Moving, tragic, awe-inspiring photos and the tales of how they came to be.

A protester stands in front of a burning barricade during a demonstration. Cairo, Egypt 1/28/2011
“I was in south Sudan covering the referendum when I found out that there were going to be protests in Egypt. I felt that there could be big troubles, so I returned to Egypt. I arrived at 8am and dropped my bags at home and then went to the office. Later in the afternoon clashes began in Cairo. People were shouting and the police came out on the streets. There were protesters, riot police and also plainclothes police. The plainclothes police started chasing people around: kicking them, beating them. I had to shoot quickly. I saw a lot of plainclothes police standing in a line like soldiers. There were some street battles with civilians. The next day we knew it was going to be a big protest so I took my camera downtown to look for possible trouble. We went to a couple of neighborhoods but people were walking through the small streets heading towards the city center. One moment we witnessed some clashes. Police started to fight and the protesters fought back.” – Goran Tomasevic

Passengers on Cathay Pacific flight CX715 prepare to disembark from a nearly downed airplane after it landed safely. Changi Airport, Singapore 5/16/2011

“We took off smoothly for the short flight from Singapore to Jakarta, and I started falling asleep. Suddenly I was woken by the sound of two bangs, like a bomb or truck tire blowing out. My wife gripped my hand and asked, ‘Do you smell something burning?’ Yes, there was a sharp smell stinging my nose. I realized there was something wrong because all the stewardesses ran back with the food carts.

The plane started to vibrate, harder and harder. I held my wife’s hand tightly and looked at her face as she started praying. My two younger children were asleep, after their first ever trip abroad, but not Pradipta, the eldest one. ‘Pra, look through the window and watch outside,’ I said. ‘I see light, I see fire, I see fire,’ he said. Then the electricity was switched off. I realized the plane, an Airbus A330, had a big problem. I was afraid because I thought we would die. Pradipta looked into my eyes and asked: ‘Will we die?’ I was afraid and could not answer the question. I looked at all my children’s faces and held my lovely wife’s hands tightly. During my many years of assignments as a Reuters photojournalist, when flying I have imagined being on a plane that had a problem that forced an emergency landing, and then taking pictures. But I never imagined this situation with my family. But it happened. We will die together, so we can fly to heaven together, I thought. If we die together, I will not miss my wife’s delicious cooking. I will not miss the smell of my kids’ sweat. There will be no tears among us. My thoughts, to my surprise, stopped me being afraid any more. ‘Will we die?’ Pradipta asked again. I looked into his eyes, held his hand tightly and said: ‘No, we’re alive, we’re still alive,’ then I gave him a high five just as if we were playing basketball. After that, I became calm because I was not afraid to die because we would all die together. I started to adjust my camera, which was hanging around my neck. I set the ISO higher, set the white balance, checked the battery was full and saw I had around 300 clicks for the rest of the memory card. I started to take pictures, though it was dark. I forgot my camera had a full HD video, so I forgot to record the situation. After 20 years living as a photographer, I was thinking as a photographer. I saw a steward sitting in front of me and shouted: ‘What happened?’ ‘The engine is on fire and we are flying back to Singapore,’ he replied. My wife put life vests on herself and the kids, though there had been no order to do so, and other passengers followed. I asked Pradipta to look out of the window, and he said he could still see a lot of light and we were over the sea. The plane was vibrating but still flying. I opened all my senses to prepare for everything, and heard the airplane wheels come out. We landed and stopped on the tarmac. I heard the captain say: ‘I am Captain Brad, the situation is under control and our engine fire has been extinguished. Please wait in a line and walk to exit through the front door, don’t run. And the ground crew will take care of you. Thank you.’“ – Beawiharta Beawiharta

A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan. Natori, Japan 3/13/2011
“I headed to the Yuriage district of Natori city in Miyagi prefecture just two days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. The tsunami had destroyed buildings and left water everywhere. Smoke still hung over the smoldering ruins. I met Akane Ito amid the rubble as she sat crying on the side of the road, from where she should have been able to see her house. The tsunami had washed away her home together with the memories and her pet, which was family to her. It is not easy to photograph those in tears, but I took the picture as I felt it represented the sorrow the entire region was experiencing. I feel honored if readers were able to feel part of this sorrow. What I want to be able to do is to allow our readers to see what is taking place in the disaster-hit areas. I also sincerely wish for a swift recovery in the disaster-hit areas.” – Asahi Shimbun

Rebels hold a young man at gunpoint who they accuse of being a loyalist to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Brega, Libya 3/3/2011
“We were just passing by an area, not really the front line. We pushed ahead but didn’t see anybody so we came back to a checkpoint, somewhere between Ras Lanuf and Brega. We heard that the rebels had some mercenaries. They ended up in this room and they were talking to us. They didn’t look like mercenaries at all. One moment, they took one of them out and they put him on the ground and they interrogated him. They pointed fingers and a gun at him. I was really confused as I don’t understand the language. They took him away in a car. I don’t believe they killed him, I think they took him to Benghazi. They really didn’t look like mercenaries; just young kids under 20 years old. They were wearing nice shoes and jeans. They looked like immigrants. I guess here they don’t want to say that they are Libyans fighting Libyans. It was a bad moment. This gun was not locked at all. This is one of those situations: do you want to do pictures or do you want to react? I’m a photographer and I don’t want to interfere but at the same time I don’t want this young boy’s head to be blown off. It was really difficult for me to focus on the job.” – Goran Tomasevic

Looters rampage through a convenience store. London, England 8/8/2011
„I took this photo just around the corner from my flat, in Clarence road in Hackney, on the third night of rioting and looting in the British capital. I’d heard of photographers being mugged for their gear and assaulted during the riots so I arranged to meet up with some other snappers when I arrived. At the top of the street there was a burning car, lines of riot police with dogs and hooded men throwing bottles, sticks and stones. Suddenly the police withdrew, leaving the rioters to it. I could see people climbing in and out of a shop with smashed windows, so I went to have a look. There were a lot of men and women looting the shop and at first no one noticed me. I started to shoot and, like you do, with every frame I took another step into the shop and away from a safe exit. The shop had been trashed inside and a couple of men were filling their bags with bottles of spirits and cigarettes. Another checked the till. I kept shooting until one of them noticed me. The last frame I have is of him looking at me as he pulls himself up onto the counter. I left the shop but two large looters came over and accused me of being police. There was a bit of pushing and pulling as they tried to take my cameras. Luckily some of the other photographers who had been with me when I arrived came over and pulled me away. It was a lesson, not only in not overstaying your welcome, but also how important your colleagues are.” – Olivia Harris

Tourists run from teargas in central Athens during anti-austerity protests. Athens, Greece 6/15/2011
“There was a planned protest march against a parliamentary vote on Greece’s five-year austerity plan that included tax hikes and government spending cuts, which degenerated into a violent clash between protesters and riot police. I was standing on the elevated entrance of a central hotel on Syntagma square with other photographers covering the clashes. The police had just pushed back protesters with the use of teargas. Suddenly, through a cloud of teargas, a group of frightened tourists appeared, with luggage in hand and covering their noses, and started running towards us. The scene was totally surreal: In the middle of a stone war and teargas, tourists visiting Athens on their summer holidays were trying to reach their hotel. I didn’t think twice, I lifted my camera and followed their agonizing effort until they reached the hotel entrance where we were standing. The door opened and they vanished behind it, safe and into a reality much different from the one that was evolving before me.” – John Kolesidis

Relatives of one of the victims of Thursday’s shooting at Tasso da Silveira school carry a family member who had fainted during funeral. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 4/8/2011
”The murder of 12 children in a Rio de Janeiro school was the most difficult story I’ve done. An unprecedented story in Brazil, it shocked the entire society and for us journalists, it was no different. On the day after the massacre we were covering the victims’ funerals and the strong emotions of the families and friends. As I reached the cemetery the first scene I came across was one of a fainted mother being carried, after having suffered a crisis at the child’s wake. I took a few shots, and while they went in search of medical assistance I tried to understand what was happening around me. As I observed what was happening all around, l was also thinking of how to work surrounded by so much pain, including the pain that I felt myself.” – Ricardo Moraes

Lightning flashes around the ash plume above the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano. Entrelagos, Chile 6/5/2011
“That night was very cold and from the Earth’s depths came strong rumbling, as if the ground was going to open and swallow us. As the sky was illuminated with a strong red light, lightning struck all around as if it were the end of the world. There was a strong smell of sulfur and ash all around. The ash plume reached more than 12 miles into the air, high enough for it to be easily seen from space as it crossed the continent. The ash damaged places in Chile and Argentina, causing loss of cattle, contamination of lakes and rivers, respiratory illness, and cancelation of flights.“ – Carlos Gutierrez

The mother of 20-year-old suicide bomber sits on her son’s bed. Nazran, Russia 2/16/2011
„I was in Chechnya when the airport bomber’s name, Magomed Yevloyev, was announced. His family lived in the nearby republic of Ingushetia. I had no contacts or real understanding of where his family lived. A colleague at Reuters warned me that another journalist and a photographer had been arrested for trying to get into Yevloyev’s home for an interview. I decided to wait a day before driving there. I left from Grozny very early in the morning and parked my car far from her home. It is incredibly difficult to operate in the North Caucasus, there’s an insurgency taking place in the region. This situation was especially intense because the family’s home was closely monitored by federal security forces.

I was lucky to make it into her home and was the first to interview and photograph the suicide bomber’s mother. She sat on her dead son’s bed during the conversation. I took her portrait right away and hid the camera’s memory card in my shoe, just in case I was stopped. It took me about an hour to get back to the city where I transmitted the images back to the bureau in Moscow.“ – Diana Markosian

Tags: Amazing, Photographs, Stories

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