Every year we see lists like this in December: "The Best of ..." This one is from the photo staff at the Boston Globe (here) and it is a wonderful and rich assortment of pictures from some of photojournalism's best, with the context provided by the photographers.

As I've been looking at these lists now for several years I can find a couple of trends and key points. One is that photography has improved so drastically that pictures like these are rich and full, with vibrant colors and that allow the photographer the ability to capture truly significant moments, sometimes with very long lenses, much better than ever before. The other is that many of these pictures are made by shoving right into the scene, meaning that photojournalists no longer seem compelled to be on the outside observing but are right inside whatever is happening. I am also struck by the consistency of using foreground to background information, of framing the pictures with something prevailing in the foreground. These pictures are made by professionals that know their craft and apply skills based upon hands on training over sometimes long careers.

Finally, this is photography displaying the richness and complexity of our human condition, almost without exception. Landscape? No. Architecture? No. Even the aerial of the jet plane crash evokes strong feelings of what lives were extinguished in a fraction of a second. 

My hat is off to all of them at the Globe. Thank you for another year of excellent photographs.