top 40 pics of the year by reuters

**GiantMonkeyMan** · 12-23-2005, 16:09

top 40 pics of the year by reuters

my favourite is either the woman trying to push the bull dozer or the guy being hit by the football... but the rest have some deeper meaning to them and as someone said on the twcenter 'they would make good sigs'

**Crazed Rabbit** · 12-23-2005, 19:18

Madonna flipping off the camera and courtney love? Sheesh.

Some of them are real nice though.

Crazed Rabbit

**solypsist** · 12-23-2005, 20:01

yeah i think we're on the same page with that thought.

Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit

Madonna flipping off the camera and courtney love? Sheesh.

Some of them are real nice though.

Crazed Rabbit

**Kaiser of Arabia** · 12-24-2005, 00:55

The Lebanese, the Israeli Flag, and the British cop are the best ones I think.

**Adrian II** · 12-24-2005, 01:47

Originally Posted by GiantMonkeyMan

my favourite is either the woman trying to push the bull dozer or the guy being hit by the football... but the rest have some deeper meaning to them and as someone said on the twcenter 'they would make good sigs'

Some of them are interesting, most are run of the mill press photos - 'lucky' action shots with no composition. Only one is a character study (Courtney Love) and it is pretty bad; nobody does a 'Henri Cartier-Bresson' anymore these days. For comparison, here is H C-B's character study of Giacometti (1961):

Anyway, my 'favourite' would be the picture of Saddam Hussein and his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim shouting down the court in Bagdad. Shocking, more than any of the others. The depth of their brutality is a character study despite itself. They are an allegorical couple: Self-righteousness and Hatred, struggling all the way to the gallows.

**Proletariat** · 12-24-2005, 02:24

I liked the egg on the riot shield picture. It's stupid alone, but I started liking it when I thought about a mass of Chinese protesters throwing rocks at a Japanese building, because of a crime that occured 60 years ago, and the Japanese being fed-up, decided to throw eggs back, and then hitting the Chinese officers that are there most likely to protect them.

Mob mentality is great fun.

**Adrian II** · 12-24-2005, 10:14

Originally Posted by Proletariat

Mob mentality is great fun.

That seems to be one running theme in your posts. I share the interest. Did you perchance ever read Elias Canetti's Mass and Power? It describes and analyses in great detail all sorts of mobs (religious processions, lynch-mobs, political demonstrations, etcetera, etcetera), their beginning and end, their constitution, behaviour and dynamics. Some mobs spread like fire, others like water. People change in a myriad ways once they touch shoulders and there is no more 'personal territory'. Fascinating book.

**Proletariat** · 12-30-2005, 01:35

That book looks fantastic, Adrian, thanks! I found it on amazon.com entitled Crowds and Power and ordered a copy.

I've always found it fascinating how the greater the number of intelligent beings gathered in a mob can so quickly decrease any common sense and big picture view. I'm really looking forward to this book.

**Papewaio** · 12-30-2005, 01:57

That book might be useful for moderators.

There is the inverse of that where mob mentality quickly gets to the outcome of a more intelligent orderly investigation... ie the stockmarket punishing the makers of the O-seals on the Shuttle that blew up...

**Alexanderofmacedon** · 12-30-2005, 03:46

http://photos.reuters.com/Pictures/g...es/&edition=US

Saddening to say the least...

EDIT:Links not working the way i want it to...

**Leet Eriksson** · 12-30-2005, 04:05

one picture shows a british fleeing a burning tank, though what i find pecular is, why are british undercover agents shooting at iraqi police?

Aren't they supposed to be helping them?