{"id":12888,"date":"2021-12-20T08:26:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T16:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12888"},"modified":"2022-01-01T05:39:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T13:39:05","slug":"message-of-the-day-disease-human-rights-war-environment-hunger-economic-opportunity-population-personal-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=12888","title":{"rendered":"Message of the Day: Disease, Human Rights, War, Environment, Hunger, Economic Opportunity, Population, Personal Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Year In Pictures 2021<\/em>, The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n

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There’s a time for us<\/em><\/p>\n

Someday a time for us<\/em><\/p>\n

Time together with time to spare\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Time to learn, time to care<\/em><\/p>\n

Someday <\/em><\/p>\n

Somehow <\/em><\/p>\n

We’ll find a new way of living<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ll find a way of forgiving <\/em><\/p>\n

Somewhere<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, there’s a place for us<\/em><\/p>\n

A time and a place for us <\/em><\/p>\n

Hold my hand and we’re half way there<\/em><\/p>\n

Hold my hand and I’ll take you there <\/em><\/p>\n

Somehow <\/em><\/p>\n

Someday <\/em><\/p>\n

Somewhere<\/em><\/p>\n

–West Side Story<\/em>,\u00a0Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Once again, as 2021 comes to a close, on the eve of the Winter Solstice, The Year In Pictures in The New York Times is here: Visions of a Volatile World<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In prior years, the introduction has often been a form of commentary on the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, the introduction emphasizes the photography itself, more than usual, as the story that tells the story.<\/p>\n

So here it is:<\/p>\n

THE YEAR IN PICTURES 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Visions of a Volatile World<\/h1>\n
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By Meaghan Looram, Director of Photography<\/em><\/p>\n

The year 2021 opened with the promise of vaccines, and the belief that we would all return to \u201cnormal\u201d after the tumultuous year of the pandemic. But the year instead took off with an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, and saw a summer of carefree gatherings derailed by a fast-spreading virus. Governments fell, democracies were challenged, and climate-related destruction was unleashed, all while the casualties of the pandemic continued to amass. The vaccine saved some lives, but human passions, hopes and fears did their usual work to create a year that was anything but calm, and is ending with the prospect of a new variant upending plans once again.<\/p>\n

This is the story of 2021 told visually, through the eloquent universal language of photography.<\/p>\n

This period has underscored the special communicative power of the image, as well as the risks taken and hardship endured by photographers so they can show us the world. As some people retreated to working from home, or keeping their distance, these committed journalists did not have that option. Our writers describe and sometimes interpret the world for our readers, but our photographers literally show our readers the world.<\/p>\n

Photographers must be there<\/em> to do their work, to bear witness firsthand. They must be in the hospital I.C.U., in the scrum of the protest, at the front line of the conflict, close to the wildfire, inside the homes of the struggling parents, or wading into the floodwaters of the storm. We are the beneficiaries of their courage and their commitment, and the connections they make with others.<\/p>\n

We get to see and better understand the world through their eyes. We get access to remote places, shuttered places, dangerous places, private places. And, while once war photographers were the ones expected to confront danger, now because of an unpredictable virus, hostility toward journalists, domestic conflict and fearsome natural disasters, an ordinary-sounding assignment can become risky.<\/p>\n

Doug Mills submitted to hundreds of Covid tests in order to give our readers uninterrupted access to a White House in transition between two vastly different administrations. Max Whittaker prepped his house and helped his family evacuate before suiting up to cover the firefighting efforts to contain the Caldor fire that threatened his home. A routine assignment to cover a vote on Capitol Hill was transformed in an instant, and Erin Schaff found herself in the middle of a conflict. She continued to photograph after being physically assaulted by rioters. Jim Huylebroek refused to leave Afghanistan even when it was obviously the prudent thing to do, because he wanted to show the world what was transpiring during the history-making retreat of the American military and the success of the Taliban. Our photographer in Myanmar can\u2019t even reveal his name for fear of being targeted.<\/p>\n

But while the news focuses on tumult, life is much richer than that. We also asked our photographers to document the joy, the optimism, the curious and buoyant moments that remind us of the gobsmacking beauty of the world and all that connects us to one another. The astonishing physical command of an Olympic athlete, perfectly organized in space by a photographer\u2019s composition. The ethereal beauty of the sea\u2019s largest shark as it arches to be fed by a human interloper. The delicate and tender touch of a new mother, the dignity and vulnerability of a person honestly seen.<\/p>\n

Photographers are often invisible and unacknowledged. This collection puts their voices at the center of the conversation. As much as it is a representation of the year\u2019s events, it is also a tribute to them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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