Photos
Take a tour of 2016 through the lenses of the world’s best news service photographers at the Atlantic. Your journey has three parts, starting with the cold months of January through April. (Remember that cute sloth stuck in Ecuadoran traffic?). Then move on to May through August (Usain Bolt’s winning grin, shot by Kai Pfaffenbach of Reuters) and September through December (Trump, Trump Trump).
ABC News: 56 Captivating Photos from 2016
Sometimes you aim to curate 50 great photographs and just cannot lose six that you love, so you end up with 56. Among the standout photographs of 2016 selected by ABC News is AP photographer Emilio Morenatti’s shot of migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jumping into the water from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped by members of an NGO during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean sea, north of Libya.
TIME: Best Photojournalism of 2016
Time showcases images from its pages, including James Nachtwey’s photos of refugees in Greece; Lynsey Addario’s documentation of war crimes in Leer, South Sudan (seen here); and reporting from the campaign trail from Christopher Morris, Landon Nordeman, Ben Lowy, Natalie Keyssar and Dina Litovsky.
The Atlantic: Top 25 News Photos of the Year
Narrowing the events of 2016 down to 25 images took willpower and nerves of steel for the Atlantic’s In Focus blog. Topping the list, at least in the blog’s layout, was AP photographer Jonathan Bachman’s memorable of a demonstrator in Baton Rouge, LA, protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling by police.
TIME: Instagram Photographer of the Year
Time chose Radcliffe “Ruddy” Roye as the Instagram photographer of 2016, saying that for many, Roye had become the photographer most closely associated with the unrest over the shootings of black people by police. “His feed, populated with more than 4,000 portraits, tells the stories of people in all of their glory, in all of their afflictions,” noted the magazine.
TIME: Best Portraits of the Year
Time also highlighted portraits it published in 2016, among them Peter Hapak’s photographs of former FOX News commentator Gretchen Carlson, whose sexual harassment suit brought down the network’s powerful boss (right) and FOX’s Megyn Kelly, who emerged as a TV news superstar.
The Atlantic: The Year in Volcanic Activity
Why does the Atlantic look back at volcanic activity? Because volcanos make for great photos. “Although this has been a relatively average year for the world’s active volcanoes, the activity that did take place was still spectacular,” noted the In Focus blog. One that did blow was the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador, seen in this photo by Juan Cevallos (AFP / Getty).
TIME: Best Weather Photos of 2016
Nobody does anything about the weather, but people photographic it: Time’s selection of top weather photos also includes volcanic eruptions (Japan’s Mount Sakurajima). Other than that, there were wildfires in California, drought in China, and refractive raindrops in Madison, Wisconsin, spectacularly shot by John Hart (AP).
Sports Illustrated: 100 Best Photos of 2016
With all the wonderful action to be captured in sports, why is it that so many great photographs are taken of golfers? Then again, how do you put an original spin on a photo of a golf tournament? Among Sports Illustrated’s pictures of the year is an infrared shot Jordan Spieth, his caddie Michael Greller, Bryson DeChambeau and Paul Casey during the first round of the 2016 Masters Tournament.
National Geographic: Best Photos of 2016
The year is nature was sometimes thrilling, sometimes desperate, sometimes heartbreaking, and very often beautiful. National Geographic’s pictures of the year include Stephen Wilkes’s photographs of an entire 24-day at Yosemite National Park. To learn more about how he shot it, see our profile of Wilkes.
The New York Times: Virtual Reality Stories That Transported Viewers in 2016
Virtual Reality stepped into the media limelight in 2016, and nothing will ever be the same again. The New York Times highlights top VR stories from the year, including a report on renowned adventurer and filmmaker Jimmy Chin’s ascent to the top of 1 World Trade Center.
The Atlantic: Hopeful Images from 2016
We know the kinds of surprises 2016 had for us. And next year poses a ton of questions: Will inflation return? Will President Trump retaliate against Russian President Vladimir Putin for helping him get elected? Will the Chicago Cubs repeat as baseball champions? On the other hand, we’re pretty certain there will be another annual North East Skinny Dip at Druridge Bay, England. Russell Cheyne (Reuters) shot 2016’s event, and his photo was included in the Atlantic collection of hopeful images of 2016.
Originally published by American Photography (AI-AP). David Schonauer is Editor of AI-AP’s Pro Photo Daily. Follow him on Twitter. Follow Pro Photo Daily on Facebook. Sign up for the free Pro Photo Daily Newsletter. Follow Jeffrey Roberts, publisher of AI-AP, on Twitter.
