Remarkable Pictures, 2010, Part 1

Here's a purely personal collection of remarkable images from 2010. I came up with my list by pinching pictures from other end-of-year photo compilations, and by reviewing the past 12 months of this very blog. This is not a review of the biggest news events of the year—the choices are based on the effect the images had on me. So here's my pictorial trip down memory lane, presented in no particular chronological order:

October 10, 2010

The man in the wheelbarrow, killed during a missile strike in Kadahar Province, Afghanistan, was suspected of being a Taliban fighter who had placed IEDs. A soldier from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division searches one of the dead man's associates. PHOTO FROM AP.

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

A Marine protects an Afghan man and his child after Taliban open fire on the town of Marjah in Helmand Province. PHOTO BY GORAN TOMASEVIC/REUTERS

January 14, 2010

The dust-covered body of a man killed in the earthquake that devastated Haiti lies on a sidewalk in Port-au-Prince. PHOTO BY DAMON WINTER/NEW YORK TIMES


November 8, 2010

Ash from the eruption of Mount Merapi on Java island in Indonesian covers a corn field. It's a color picture. PHOTO BY AP

February 13, 2010

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this picture Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, from a distance of 70,000 kilometers away. PHOTO BY NASA/JPL/SSI


MAY 6, 2010

The Gulf of Mexico after the the BP oil disaster. PHOTO BY RICHARD PERRY/ NEW YORK TIMES

May 12, 2010

After in inconclusive election, Conservatives and Social Democrats joined forces to form a new British government. Here, the new Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the new Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, pose as mirror images of each other. PHOTO BY MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES

September 2, 2010

In coming up with the high concept for this Rolling Stone cover shot, photographer Matthew Rolston simply thought, "Oh, True Blood...naked, and covered in blood." My pick for the best mag cover of the year. PHOTO BY MATTHEW ROLSTON


MARCH 31, 2010

A penitent from one of the many processions that take place in Seville, Spain during Easter Holy Week. PHOTO BY EMILIO MORENATTI/AP

MAY 5, 2010

Back in May the Tea Party was still a kind of fringy movement that the media was trying to figure out. At that point, the party mostly just staged rallies in which people carried signs about impending losses of freedom. The Huffington Post ran an article about the "10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs," which included this one. PHOTO BY MATTHIEU YOUNG.