December 4, 2011
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The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011
1.
Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza in 9/11, pauses at his son’s name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial.
(Getty Images / Justin Lane)2.
A whirpool forms off the Japanese coast after the tsunami on March 11.
(Reuters / Kyodo )3.
This sightseeing boat, Hama Yuri, was pulled 1300 feet from the coast and somehow balanced itself on a two story house during the tsunami in Japan.
4.
Members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1.
(Reuters / HANDOUT)5.
Two lights from the former site of the World Trade Centers shine for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
(Reuters / GARY HERSHORN)6.
Phyllis Siegel, 76, left, and Connie Kopelov, 84, both of New York, embrace after becoming the first same-sex couple to get married at the Manhattan City Clerk's office.
(Getty Images / STAN HONDA)7.
A protester gets sprayed in the face with pepper spray at an Occupy Portland protest. (Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)
8.
A before and after shot of Joplin, Missouri after a massive tornado on May 22.
Source: zeitlosimagery9.
Friends and loved ones gather at the Oslo cathedral to mourn 93 victims killed in twin terror attacks from a bombing in downtown Oslo and a mass shooting on Utoya island on July 24.
(Getty Images / Paula Bronstein)11.
President Obama signs a bill to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.
(AP / Evan Vucci)13.
An aerial shot of the damage immediately following the Japanese tsunami.
(Reuters / KYODO)14.
A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan on March 14.
(Reuters / Yuriko Nakao)15.
A man sits in front of a destroyed apartment building following the Joplin, Missouri tornado. (Reuters)
16.
A University of California Davis police officer pepper-sprays students during their sit-in at an "Occupy UCD" demonstration in Davis, California. (Jasna Hodzic)
17.
A mother comforts her son in Concord, Alabama, near his house which was completely destroyed by a tornado in April.
(AP / Jeff Roberts)18.
Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic cancellations across South America, New Zealand, Australia and forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate. (Reuters)
19.
Firefighters of Ladder Company 4 — which lost seven men on 9/11 — perched together on their aerial ladder, watching a news bulletin in Times Square declaring that Osama bin Laden was dead on May 2.
Source: lens.blogs.nytimes.com20.
Slain Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson's dog "Hawkeye" lays next to his casket during funeral services in Rockford, Iowa. Tumilson was one of 30 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan on August 6 when their helicopter was shot down during a mission to help fellow troops who had come under fire.
21.
A makeshift Steve Jobs memorial at the Apple Store in SOHO New York.
22.
Cars are abandoned on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive during the "Snowpocalypse" in February.
Source: chicagotribune.com23.
Facebook played an extremely important role in the uprisings throughout the Middle East.
Source: theatlanticwire.com24.
84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com)
25.
Australian Scott Jones kisses his Canadian girlfriend Alex Thomas after she was knocked to the ground by a police officer's riot shield in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadians rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins.
(Getty Images / Rich Lam)26.
Hurricane Irene approaches the east coast.
27.
Billy Stinson comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood on August 28 in Nags Head, N.C. The cottage, built in 1903 and destroyed by Hurricane Irene, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head.
(Getty Images / Scott Olson)28.
Flowers and tributes are seen outside the home of Amy Winehouse in London on July 24.
(Reuters / STEFAN WERMUTH)29.
Office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington, D.C., moments after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook the nation's capital. The earthquake was centered northwest of Richmond, Va., but could be felt from North Carolina to Massachusetts.
(AP / J. Scott Applewhite)30.
Mihag Gedi Farah, a seven-month-old child, is held by his mother in a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee in the town of Dadaab, Kenya. The baby has since made a full recovery.
(AP / Schalk Van Zuydam)31.
A woman jumps from a burning building during the London riots in August. (Amy Weston / WENN.com)
32.
Office workers look for a way out of a high rise building in central Christchurch, New Zeland on February 22. A strong earthquake killed at least 180 people.
(Reuters / Simon Baker)33.
A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami.
(Reuters / ASAHI SHIMBUN)34.
A demonstrator shows his bottom to riot police during a protest by European workers and trade union representatives to demand better job protection in the European Union countries in Brussels on March 24.
(Reuters / Thierry Roge)35.
A woman rebel fighter supporter fires an AK-47 rifle as she reacts to the news of the withdrawal of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces from Benghazi on March 19.
(Reuters / GORAN TOMASEVIC)36.
Police spray Ugandan opposition party leaders with colored water during demonstrations in the capital Kampala on May 10.
(Reuters / James Akena)37.
A student is punched in the face by a police officer in Chile. Students in Chile are demanding a new framework for education.
(Reuters / VICTOR RUIZ CABALLERO)38.
An aid worker using an iPad captures an image of a dead cow's decomposing carcass in Wajir near the Kenya-Somalia border on July 23.
(Reuters / STRINGER)39.
A Libyan rebel is pictured with Gadhafi's golden gun.
(Getty Images / Philippe Desmazes)40.
Harold Camping speaks about the end of the world. The world was supposed to end on May 22 of this year.
(AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez)41.
A phone hangs off the hook on Wall Street.
(Reuters / LUCAS JACKSON)42.
US gay service members march in a gay pride parade for the first time ever.
(Getty Images / Sandy Huffaker)43.
A woman hangs onto a street sign in chest deep water along the flooded streets in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok on October 24.
(Getty Images / Paula Bronstein)44.
A distressed bride attempts suicide in China after her fiance abruptly called off their marriage. Still in her wedding gown, she tried to kill herself by jumping out of a window of a seventh floor building. Right as she jumped, a man managed to catch and save her.
(Reuters / CHINA DAILY)45.
A U.S. Army soldier takes five with an Afghan boy during a patrol in Pul-e Alam, a town in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan.
(Reuters / Umit Bektas)
Comments (95)
Crazy year!
That was a great review.
You really should close your mouth when being sprayed by the cops.
Yikes. Most of these are pretty powerful images.
@TheTheologiansCafe - It goes great with eggs!
WOAHHHH
Y so depressing!
Wow
Some pics have really moved me to tears particularly the sickly, starving baby from Kenya.
Man, that picture of Hawkeye in front of Tumilson's casket KILLS me every time.
dammit, rahn, getting me all emotional and shit!
the volcano picture was so amazing
yayy for copying and pasting this from a site that already have all of these captions and crap.
@MyFaire - He cited the sources. *shrugs*
This has been a crazy year.
@Unstoppable_Inner_Strength - Yeah, definitely
@babixling - SO HIGH!
@cbr600 - Y U NO MORE EXCITE!?
@seriously_meredith - Indeed!
@heart_leigh - Tis powerful imagery.
@FuhkAwf - Me too :/
@lovejennyy - RUH ROH!
@MyFaire - Welcome to the internet, and changing comments after people reply.
@dooE - My anus after mexican food.
@FuhkAwf - Precisely! Thank you.
@sonychak - Not over yet, STILL HAVE NYE!
@CaKaLusa - Lol. Thanks. I already knew that through. Nice to see people steal through. At least you credit the photos.
Great post!
@musterion99 - Thank ya
12 stil has to be my favorite
Some of these images got to me. What a year!
@verified_but_still_denied - That's a good one, too.
@mtk101 - And still one more month left!
I was in the vicinity of Rockford, IA when the SEAL's funeral took place. It was a BIG deal--as well it should have been. Good review.
loved this
What happened to the baby?
great first picture to set the mood
Man, and I thought I would have seen most of these. Not even close.
Wow!
I love the Christians protecting the Muslims... What would Jesus do? Probably that.
Nice
@verified_but_still_denied - Agree! 12 is extraordinary! I wish I could show that type of grace in a similar situation. These men asked "What Would Jesus Do?" and got the right answer.
Wow, these were good...it's a shame just how filtered media is these days. enjoyed seeing the year over again.
Crazy ass shit.
absolutely captivating! you captured the whole world's emotions, spanning the entire year. All I can say is, Wow!
great, great post
@swtaznxtc90 -
Here is the site that complied these photos: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011
Go to the baby photo and read the caption.
.... I never thought I'd say this, but shame on you for copying this whole post word for word from: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011
and not crediting the website.
You made a serious post?
and a great one at that.
Awww the dog laying at the coffin made me tear. So touching!
Really good post.
It amazes me that I did not know about all of these events. Come on, media. Get with the game, and leave the Kardashians alone.
Very crazy year.
Wow. Amazing pictures.
I'm a survivor of the Snowpocalypse.
cakarusa is our keng.
Very powerful indeed.
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Thanks for the list. I haven't seen most of them.
It's incredible to realize what a wild year it was! And so tragic, some of these made me cry.
I just love the lightening picture, but those protestors getting sprayed, seeing that made my fangs pop out.
snowpocalypse was no joke. I didn't bother leaving my house for a couple of days. I barely made it home from work that night.
@heart_leigh No kidding. I felt a thousand emotions in an instant when i saw that picture. 7 months. An infant.
2011 definitely was eventful! I can only imagine NEXT year!
When I noticed the soldier in the last photo was a woman, it brought the picture to a whole other level of awesome.
incredible. the world is so much more than what we think it is.
I remember the set that #33 came in, they had a warning but I viewed it anyway; this picture had a horrified, crying woman clutching her mom's hand sticking out of rubble, obviously a dead hand from the color. They must have been taken right as she found her mom. So freaking sad, really don't think it was right that they even snapped it.
A very powerful collection. Thanks.
What I thought was hilarious in these images is that a large portion of the images are from the USA. It made me think of how ignorant that normal Americans are of just American news, let alone international news. Pictures like these really make you realize that there is a world outside of the US bubble and that our troubles are not at all as serious as we make them out to be.
There's probably like a few in there that shouldn't be in there but otherwise good post
I laughed at the one of the couple kissing on the ground after the female was knocked to the ground by a cop. Oh, Canadians, rioting over hockey.
I love the last one.
Absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for this!!
some amazing pictures
These are awesome. Crazy year it was indeed.
The natural disaster shots are extremely depressing and sad... but those are beyond anyone's control. What I find most disconcerting are the pictures of police deliberately harming peaceful people. That sort of thing just shakes me to the core.
nice job - capturing the images of the world well...
Nice selection, if a bit depressing :/
That last shot almost makes me cry
I was holding up pretty good until I saw the Christians protecting the Muslims. Then I started to tear up at almost every picture. This was a great post.
What breathtaking images! <3 <3
#30 made me cry.
#40 made me laugh. I don't think it belongs in this group.
#22 made me sigh. It's amazing how quickly you forget that stuff. I have a bad feeling about this winter. The woolly caterpillars have wide stripes this fall. That's a bad sign.
Thanks for sharing.
(and here is how sad my life is: it bugs me to no end that the number is above the picture and the caption is below it)
I'd seen most of these before, but many of them are still very moving.
this is absolutely amazing
I forgot about the Rapture
Good one, man!
Wow. I didn't realize how much has happened this year.... Nuts.
O_O
*tear* thanks for making me emotional! BLAH you!
I'm just at a loss for words... Incredible.
I'm not sure if I can bring myself to say great post. It's depressing. I cried a little.
@TheTheologiansCafe -
but pepper spray is "a food product, essentially"!
@LKJSlain - I agree! That's the first one that made me cry. Destruction I have become used to seeing, but one religion protecting another religion was beautiful.
@TiredSoVeryTired - Made me cry too. Totally.
Some of these are so amazing, it's hard to believe they came from reality and not a movie.
I shed some tears to this post. Very emotional P:
I cried at a few, but mostly the last one.
How can people generalize that soldiers are cruel?
Anything concerning the military usually brings me to tears.
These pictures makes me feel lucky and grateful for what I have.
Amazing captures indeed! It's been an eventful year!
Such a stunning collection of photographs. #12 definitely highlights what humanity should be about. There's also something eerily beautiful about #44, as tragic as it is.
When the demonstrates were pepper sprayed it pissed me off so badly I hope they did damage to the cops who did it
Indeed powerful images. I find the picture of the baby to be the most shocking.
I love the same sex couple!!! my goodness that is so cute!!! I can only imagine how hard tey had it when they were young...and it looks like their dream came true, even if late!
Geez, the whole time I was all, Ooh, I know just what to comment. Then I'd scroll down and that would die away because of the new image, and I'd be ORRR I could say this! And that is how it went 45 times in a row until I was like "Nevermind... my mind is blown and now all I can do is say how cool each comment WAS going to be."
Nicely done. I didn't realize someone else had done an end of year post. Cool cool.
I cried looking at these pictures.
@vsan79 - very emotional scenes
My favorite was definitely picture #12.
amazing, but heartwrenching photos. thanks for sharing
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