TIME Magazine released its “Best Photos of the Year” this week, and I don’t think the title of the photo editorial is really appropriate. To me, it really reinforces the fact that modern journalism is addicted to spectacularized, shock-reporting. Let me summarize the photo set for you:

1. Arab woman watching the leftovers of a car bombing.
2. An injured child and mother, bloodied and crying.
3. Devastation in southern Beirut.
4. Rice thinking to herself in the Oval Office. No idea why this one is here. Its black and white, and there’s a nice depth-of-field effect, but I can do that too.
5. A couple climbing the border fence in AZ.
6. People building the aforementioned fence.
7. Illegal immigrant deportees in holding. At this point, I’m thinking that black and white pictures are a shoo-in for picture of the year. Call me artistically challenged, but people climbing over a fence, people building a fence, and guys chilling in some boring room are less than awe inspiring.
8. This one’s kinda cool. A secret service agent painted in front of coastline. Nice.
9. Another good one: a French woman has a front room view of the Tour De France.
10. Three in a row. Volcano. Sweet.
11. Destroyed village in Chad, the results of an Arab raid.
12. Refugees fleeing the said raids.
13. The charred body print of a victim, resulting for rebel wars on the Chad/Sudan border.
14. People weeping at the funeral of an Israeli soldier.
15. Another good one. Nice composition of a gentlemen sitting on a concrete barrier in an Israeli checkpoint.
16. Frightened children. They hear the ceremonial gunfire at their own father’s funeral.
17. Kinda cool, I guess. President Bush walking in between the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
18. Two soldiers with shrapnel head wounds being transported in Afghanistan.
19. Good one: this pictures a horse they performed surgery on. Poor guy is getting moved from his post-surgical pool.
20. Two in a row. Black and white photo of some (G-rated) Mardis Gras celebrations.
21. Scared women and children reacting to a US raid in Baghdad.
22. US Solider interrogating a stripped and confused insurgent.
23. Soldiers planning around a campfire. Nice colors.
24. Soldier in a room. Nice lighting and composition.

So, let’s tally up here:

• Photos of scared, injured, or dead people, or destruction: 11/24
• Photos of mundane things, cast in black and white: 5/24
• Photos that might actually deserve the label “best”: 8/24, maybe.

It’s always been a fantasy of mine to be in the room when a TIME photographer snaps one of the beauties in the first category. I think it might happen something a little like this:

*Gunfire rings out as the funeral procession moves past*

*Small children cry and flee*

*TIME photographer raises his camera to his eye*

*I yank the camera off his neck and smash it underfoot. Pushing him back into his seat, I get in his face to give him a long, hard look as the children find their parents.*

I realize that the world needs to see some of these things, but I think I would be appalled to actually see someone take some of these images. “Could you hold on a minute, Sarge? I want to get a good shot of you pointing at him while he’s down there in the gutter like that.”

Whatever.

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