10 Photo Stories That Will Challenge Your View Of The World

Here are some of the most interesting and powerful photo stories from across the internet.

We had a good run, 2021.

Like everyone else, we're grappling with the harsh reality that this is who we are as a nation, and that it will take a lot of work to counteract the divisiveness and misinformation that permeates American soil. And while we are frustrated, bewildered, or just tired, we're also turning to the internet to show us the pictures from the year we just entered, and the one we just left.

First, we rounded up photographs of the riot and attempted coup at the Capitol building. Next, we loved looking back with Pro Photo Daily's collection of their best stories from 2021. The New Yorker shared decades of self-portraits by Nancy Floyd as she watched herself age. The Guardian profiled Hector Retamal, who took photos in Wuhan, China, over the course of the last year. And Aaron Vincent Elkaim looked at the legacy of hydroelectric energy in Canada for World Press Photo.

Looking forward, we asked photo industry leaders about their predictions for 2021. We loved the dreamy images from Black women photographers, and the founder of a new site that aims to spotlight and support them. And caught in the middle is photographer JR, who looks forward to a retrospective opening soon in London.

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"Intense Photos Show What It Was Like As Trump Supporters Took Over The Capitol" — BuzzFeed News

Trump-supporting rioters storming the Capitol building in, with two men standing on the hood of an armored car and others waving flags

"The Photographer Who Set Out to Watch Herself Age" — The New Yorker

Two images side by side of a woman taken thirty years apart; on the left she is with her mother and on the right she is alone

"Founder of Site Promoting Work of Black Women Photographers Wants It to Impact Hiring" — NPR

A Black model surrounded by plants

"This Is What Congress Looked Like After The Trump Mob Trashed It" — BuzzFeed News

A "don't tread on me" flag hangs between broken and smashed windows between two walls made of marble at the Capitol building

"'I Tried to Become Part of Wuhan': Hector Retamal — Agency Photographer of 2020" — The Guardian

A woman wearing a face mask walks on the banks of a river with a city in the background

"What Will 2021 Look Like? We Asked 10 Industry Leaders For Their Predictions" — BuzzFeed News

A beach scene with people talking, looking at their phone, holding. a blanket

"These Photos Show What The #EndSARS Movement Looked Like" — BuzzFeed News

A woman in a mask raises her fist in front of a #EndSARS protest in Nigeria

"The Year That Was: 12 Pro Photo Daily Highlights From 2020" — American Photography

A woman's eyes are visible as she peers over and pets her cat

"A State of Erosion: A Legacy of Hydroelectric Energy" — Witness World Press Photo

A young girl in a baseball cap kneels by a riverbank in a long-sleeve shirt that says "rock and roll"

"An Unexpected Call Launched JR Into His Latest Project, Set in a California Maximum-Security Prison" — British Journal of Photography

A multilayered collage of lots of young men in tracksuits running together and on top of each other


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