the pgb photo book - Scandinavian Photo

THE PGB PHOTO BOOK
THE PGB PHOTO BOOK – INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM AROUND THE
WORLD
This book contains over 110 impressive images from all over the globe. Pictures
from the worlds of nature, humour, news and sport. Together, the photographs make up a unique, breathtaking collection. This book is a great source
of inspiration for the photographer and anyone else with an interest in photography. THE PGB PHOTO BOOK makes a wonderful gift.
This book reproduces award-winning images from some of the world’s best
photographers in current affairs. This year, the book also has a 24-page review
of the most dramatic events of 2009.
The Photographers Giving Back Photo Award is one of the world’s fastest growing photography competitions. Charitable causes are an important part of
this international competition, which has become a way for the participating
photographers to give something back to the people they depict. The very best
of these award–winning images are now gathered in The PGB Photo Book 2 –
a source of inspiration for everyone with an interest in photography.
The best photography from around the world
THE PGB PHOTO BOOK
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THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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Webpage: www.thepgbphotoaward.com
ISBN: 978-91-978765-0-6
Copyright: The PGB Photo Award and each individual photographer
Print And Reproduction: Fälth & Hässler AB, 2010
Bookbindery: Svanbergs Bokbinderi
Paper: Printed on Galerie Volume 150g produced by Sappi, distributed by MAP Antalis
Type Face: Futura
Final Art: Marie Svärd-Husu
Art Direction & Design: Michael Aitman Ord & Bild
Cover: Photograph by Tomassz Gudzowaty, Yours Gallery/Agentur Focus
Proof Reading: Fasttranslator.com
Picture Editor: Markus Marcetic
Editor: Markus Wilhelmson
The PGB Photo Award: Jonas Lemberg
Preface
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Picture of the Year
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General News Picture of the Year
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Feature Picture of the Year
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Spot News Picture of the Year
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Portrait Picture of the Year
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Nature Picture of the Year
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Nature Picture of the Year, Environmental
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Sports Feature Picture of the Year
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Sports Action Picture of the Year
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Picture Story of the Year
76
Sports Picture Story of the Year
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The Year in Review
128
About The PGB Photo Award
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Winners, Collaborarators ans Sponsors
CONTENT
THE PGB PHOTO AWARD | 2010
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An actress from the Dseu Renaissance de Pikine theatre group waits for
rehearsals to begin at a local community centre in the slum neighbourhood
of Pikine in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. She is wearing traditional Toukouleur
make-up and chewing a stick toothbrush.
Photograph by FINBARR O’REILLY/REUTERS
Previous page: Freerunning is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants
use the city and rural landscapes to perform movements through its structures. Its
founder, Sébastien Foucan, defines freerunning as a discipline of self-development, following your own path.
Photograph by TOMASZ GUDZOWATY/YOURS GALLERY/AGENTUR FOCUS
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It is January and swimmers prepare to participate in the opening ceremony of the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec
Lido in London. The 30-metre race attracted over 300 swimmers.
The temperature of the water was 4°C.
Photograph by KIERAN DOHERTY/REUTERS
Overleaf: US Marine Sergeant Anthony Zabala from the 1st Combat Engineering
Battalion of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, runs to safety as an improvised
explosive device (IED) explodes in the Garmsir district of Helmand Province. IEDs
are responsible for 61% of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan.
Photograph by MANPREET ROMANA/AFP
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These sisters, Ida and Emma, have been dancing together for 11 years.
Emma (right) attends the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm. Ida,
who has Down syndrome, does the choreography and has kept pushing
them both to do better since they started.
Photograph by ANDERS FORNGREN
Tulga, aged 6, from Mongolia, did not like being given the
vaccine for the H1N1 virus (also called swine flu) that spread
around the world in 2009. In June, the World Health Organization declared that the new flu strain was a pandemic.
Photograph by TSERENDORJ BATBAATAR
Overleaf: A woman sits between the carriages as a train
travels from Dhaka to Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Millions of
residents travel from the capital city to celebrate the Muslim Eid
al-Fitr holiday, and many cannot afford to buy a ticket.
Photograph by ANDREW BIRAJ/REUTERS
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MARCO VERNASCHII
PICTURE OF THE YEAR
President João Bernardo “Nino” Vieira was the President of Guinea-Bissau for almost a quarter of a century. He described
himself as “God’s gift” to the country during his tenure in office. In the early hours of 2 March 2009, Vieira was shot dead
and then attacked with a machete by a group of soldiers, while fleeing from his private residence. Two months after the
murder, two presidential candidates were also killed in similar circumstances, upon the order of drug cartels.
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DAVID GUTTENFELDER | AP
GENERAL NEWS PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry, take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after
receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province. Specialist Zachery
Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, far left wears “I love New York” boxer shorts, after rushing from his quarters to join
his fellow platoon members.
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2ND PRIZE: Palestinian mourners use their mobile phones to take pictures
during the funeral of Mosub Daana. He was shot and killed by Israeli
troops during clashes at a rally by Hamas supporters against Israel’s
military operation in Gaza, in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Photograph by NASSER SHIYOUKHI/AP
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3RD PRIZE: At 3.32 a.m., an earthquake hit the Abruzzo region in central Italy, catching
people unprepared in the middle of the night. Its epicentre was near L’Aquila, the capital of
Abruzzo, which, along with surrounding villages, suffered the most damage: 308 people died,
1,600 were injured, 6,500 were made homeless.
Photograph by LUCA SPANO
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| EKSTRA BLADET/MOMENT
THOMAS LEKFELDT
FEATURE PICTURE OF THE YEAR
In 2007 Vibe, a young Danish girl, was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Because of the location of the tumour it was not possible to
surgically remove it. Instead, Vibe received 30 radiation treatments, four chemotherapy treatments, three high dosage chemotherapy
treatments and a number of experimental chemotherapy treatments. In January 2009, Vibe lost her fight against the tumour. She was 7
years old. Every year, there are about 40 new cases of brain tumours in Danish children.
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Overleaf, 2ND PRIZE: The monsoon rain falls over Oriya Basti Colony in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, near the former Union Carbide
industrial complex. The water seeps through the buried waste of Union Carbide before proceeding to fill up and pollute Bhopal’s underground reservoirs. The chemical waste has been left unattended for 25 years and has poisoned much of Bhopal’s underground water
reservoirs, resulting in a new generation of children born with serious neurological and physical disabilities. Photograph by ALEX MASI
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3RD PRIZE: Glendy Maldonado, aged 29, alternates her attention between the TV screen
and the body of a murdered man inside her family’s funeral home, Valles del Sol, in
Guatemala City.
Photograph by RODRIGO ABD/AP
Ivonne began working as a stripper at The Safari Club on the infamous
Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany, when she was 8 years old. Today
she is 29 and does whatever a client needs.
Photograph by ANTONIA ZENNARO
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| AP
GUILLERMO ARIAS
SPOT NEWS PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The body of an alleged drug dealer is covered by a sheet after he was shot in front of his house in
Tijuana, Mexico. Tijuana’s crime problems are often blamed on drug trafficking and human trafficking
rings, which smuggle drugs and people into California.
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NIKLAS BJÖRLING
PORTRAIT PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Maria Harutjunian is 11 years old. Her parents fled from Armenia and Iraq and finally came to Russia, which is where Maria grew
up. In Russia they were harassed and they fled again, this time to Sweden. They tried to obtain a residence permit again and again,
but were rejected. Maria’s health constantly declined and she stopped eating. She had to be fed through a drip. In July 2009, her
family finally got a residence permit and Maria’s health has improved, even if she is still nursed in the family home.
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2ND PRIZE: An Afghan worker eating at a US base in Gardez, Afghanistan. Once a
Taliban stronghold, Gardez is the site of a US firebase and a relatively secure area. The
Regional Brigade Facilities at Gardez is a $65 million project to provide a base for over
6,000 Afghan soldiers.
Photograph by BAPTISTE GIROUDON
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3RD PRIZE: Sisters Luminita (left) and Maria are 13 and 17 years old and belong to the
Cardarari, a subgroup of Romani people in Romania. They left school after their fourth
year and now their main occupation is taking care of the house, the family and the family
business. Maria is pregnant. She hopes it will be a boy who can inherit the property.
Photograph by MONA SIMON
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IAIN D. WILLIAMS | REUTERS
NATURE PICTURE OF THE YEAR
2ND PRIZE: Skeidararsandur is a huge delta on the south coast of Iceland.
It measures some 20 kilometres across and consists of thousands of silty
river channels, which merge in a very complex flow pattern.
Photograph by HANS STRAND
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3RD PRIZE: It is 1.30 a.m. on the south coast of England. The heaviest snowfall in
England for 28 years ended ten minutes ago. A rare coating of snow reflects the
streetlights of Brighton, highlighting the ghostly remains of Brighton’s West Pier.
Photograph by TOBIAS SMITH
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THOMAS MUKOYA | REUTERS
NATURE PICTURE OF THE YEAR, ENVIRONMENTAL
In a bid to cut losses by selling their drought-stricken livestock for meat, farmers are making their way to the recently
revived Kenya Meat Commission factory near the Athi River, east of the capital Nairobi. A worker tries to lift up one of
the weak cows.
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2ND PRIZE: Under normal circumstances, large areas of Niger should be
covered by bright green grass in late autumn. But Niger is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and now there is less fertile soil for farmers and
fewer areas with enough grass for nomads to graze their herds of cattle
Photograph by KLAVS BO CHRISTENSEN
3RD PRIZE: Twenty-five years ago, the explosion at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal,
India, killed at least 8,000 people, and the nightmare is continuing. Toxic material has
affected a new generation, which is growing up sick and disabled. Specimens of aborted and deceased foetuses and infants are preserved at a local hospital.
Photograph by DANIEL BEREHULAK/GETTY IMAGES
Overleaf: Supporters of the ousted President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, clash with
soldiers near the presidential residence, Tegucigalpa. Police fire tear gas to hold back
thousands of Hondurans outside the occupied presidential residence as world leaders,
from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez, appeal to Honduras to reverse a coup that ousted
the president. Photograph by ESTEBAN FELIX/AP
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| VG
DANIEL SANNUM LAUTEN
SPORTS FEATURE PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Gambian-Norwegian sprinter Jaysuma Saidy Ndure prepares for the 100-metre sprint at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin. He qualified for the semi-finals, where he ran 10.20 seconds. This was not fast enough to make it to the
final, where Usain Bolt improved his world record with a time of 9.58.
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2ND PRIZE: The final round of “Mr. Ernakulam”, a local bodybuilding competition in Kerala, a state in
south India. The boys are all 17 years old. Bodybuilding history in India started back in the eleventh
century. By about the sixteenth century, bodybuilding had become one of the favourite pastimes in India.
Photograph by THOMAS HAUGERSVEEN
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3RD PRIZE: Roberto Carlos wins his division and proudly raises his trophy at the Ruben Diaz Jr. Boxing
Show in the Bronx, New York City. Children, often as young as 8 years old, from low income families in
the South Bronx, train and compete daily with the hope that someday they will have a shot at the title.
Photograph by ROBERT HOOMAN
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DANIEL OCHOA DE OLZA | AP
SPORTS ACTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Spanish matador Israel Lancho is gored by a Palha’s ranch bull during a bullfight at San Isidro’s fair in Las Ventas bullring,
Madrid. Lancho was rushed to hospital with a 25-centimetre wound to his stomach. Lancho survived. The bull was killed.
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2ND PRIZE: Nearly 2,000 competitors enter Kailua Bay at sunrise for the mass start
swim of the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Considered one of
the most gruelling races in the world, competitors must endure crosswinds of over 72
kph, 35°C temperatures in the lava fields, to complete a 3.86 kilometre swim, 180.2
kilometre bike, and a 42.2 kilometre marathon run if they are to be called an Ironman.
Photograph by DONALD MIRALLE JR./FREELANCE
3RD PRIZE: Josep Guardiola, manager of FC Barcelona, is thrown into the air
by his players as they celebrate their 2–0 victory over Manchester United in
the UEFA Champions League Final in Rome. Samuel Eto’o opened the score
in the tenth minute and Lionel Messi added another goal 20 minutes from the
end, earning Barcelona the historic treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and
the Champions League. Photograph by ALEX LIVESEY/GETTY IMAGES
Overleaf: Runners wave and dance before the start of the GutsMuths Rennsteiglauf in Neuhaus/Rennweg.
The GutsMuths, in the Thuringian Forest, is the longest cross-country race in Central Europe and last year
gathered more than 15,000 runners from 21 countries. Pride of place is taken by the Super Marathon,
which is 72.7 kilometres. GutsMuths used to be the biggest popular sports event in East Germany.
Photograph by SASCHA FROMM/THUERINGER ALLGEMEINE
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TOMASZ LEWANDOWSKI
SPORTS PICTURE STORY OF THE YEAR
Golf is often considered a game of the wealthy, but its modern elitist form evolved from a simple
farm game. The essential equipment consists of a crooked stick and balls, and virtually any area
can be used as a course, like here – in Mumbai, India.
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Some of the boys in the slums of Mumbai work as caddies in a golf club.
A few years ago they started to play golf themselves, developing their
own variety of the game.
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Too poor to afford actual golf clubs and golf balls, the boys have
moulded iron rods to resemble golf clubs and use cheap plastic balls
available from toy shops.
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The golf played by youths in the slums has the same rules as
the regular game. The difference is the environment: no tee, no
fairway, no green and definitely no golf cart.
The young generation is increasingly exposed to a Western lifestyle, and sometimes their enthusiasm produces an interesting mix of local traditions and realities
that use new inspiration.
Previous page: This place is Bharatiya Kamala Nagar, a slum with no electric lights and
no toilets. About 60% of Mumbai’s population of approximately 14 million live in slums.
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An Indian boy, Laxman, in action. He gets together with his friends Harish, Sanjay, Viplav and Raja as
often as he can to play golf in the heart of Mumbai’s slums.
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JANUARY
1. Russia turns off the gas supply to neighbouring Ukraine over alleged
payment arrears, raising concern about the security of supplies throughout
Europe. Slovakia adopts the euro as its national currency, replacing the
Slovak koruna.
3. Israel launches a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip as the Gaza War
enters its second week.
7. The death toll among Palestinians in the Gaza War passes 700.
13. Ethiopian military forces begin pulling out of Somalia, where they have
tried to maintain order for nearly two years.
15. A US Airways jet lands in the Hudson River near Manhattan, New
York, after hitting a flock of geese. All 158 crew and passengers survive.
20. Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and first African American,
President of the United States.
21. Israel completes its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Intermittent air
strikes by both sides in the preceding war continue in the weeks to follow.
22. Barack Obama announces that the detention facility in Guantánamo
Bay will be shut down within the year.
25. Google unveils plans to launch a service that will enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection.
26. The Icelandic government and banking system collapse; Prime Minister
Geir Haarde immediately resigns.
27. American novelist, poet and literary critic John Updike dies of lung
cancer at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts, at the age of 76.
30. Ingemar Johansson, Swedish boxer and former heavyweight champion
of the world, dies from complications following pneumonia, at the age of
76.
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dance at the Home States Ball in
Washington. Obama took power as the first black U.S. president and quickly turned the page
on the Bush years, urging Americans to rally to end the worst economic crisis in generations and
repair the image of the U.S. abroad.
Photography by CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS
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FEBRUARY
1. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is appointed the new Prime Minister of Iceland,
becoming the world’s first openly lesbian head of government.
4. The British submarine HMS Vanguard collides with the French submarine Triomphant in the Atlantic Ocean. Both are nuclear-powered ballistic
missile submarines. Both submarines sustained damage, but no injuries or
radiation leaks were reported.
7. The worst bushfires in Australia’s history kill 173 people and injure 500
more, leaving 7,500 homeless. The fires come after Melbourne records the
highest-ever temperature (46.4°C, 115°F) of any state capital in Australia.
The date has since been referred to as Black Saturday.
8. The Taliban releases a video of Polish geologist Piotr Stańczak, whom
they had kidnapped a few months earlier, being beheaded. It is the first
killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since American journalist Daniel
Pearl was executed in 2002.
11. Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the Movement for Democratic Change,
is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai is a key figure in
the opposition to President Robert Mugabe.
17. The JEM rebel group in Darfur, Sudan, sign a pact with the Sudanese
government, planning a ceasefire within the next three months.
22. Slumdog Millionaire wins eight out of ten Academy Awards for which
it was nominated, including Best Picture and Best Director.
26. Former Serbian president Milan Milutinović is acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding war crimes
during the Kosovo War.
27. Barack Obama declares an end date for the Iraq war. President says
combat missions will finish in August 2010, with all troops to leave by
2011.
A fire truck escapes a wall of smoke and flames as the Black Saturday bush fires escalate out of control, claiming the lives of 173 people.
Photography by ALEX COPPEL, HERALD SUN NEWSPAPER
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MARCH
2. The President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, is assassinated
during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
3. Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan,
killing eight people and injuring several others.
4. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted
by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
6. Morgan Tsvangirai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, sustains non-life
threatening injuries in a car crash when heading towards his rural home in
Buhera. His wife, Susan Tsvangirai, is killed in the head-on collision.
7. NASA’s Kepler Mission, a space photometer which will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station, Florida, USA.
8. Terror returns to Northern Ireland as two soldiers are shot dead in an
attack at an army base in County Antrim.
11. 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer kills 15 people and then commits suicide
at a secondary school in Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg, in southwest
Germany.
15. The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, announces a plan
to make his country carbon-neutral within a decade.
16. Josef Fritzl goes on trial in Sankt Pölten, Austria, charged with incest,
rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and the negligent
homicide of the infant Michael. After a four-day trial he is sentenced to life
imprisonment.
17. The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in
a coup d’état, following a month of rallies in Antananarivo. The military
appoints opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as the new president.
18. Stage and screen actress Natasha Richardson, daughter of actress
Vanessa Redgrave and married to actor Liam Neeson, dies following a
head injury sustained when she fell during a skiing lesson in Quebec.
31. Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, signs a law that the UN says
legalises rape in marriage and prevents women from leaving the house
without permission.
Once upon a time Detroit was one of the world’s greatest cities – the U.S. industry’s
pride. Now Detroit has the highest unemployment rate of America’s 49 metropolitan
areas: 13.6 percent. The city and neighbouring municipalities have lost 142,000 jobs
in a year. GM’s future is uncertain, and a lot of people have had to leave their jobs.
Some of them came together to tell their story after a church service at Greater Grace
Temple Church in Detroit in March.
Photography by NIKLAS LARSSON
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APRIL
1. Albania and Croatia join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO).
2. The second G-20 summit, involving state leaders rather than the usual
finance ministers, meets in London. Its main focus is the ongoing global
financial crisis.
3. Former Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is appointed
as the new Secretary General of NATO. A gunman kills 13 people at an
immigrant counselling centre in Binghampton, New York.
5. North Korea launches the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket, prompting an
emergency meeting of – but no official reaction from – the United Nations
Security Council.
6. A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L’Aquila, Italy, killing 308 and
injuring 1,600.
7. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in
prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
10. A political crisis begins in Fiji when President Josefa Iloilo suspends
the nation’s Constitution, dismisses all judges and constitutional appointees
and assumes all governance in the country after the Court of Appeal rules
that the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is illegal.
13. American record producer and songwriter Phil Spector, charged with
murder in the second degree, is sentenced to 19 years to life for the death
of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home.
17. Four Swedish founders of the Pirate Bay download site are found guilty
of assistance to copyright infringement. They are sentenced to one year in
prison and payment of a fine of USD 3.6 million.
24. The World Health Organization expresses concern at the spread of influenza from Mexico and the United States to other countries. International
cases and resulting deaths are confirmed.
29. Amidst Russia’s effort to improve relations with NATO and with the
West in general, NATO expels two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry
criticises the expulsions.
A couple wearing surgical masks to avoid contagion by H1N1 swine flu kiss in Mexico
City’s Zocalo square. The normally bustling streets of Mexico City were virtually empty,
with millions choosing to stay at home rather than risk contagion from the killer swine
flu.
Photography by LUIS ACOSTA/AFP PHOTO
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MAY
3. Silvio Berlusconi’s wife Veronica Lario announces she is filing for
divorce following her husband’s attendance at a girl’s 18th birthday party
in Casoria, province of Naples.
4. Masked gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attack a wedding party in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, killing at least 45 people,
including many women and children. There had been a blood feud
between two families in the small village in recent years.
17. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder and leader of the Tamil Tigers, is
killed while trying to escape advancing Sri Lanka Army troops in the north
of the country. Prabhakaran was wanted by Interpol for terrorism, murder,
organized crime and terrorist conspiracy.
18. The third C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group meets in Seoul.
Following more than a quarter-century of fighting, the Sri Lankan Civil War
ends with the total military defeat of the Tamil Tigers.
23. Former President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun, under investigation
for alleged bribery during his presidential term, commits suicide.
25. North Korea announces that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong. The United Nations Security
Council condemns the reported test.
26. Barack Obama announces his selection of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Sotomayor
becomes the Supreme Court’s first Latina justice.
31. George Tiller, US Doctor specialising in abortion, is shot through the
eye and killed by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder.
Lionel Messi helps FC Barcelona win against Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League Final by giving Barcelona a two-goal lead. He became the top scorer
in the Champions League with nine goals. Messi also won the UEFA Club Forward of
the Year and the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, rounding off a spectacular year in
Europe.
Photography by JASPER JUINEN/GETTY IMAGES
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JUNE
1. Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashes into
the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.
4. In Cairo, Barack Obama calls for a “new beginning between the United
States and Muslims around the world”.
11. The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as
swine flu, is deemed a global pandemic, becoming the first infectious
disease since the Hong Kong flu of 1967–1968 to receive this designation.
13. Following the re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
supporters of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi accuse the government of fraud, and launch a series of sustained protests.
18. NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to
the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.
20. The death of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian student shot during a
protest, is captured on what soon becomes a viral video, helping to turn
Neda into an international symbol of the civil unrest that followed the
presidential election.
21. As a step toward total independence from the Kingdom of Denmark,
Greenland assumes control over its law enforcement, judicial affairs, and
natural resources. Greenlandic becomes the official language.
25. The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online reactions to the event cripple several
major websites and services, as the numbers of people accessing the web
addresses pushes internet traffic to potentially unprecedented levels.
28. The Supreme Court of Honduras orders the arrest and exile of President Manuel Zelaya, claiming he was violating the nation’s constitution by
holding a referendum to stay in power.
29. Bernie Madoff, former stock broker, investment adviser, and nonexecutive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, is sentenced to 150 years in prison for defrauding his clients of almost $65 billion in the largest
Ponzi scheme in history.
30. Yemenia Flight 626 crashes off the coast of Moroni, Comoros, killing
all but one of the 153 passengers and crew.
Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi run in
the streets during protests in Tehran. Iran banned foreign media from covering rallies
in the country and Iran’s Guardian Council reportedly said they would recount some
of the votes in the presidential election, which critics say was unfairly won by Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Photography by MAJID/GETTY IMAGES
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JULY
1. Sweden assumes the presidency of the European Union.
3. Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United
States in 2008, announces she will resign as Alaska governor.
4. The crown of Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbor,
reopens to tourists for the first time since September 11, 2001.
5. Over 150 are killed when a few thousand ethnic Uyghurs target local
Han Chinese during major rioting in Ürümqi, Xinjiang.
6. Robert McNamara, the Pentagon chief who directed the escalation of
the Vietnam War despite private doubts, dies at 93.
7. A public memorial service is held for Michael Jackson. It is regarded as
one of the most prominent funerals of all time.
8. The leaders of world’s richest countries pledge to dramatically cut
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. South Korea blames North Korea for
cyber attacks targeting Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea.
15. Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashes near Qazvin, Iran, killing all 168
on board.
17. Walter Cronkite, the American newscaster best known as anchorman
for the CBS Evening News for 19 years, dies at his home in New York
City, aged 92.
18. Henry Allingham, the oldest verified living man in the world and one
of the last surviving First World War servicemen, dies at age 113.
22. Barack Obama says police “acted stupidly” in arresting Henry Louis
Gates when the black Harvard University scholar was locked out of his
home.
23. A search warrant says Michael Jackson’s personal doctor is the target
of manslaughter probe. More than 40 New Jersey leaders are arrested in
a corruption investigation.
26. French President Sarkozy is taken by an army helicopter to Val-deGrâce military hospital in Paris, after fainting while jogging in the grounds
of his weekend residence in Versailles.
The peloton make their way past fields of sunflowers during stage 11 of the 2009 Tour
de France from Vatan to Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry. The race’s total length was 3,445
kilometres and it visited six countries: Monaco, France, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland
and Italy, and finished on 26 July on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Alberto Contador,
from Spain, was the total winner.
Photography by JASPER JUINEN/GETTY IMAGES
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76
AUGUST
4. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardons two American journalists who
had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year, after former U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong-il in North Korea.
6. English criminal Ronnie Biggs is released from prison on compassionate
grounds. Biggs is known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963,
for his escape from prison in 1965, for living as a fugitive for 36 years
and for his various publicity stunts while in exile. In 2001, he voluntarily
returned to the United Kingdom and spent several years in prison.
7. Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan, killing 500 and stranding more than
1,000 due to the worst flooding on the island in half a century. The leader
of Pakistan’s Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, dies in CIA missile strike.
14. Afghanistan passes a law that allows husbands to deny wives food if
they fail to obey sexual demands.
19. A wave of bomb attacks in Baghdad kills 95 people and injures many
more.
20. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, imprisoned for the 1988
bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, is released by the Scottish government on
compassionate grounds as he has terminal prostate cancer. He returns to
his native Libya.
24. UN says that fraud may have marred up to a fifth of the votes cast in
Afghanistan’s presidential election.
25. Ted Kennedy, a Senator from Massachusetts who was re-elected nine
times and served for 47 years in the U.S. Senate, dies of brain cancer at
his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, aged 77.
27. Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11, is found alive 18
years after her California abduction.
28. Iceland’s parliament votes 34-15 to approve a bill (commonly referred
to as the Icesave bill) to repay the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
more than $5 billion that was lost in Icelandic deposit accounts. It is confirmed that the Los Angeles coroner has decided to treat Michael Jackson’s
death as a homicide. At the time of death, Jackson had been administered
propofol, lorazepam and midazolam.
Supporters gather to listen to Afghan presidential candidate and former foreign minister Dr Abdullah in the village of Hoja Bahauddin near Taloqan, Afghanistan. On the
second last day of campaigning, Dr Abdullah visited his heartland province of Takhar,
where over ten thousand supporters attended his rallies.
Photography by DANIEL BEREHULAK/GETTY IMAGES
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78
SEPTEMBER
3. Michael Jackson is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale,
California. About 200 family and friends attend the service. Among the
mourners are Elizabeth Taylor, his former wife Lisa Marie Presley and the
producer Quincy Jones.
11. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologises to Alan Turing, the second world war codebreaker, who took his own life after being chemically
castrated for being homosexual.
14. American actor Patrick Swayze, best-known for his romantic lead roles
in the films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, dies from pancreatic cancer at age
57.
15. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the worst recession
since the 1930s is probably over.
23. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi calls U.N. Security Council a “terror
council” and accuses it of treating smaller nations as “second class” during
rambling speech in New York.
25. At the G-20 Pittsburgh summit, world leaders announce that the G-20
will assume greater leverage over the world economy, replacing the role of
the G-8, in an effort to prevent another financial crisis like that of 2008.
26. Typhoon Ketsana begins to cause record amounts of rainfall in Manila,
Philippines, leading to the declaration of a “state of calamity” in 25
provinces.
27. Film director Roman Polanski is arrested and taken into Swiss custody,
31 years after he fled to France after admitting unlawful sex with a girl
aged 13.
28. At least 157 demonstrators are killed in a clash with the Guinean
military.
29. An 8.3-magnitude earthquake triggers a tsunami near the Samoan
Islands. Many communities and harbours in Samoa and American Samoa
are destroyed, and at least 189 people are killed.
30. A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes just off the coast of Sumatra, killing around 1,000 in Indonesia.
During the memorial for Michael Jackson The Reverend Al Sharpton received a
standing ovation and cheers when he told Jackson’s children, “Wasn’t nothing strange
about your Daddy. It was strange what your Daddy had to deal with. But he dealt
with it anyway.” Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, cried as she told the
crowd, “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine
... I just wanted to say I love him ... so much.”
Photography by MARK J. TERRILL/AP
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80
OCTOBER
2. The International Olympic Committee awards the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro.
3. Ireland holds a second referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. The
amendment is approved by the Irish electorate, having been rejected in
the Lisbon I referendum held in June 2008.
7. American fashion and portrait photographer Irving Penn dies aged 92
at his home in Manhattan.
9. Barack Obama is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and says: “I
do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative
figures that have been honoured by this prize. I will accept this award as
a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st
century.”
10. Turkey and Armenia sign a landmark accord to restore ties and open
their shared border, after a century of hostility stemming from the First
World War mass-killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces.
20. European astronomers discover 32 extrasolar planets.
21. A Northwest Airlines jet in the United States overshoots Minneapolis
airport by 240 kilometres; pilots say they were talking about schedules.
27. Retired tennis player Andre Agassi confesses in his autobiography,
Open, that he was using and testing positive for the highly addictive illegal drug methamphetamine while a player.
29. A missing British couple confirm they are being held by Somali pirates
who seized them from their yacht in the Indian Ocean.
Game one of the American League Championship Series during the Major League
Baseball Playoffs: Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is tagged out at home plate by Jeff Mathis of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the fifth inning. The Yankees
went on to beat the Philadelphia Phillies for their 27th World Series Championship, the
first of Rodriguez’s career.
Photography by AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES
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82
NOVEMBER
2. Radovan Karadzic, accused of war crimes against Bosnian Muslims and
Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, appears at his war crimes
trial, only to insist that his rights have been violated.
3. The Czech Republic becomes the final member-state of the European
Union to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, thereby permitting the document’s initiation into European law. The Prime Minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, is designated the first permanent President of the European Council.
5. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army Major and psychiatrist, opens fire in
the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and
wounding 29 others.
6. The U.S. unemployment rate hits a double-digit percentage – 10.2 – for
the second time since World War II.
9. Berlin celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with
a “Festival of Freedom”.
13. Having analyzed data from the LCROSS lunar impact, NASA announces that it has found a “significant” quantity of water in the Moon’s
Cabeus crater.
17. The Republican nominee for Vice President, Sarah Palin, releases her
autobiography Going Rogue; 1 million copies sell in less than two weeks.
18. Hamid Karzai is sworn in again as Afghanistan’s President after an
election mired in controversy.
21. A gas explosion at a coal mine in the Heilongjiang province in
northeast China kills at least 108. Computer hackers break into a server at
a climate change research centre in Britain and post hundreds of private
e-mails and documents online, stoking debate over whether scientists have
overstated case for man-made climate change.
23. In the Philippines, at least 57 are abducted and killed in an electionrelated massacre in the province of Maguindanao.
24. Gate-crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi attend Obama’s first White
House state dinner, leading to a Secret Service investigation.
25. China commits to reducing its carbon footprint by 45%.
27. Tiger Woods crashes a SUV outside his Florida mansion, sparking
widespread interest in reports of marital infidelity. Dubai requests a debt
deferment following its massive renovation and development projects, as
well as the late 2000s economic crisis. The announcement causes global
stock markets to drop.
Spectators watch as giant, painted styrofoam dominoes topple along the route of the
former Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The approximately 1,000
dominoes, painted by schoolchildren and artists from all over the world, are a symbolic representation of the end of communist rule across Eastern Europe and are the
highlight of celebrations in the German capital to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall
of the Berlin Wall. Photography by ANDREAS RENTZ/GETTY IMAGES
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84
DECEMBER
1. Barack Obama orders 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in
Afghanistan, but promises to begin withdrawal in 18 months. The Treaty of
Lisbon comes into force.
4. A pyrotechnic display ignites a plastic ceiling at a nightclub in Perm,
Russia, killing 109 people.
7. The UNFCCC’s United Nations Climate Change Conference opens in
Copenhagen, Denmark.
8. A string of bombs in Iraq kills 127 people, injures more than 500,
damages ministry buildings and flattens a courthouse in Baghdad.
10. China overtakes U.S. as the world’s biggest market for automobiles.
13. In Milan, Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, suffers two broken
teeth, a minor nose fracture and cuts to his lip after being struck by a man
wielding a souvenir model of the city’s cathedral.
15. The Washington D.C. council votes to legalize gay marriage.
16. Astronomers discover GJ1214b, the first-known extrasolar planet on
which water could exist.
18. The Arbeit macht frei sign over the gate of Auschwitz is stolen. It is
recovered by Polish police two days later.
19. Amid bitterness and recriminations, the Copenhagen climate summit
ends with a flawed deal.
25. A 23-year-old student from Nigeria with suspected links to al-Qaida
tries to ignite a device as a Northwest Airlines’ transatlantic plane from
Nigeria (via Amsterdam) prepares to land in Detroit.
The final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The conference
president, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, held a meeting with European
Commission President José Manuel Barroso, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
US President Barack Obama, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, among others. But world
leaders failed to reach a deal sufficient to combat the threat of global warming.
Photography by HENRIK MONTGOMERY/SCANPIX
85
Overleaf: Australian Tilly Parkins, known to be one of the strongest women boulderers
in the world, scales Mateja on Moon Hill crag, a huge natural limestone arch in
Yangshuo, China. Moon Hill or Moon Mountain is a hill with a natural arch through it,
a few kilometres outside Yangshuo in southern China’s Guangxi autonomous region.
It is named for a wide, semicircular hole through the hill, all that remains of what was
once a limestone cave formed in the phreatic zone.
Photography by ADAM PRETTY/GETTY IMAGES
86
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88
What
happens
to
photojournalism
when
snapshot from the hip. Photojournalism is about
newspapers are struggling to survive, when
telling a story, about discovering, investigating,
readers are no longer prepared to pay for news?
educating, expanding knowledge and making
us ask questions. We know that pictures have, if
In the short term, documentary photojournalism
not rewritten history, at least provided nuances
is a terrible investment. Investigative journalism
and information and helped to build opinion.
takes time; capturing a moment can take
an eternity. Time is money, but one picture
A professional photographer can create the
can be invaluable – and what is the price
visual quality and clarity necessary for a picture
to be paid if injustices are lost in the dark?
to communicate. Something happens when the
scope of a story, a destiny, a life, is captured in a
Where
89
will
we
find
our
information
if
picture. Can that picture change the world? No, but
photographers are no longer sent out into the
it can change a person – and that’s a good start..
world? Twitter, Flickr, Youtube? Definitely, but
Jonas Lemberg, founder of The PGB Photo Award
not exclusively. Photojournalism is bigger than a
[email protected]
90