120,000 words

December 17, 2008 7:12 PM

The year 2008 in photographs (boston.com, parts 2 & 3 coming tomorrow and the next day)
posted by allkindsoftime (28 comments total)

All the burning things represent your money.
posted by Artw at 7:42 PM on December 17, 2008

As much as I hate evil racist Western society, it sure beats living in one of those photos.
posted by norabarnacl3 at 7:48 PM on December 17, 2008

Those pictures make me sad.

Top 10 Viral Comedy Videos of 2008. There, now I'm happy again.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:50 PM on December 17, 2008

I saw the Greek riots earlier. WOW.
posted by gman at 8:05 PM on December 17, 2008

I've surfed a lot of big scary waves over the past 20 years, but Andrew Buckley's shot of Kerby Brown is nuts. I wouldn't dare ride the wave OR shoot the photo.
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:11 PM on December 17, 2008

I just realized that the Washington Post borked the link to the third most popular comedy video of 2008.

And they did not provide a link to the most viewed comedy video of 2008.

If you haven't seen these already, you must watch them. It will help you understand the people who live on my planet.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:17 PM on December 17, 2008

Riots IN THE FUTURE.
posted by delmoi at 8:28 PM on December 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

As much as I hate evil racist Western society, it sure beats living in one of those photos.

umm....
posted by delmoi at 8:41 PM on December 17, 2008

I could be crazy here but...

Picture number 7 looks like a real bad photoshop job to me.
posted by jtoth at 8:48 PM on December 17, 2008

This one looks like somebody was playing silly buggers with the gravity in Garry's Mod. Floaty blue barrels ahoy!
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:58 PM on December 17, 2008

I'm going to be that guy.

I'm sorry.

These photos are great. But really, don't we all have the Big Picture bookmarked by now?

This is like the 43rd post of the Big Picture blog.

(Again, I'm sorry.)
posted by device55 at 8:58 PM on December 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Don't let the other newspapers get hold of those photos.. they'll shrink them down to 200 x 100 pixels.
posted by crapmatic at 9:04 PM on December 17, 2008

@twoleftfeet - yeah, I know what you mean. It always seems like the most powerful photos are often the most difficult to see, and I want to avoid turning The Big Picture into 'disaster central' as much as possible. I keep joking with my co-workers about finding a newsworthy series of photos featuring cheerleaders holding kittens... but I'm still looking for those photos :)

-Alan (the guy that runs TBP blog)
posted by kokogiak at 9:10 PM on December 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

@jtoth - the backlighting makes ronaldinho look pasted in. Here is a detail from the larger version of the photo to help see it's probably not photoshopped.
posted by kokogiak at 9:14 PM on December 17, 2008

ok, so that wave picture...my jaw is still dragging on the floor. dude surfed a TSUNAMI.
posted by supermedusa at 9:36 PM on December 17, 2008

Alan, please keep looking for those cheerleaders with kittens photos. The world needs to see them.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:37 PM on December 17, 2008

The one of the Chile volcano looks like Gamera or Megalon is about to emerge from its smoking center at any moment.
posted by Ruby Stevens at 9:40 PM on December 17, 2008

Also, photo 14 of the baseball. Damn.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:45 PM on December 17, 2008

This is like the 43rd post of the Big Picture blog. >

MeFite insideriness aside, what's your point? Only one blog ever gets to post stuff now?
posted by dhartung at 9:55 PM on December 17, 2008

As a photographer I find it hard to look at what our society deems as photo journalistic. I've many times set the camera on the ground to capture the yards of fallen pecans, my friend's cool shoe, or a cat approaching... but setting something up to capture the hand of a dead person after an earthquake, almost impeccably set up... I both admire and despise these photo journalists. They bring to the masses powerful images, but they bring to people like me a scary omen if I ever decided to go into photo journalism.... getting excited about a shot of a still-living person in some debri from a bombing or collapse of sorts.

Anyways... sure the topic's been brought up before but that's my two cents.
posted by hillabeans at 10:01 PM on December 17, 2008

We really need to be able to fave these pics.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:11 PM on December 17, 2008

I might be just stupid, but where are parts two and three?
posted by afu at 10:46 PM on December 17, 2008

hillabeans, I can't help but think it comes down to the photographer's intent. If he was thinking "hot damn, this shot is my Pulitzer, thanks for lying dead there mister", then he's despicable. If he's thinking "I need to communicate the power and horror of this place, this moment, because that's my job", then he's admirable. I also can't help but think that the empathy to create a such a shot is more likely to be found in the latter sort of person.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:49 PM on December 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

I might be just stupid, but where are parts two and three?

In the future.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 11:16 PM on December 17, 2008

We all might be stupid in the future. (I saw that in Popular Mechanics. Jet packs, beehive hair, and stupid.)

Parts two and three are in the email from your mom next week.
posted by pracowity at 11:55 PM on December 17, 2008

I wish I hadn't clicked to view the image of the dead child being carried.

Need kittens, stat!
posted by papercake at 11:21 AM on December 18, 2008

wow its amazingly difficult to find pics of cheerleaders with kittens. the internet = fail
posted by supermedusa at 12:20 PM on December 18, 2008

but this might make you happy anyway
posted by supermedusa at 12:24 PM on December 18, 2008