Pictures of the year - June

Pictures of the year - June

Advertisement

In June 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court handed a significant victory to the gay rights movement by ruling that married gay men and women were eligible for federal benefits.

In the same month, parts of central Europe were swamped by severe floods and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden first made the news after leaking details of previously secret U.S. government surveillance programs to the media.

. MAGDEBURG, Germany. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

A garden near the German city of Magdeburg is inundated by floodwater, which flows around an outdoor swimming pool.

“It was a sunny and calm Monday afternoon when I flew in a German army transport helicopter above a flooded region north of Magdeburg, the capital of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The Elbe river had swollen to over seven meters above its normal levels and broken its banks and a dyke near the village of Fischbeck. Farmlands, forests and whole villages were inundated by its waters. Hundreds of people had to flee their homes.

Strapped to a bucket seat I sat beside the helicopter’s open sliding door and surveyed the water landscape below me: sunken buildings, tree tops and the tops of abandoned cars dotted the glistening, caramel-coloured surface of the deluge. Here and there a street or a pristinely groomed hedge rose above the water as a reminder of the human order that had been submerged by the force of nature.

One week earlier I had waded through flooded villages upstream. Up to my waist in water I photographed the efforts of rescue teams and volunteers trying to contain the rising river and evacuate trapped inhabitants. When covering a natural disaster of this kind you have to be in the middle of it to capture the emotional dimension of the tragedy.

Yet a bird’s-eye view is equally as important. For only from above can you show the extent of a flood. Or as in the case of this picture, by picking certain graphic details, you can bring the absurdity of the situation to the viewer’s attention.

When the world in which we are ensconced so happily with all our man-made facilities becomes submerged by dirty water, everything assumes an unreal quality. When people’s homes turn into forlorn boxes surrounded by a freak lake that stretches to the horizon, you understand that the order we take for granted is a mere illusion in the face of nature’s caprices.

At some point the helicopter made a right turn, dipping the side I was sitting on deep below the horizon. And there it was right below me, the epitome of the absurd flood picture: the baby-blue oval of a swimming pool evenly surrounded by muddy water.

I trained my 300mm lens straight down and composed as well as I could, which was a challenge in the soaring air stream that nearly snatched my camera out of my hands. I fired off some 10 frames before the chopper levelled out. The picture was gone. No one else on board had seen it.”

Camera: Canon EOS 1DX, lens 300mm, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 500

. ENNISKILLEN, United Kingdom. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the G8 Summit.

“At the G8 Summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, the timing could not have been better (or worse) for a meeting between Obama and Putin.

With the Syrian regime testing the will of the outside world, Obama and Putin came to the G8 with different takes on the conflict. So what is normally a fairly dry photo op following their meeting turned into a lesson in body language overriding words.

The awkwardness was perhaps enhanced by the fact that translators disrupted the normal flow of conversation, but nevertheless, the two could not have looked more ill at ease.”

Camera: Canon EOS 1DX, lens 70-200mm, f4.5, 1/250, ISO 1600

1 / 10

Slideshow

Ariunbold and Uranjargal, the leaders of a Mongolian neo-Nazi group named Tsagaan Khass, stand next to a construction site in Ulan Bator.
. Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Reuters/Carlos Barria

Ariunbold and Uranjargal, the leaders of a Mongolian neo-Nazi group named Tsagaan Khass, stand next to a construction site in Ulan Bator.

Passengers on a train in Hong Kong watch a screen broadcasting news about former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
. HONG KONG, China. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Passengers on a train in Hong Kong watch a screen broadcasting news about former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Carmen Acedo del Lago cries before learning that her family’s anticipated eviction from a social rental flat in northern Madrid had been postponed.
. MADRID, Spain. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Carmen Acedo del Lago cries before learning that her family’s anticipated eviction from a social rental flat in northern Madrid had been postponed.

Palestinian girls play during a United Nations-run summer games week in Gaza City.
. GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Palestinian girls play during a United Nations-run summer games week in Gaza City.

A radio-controlled Superman plane, flown by designer Otto Dieffenbach, passes the moon during a test flight in San Diego, California. Dieffenbach is part of a small start-up company that creates the radio-controlled planes for commercial and promotional uses.
. SAN DIEGO, United States. REUTERS/Mike Blake

A radio-controlled Superman plane, flown by designer Otto Dieffenbach, passes the moon during a test flight in San Diego, California. Dieffenbach is part of a small start-up company that creates the radio-controlled planes for commercial and promotional uses.

A family with soccer tickets runs for cover as they come between security forces and protesters during a demonstration before a Confederations Cup game in Brazil.
. SALVADOR, Brazil. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

A family with soccer tickets runs for cover as they come between security forces and protesters during a demonstration before a Confederations Cup game in Brazil.

Men play soccer between the shadows of buildings on Boa Viagem Beach in Recife.
. RECIFE, Brazil. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Men play soccer between the shadows of buildings on Boa Viagem Beach in Recife.

Nelson Tavares, a 24-year-old originally from Cape Verde, works on a mural of Nelson Mandela, which he painted during festivities in his neighborhood in Lisbon.
. Lisbon, Portugal. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante

Nelson Tavares, a 24-year-old originally from Cape Verde, works on a mural of Nelson Mandela, which he painted during festivities in his neighborhood in Lisbon.

A worker carries a blade at a sawmill, which processes trees illegally felled in the Amazon jungle.
. Morais Almeida, Brazil. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

A worker carries a blade at a sawmill, which processes trees illegally felled in the Amazon jungle.

Afghan National Army soldiers approach a suicide attacker after his vest was defused in Jalalabad province.
. JALALABAD, Afghanistan. REUTERS/Parwiz

Afghan National Army soldiers approach a suicide attacker after his vest was defused in Jalalabad province.