We asked some of the keenest observers of photography to share the most important images they’d seen in the past year. Then we combined their nominations with our picks and made the final call. What follows is our noncomprehensive, totally biased selection of the most powerful, most influential, simply the best pictures of 2012. Some names appear multiple times: New York and Time magazines continue to commission groundbreaking work, and photographers such as Martin Schoeller and Peter Yang had such a great year that we couldn’t pick just one shot for each of them. Surely you’ll find lamentable absences. Nonetheless, we proudly present 2012’s Images of the Year.
We are indebted to the following editors, curators, photographers and all-around picture geniuses who contributed their suggestions to this story:
Alan Taylor - Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Brenna Britton - Deputy Photo Editor (Entertainment), People
Clare O’Dea - owner, Clare Agency
Jacqueline Bates - Senior Photo Editor, W
Jim Colton - Photo Editor
John Toolan - Photography Director Field & Stream and Outdoor Life
Erica McDonald - photographer educator, curator and founder of DEVELOP Photo
Karen Frank - Senior Director of Photography, ESPN The Magazine
Kira Pollack - Director of Photography, Time
Lisa Sutcliffe -Assistant Curator of Photography, SFMOMA
Michael Itkoff - cofounder, Daylight
Paul Kopeikin - owner, Kopeikin Gallery
Patrick James Miller - photographer
Steve Fine - Director of Photography, Sports Illustrated
Jennifer R. Grad - Associate Editor of Photography, Sports Illustrated
Simon Barnett - Director of Photography, CNN Digital
W.M. Hunt - curator, collector, consultant, teacher, fundraiser and author of The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious
Amy Berkley, Photography Editor
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