The Best Of The Best Photographs Of 2019

Hubble’s Latest Portrait of Saturn

The new year is a wonderful time to look at great photographs!

Dozens of media outlets collect their best from the past year.

You’ll find links to the best of the best below.

Enjoy!

Time’s 2019 Top 100 Photos
The New York Times Year In Pictures 2019
CNN 2019 Year In Review
CNN’s Best Travel Photos Of 2019
Bloomberg’s Year in Pictures 2019
Bored Panda’s 30 Most Powerful Press Photos Of 2019
Magnum’s Pictures Of The Year 2019
Top AP Photos Of 2019
New York Post’s Best Photos Of 2019
The Guardian’s Best Photographs Of 2019
The Guardian’s A Decade In Pictures 2010-2019
The Atlantic top 25 News Photos Of 2019
The Atlantic The Most 2019 Photos Ever
The Atlantic Photos Of A Decade 2010-2019
Reuter’s Best Photos Of 2019
CBS News Best Photos Of 2019
World Press Photo 2019 Contest Winners
Agora World Photography Competition 2019 Winners
My Modern Met
The Best New Yorker Photography Of 2019
National Geographic
Gizmodo’s Best Wildlife Photos Of 2019
Audubon’s 2019 Photography Award Winners
Business Insider’s Best Wildlife Photos Of 2019
Science’s Favorite Photos Of 2019
Sports Illustrated’s Best Photos Of 2019
The Guardian’s Best Sports Photography Of 2019
Best Photography Books Of 2019 – I
Best Photography Books Of 2019 – II
 
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My Top 12 Photographs Of 2018

01

Constellation

02

Constellation

03

Constellation

04

Constellation

05

Constellation

06

Constellation

07 (1)

Antarctica

10

Land In Land LXXIX

09

Land In Land LXXXIX

08

Land In Land LXXVI

11

Land In Land LIII

12

Land In Land LXXVI

This is a selection of my top 12 images of 2018. This selection doesn’t reflect sales, publication, or activities on the web. It simply reflects my opinion. Click on the titles to find out more about each image.

Geography

The locations include Antarctica, Spain, Arches National Park, Scoresbysund Greenland, and Maine.

Process

Continuing the momentum from the previous year I completed my first seriesof finished works with my iPhone – Land In Land. Processing images on location, sometimes seconds after making exposures, is a gamechanger. Even more interesting is the sense of seeing the image better at arm’s length, allowing me to see the composition and the subject simultaneously.

I was pleasantly surprised when another experiment worked as I combined images in the public domain from the Hubble telescope with my own exposures, expanding the images in my series Constellation to add images of deep space to those of stars observed with the naked eye.

Concepts

I continue to explore presenting many moments in time simultaneously to see one aspect of land through another. In more recent work, the detail and the overview are united in a single integrated experience. As ever, what’s behind and beyond shows through.

My use of abstraction has expanded from minimalism to include more complex maximal patterns.

Magic Moment

Perhaps the most sublime moments were found in Greenland’s, Scoresbysund, as the weather shifted to winter conditions creating dramatic katabatic winds and unusual ice conditions found only at the beginning of the season. Being on the only boat (a three-masted schooner built in the early 1900s) in the fiord system heightened the sense of adventure.

It was a very productive year; more than 75 new works released; more than 150 new studies made.

It’s challenging to choose so few images from so many – but it’s insightful. Try selecting your own top 12 images. Try selecting the top 12 images of your favorite artist(s).

View more of my Annual Top 12 Selections here.
View more images in my ebooks here.
View my full Works here.
View my Series videos here.
View new images in my newsletter Collectors Alert.

Optic 2018 | Myth, Magic, and Mojo | Keith Carter


“At B&H’s Optic 2018, photographer Keith Carter talks about myths, magic, and mojo. He believes that the best way to elevate your photography is to tell the truth as you know it through your photos, and he stresses that there are great lessons to be learned by revisiting history. We can learn a lot about how to shoot well – even in this digital age – by studying classic photos that pre-date digital photography.”
Find out more about Keith Carter here.
Read our conversation here.
Read quotes by Keith Carter here.
View 12 Great Photographs By Keith Carter here.
 

12 Photographs Celebrated By Huntington Witherill

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Huntington Witherill’s Orchestrating Icons

Huntington Witherill celebrates twelve photographs by other photographers.

Road to Badwater, 1971

Al Weber, Road to Badwater, 1971

Al Weber’s “Road to Badwater, 1971” demonstrates the effectiveness and power of design simplicity in depicting the immense spaces that characterize Death Valley. The overall sense of atmosphere and distance are communicated through but a few bold blocks of uniform tonal value, each of which help to define the photograph’s unique character.

Pelargonium Blossums, Mill Valley, CA 1985

Don Worth, Pelargonium Blossoms, 1985

The visual strength of Don Worth’s “Pelargonium Blossoms, 1985” lies within the tension that exists between the intricate textures and patterns, together with a juxtaposition of accent color placed against a largely monochromatic field. Each time I look at this photograph I am drawn into its hypnotic spell.

Drainage Ditches in a Low Agricultural Field, Savannah River Nuc

Emmett Gowin

Emmett Gowin’s photographs from his series: “Changing the Earth” exhibit a remarkable juxtaposition of visual beauty in the midst of perceived destruction. It’s not that the subject matter he has chosen to photograph is so often thought of as being of a more or less unseemly nature. It is that he has presented this particular subject – in its perceived negativity – with such an abundance of visual beauty and grace that he seduces the viewer into an irreconcilable dichotomy.

US Highway Route 1, 1965

Henry Gilpin’s, US Highway Route 1, 1965

Clearly one of the most iconic images of the Big Sur Coastline, Henry Gilpin’s “US Highway Route 1, 1965” celebrates the wild and austere essence of the Big Sur Coast. The serpentine highway glowing white hot against the dark and foreboding shoreline cliffs projects a scene of exceptional strength and amplitude.

Untitled, No Date

Kim Weston

Kim Weston’s hand-painted photograph of ballerinas features a marvelous sense of movement and grace that is punctuated by the introduction of sparse color. The color, itself, seems to further abstract the image, thereby helping to focus the viewer’s attention on the dynamic and symbiotic relationship between the figures, themselves.

Center of Town After Blizzard, Woodstock, VT- 1940

Marion Post Wolcott, Blizzard, Woodstock, VT, 1940

Marion Post Wolcott’s “Blizzard, Woodstock, VT, 1940” portrays a quiet yet bitter cold winter evening. The glimmering street lights serve as an effective and warm counterpoint to what, otherwise, seems a penetratingly cold environment. This photograph makes me want to put on another coat!

Stairway #60, Los Angeles

Mark Wainer, Stairway #60, Los Angeles

Suggestive of an M.C. Escher drawing, Mark Wainer’s “Stairway #60, Los Angeles” evokes a whimsical maze of mystery and apprehension. Is the figure hoplessly trapped? Or, has he managed to find the hidden escape?

Windowsill Daydreaming, Rochester, New York, 1958

Minor White, Windowsill Daydreaming

Windowsill Daydreaming, by Minor White, is one of those quintessential photographs in which the light, itself, is the predominate subject. The seductive nature of the subject, in this case, is both highly mysterious, and positively alluring.

Kiva Ladder, San Ildefonse Pueblo, 1973

Morley Baer, Kiva Ladder, 1973

Morley Baer’s “Kiva Ladder, 1973” appears as a graphically rich visual Icon symbolizing the American Southwest and its native cultures. The immense power of graphic simplicity, achieved through the exquisite and economical use of simple line and texture, help to contribute to the photograph’s near universal appeal.

Nascent Flight

Paul Caponigro, Nascent Flight

The temptation to reach out and touch the surface of Paul Caponigro’s “Nascent Flight” is quite strong. The overall combination of line, texture, and impeccable detail that comprise this complex yet visually concise still life projects a near miraculous display of inherent strength in the presence of underlying fragility.

Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, 1978

Philip Hyde, Iceberg Lake

Philip Hyde’s “Iceberg Lake” demonstrates a marvelous sense of asymmetrical balance. While the ice forms seem randomly placed within the composition, the organization of forms within the overall frame are not only solidly connected, but also perfectly well balanced.

La Mesita, New Mexico, 1978

William Clift, La Mesita, New Mexico, 1978

William Clift’s “La Mesita, New Mexico, 1978” portrays the open desert with uncommon elegance and aplomb. There is undeniable magic in the light that Clift has captured, here. And taken together with an exquisite sense of detail and overall delicacy, I am compelled to step into the frame and go exploring!

Learn more about Huntington Witherill here.
View 12 Great Photographs By Huntington Witherill here.
Read our Quick Q&A here.
View video with Huntington Witherill here.
Read our conversation with Huntington Witherill.
View more Photographers Celebrate Photography here.

12 Photographs Celebrated By John Paul Caponigro

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Alfred Stieglitz’ extended portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe is a penetratingly honest act of love.

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Christopher Burkett’s makes accurate representation an extension of his spirituality; he celebrates Creation by faithfully transcribing “The Book Of Nature”.

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Paul Caponigro’s “Galaxy Apple” reveals a macrocosm within a microcosm, demonstrating the power of metaphor; ordinary things are seen as extraordinary.

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Eliot Porter’s photography intuited more complex realtionships in nature before the field of chaos science was popularized.

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Pollution or blood? A tense mystery is created by Edward Burtyinsky’s beautiful images of distressed landscapes.

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Richard Misrach’s Desert Cantos examines a single subject (the American desert southwest) in many different ways over a long period of time, creating a dense web of interconnections.

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Adam Fuss’ photograms, as much about shadow as light, share a stance similar to many abstract painters who point to the object created more than what it refers, while at the same time highlighting the distortions that lenses can bring to representation. The questions his work raise are generative.

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Walter Chappelle’s Metaflora series creates images with plants, electricity, and photosensitive paper in complete darkness. What else can’t we see? What would we see if we could?

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Jerry Uelsmann bring’s images in the mind’s eye into sharp focus with the most directly representational medium.

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Robert and Shana Parke-Harrison’s post-apocalyptic poems perform acts of care for the natural world despite their odds of success.

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Courageous and honest or perverse and self-indulgent? The complex mix of beauty and taboo, infused with death and sexuality, and guilded with art historical references and fine craft is extremely provocative. It’s honest but is it Truthful? Is it wise?

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Andy Goldsworthy’s photographs are all most of us see of his ephemeral earth works often made in remote locations. So what’s the real art? The performance? The object created? The photographic record? The books that collects those records? All of it?

………………..

Photographers look at and understand photographs differently than the average viewer. Their years of unique personal experience with the medium is special. For me, their insights open new windows into the medium, the world, and myself. I hope they do the same for you.

In this series of posts, each photographer selects 12 if their favorite photographs and provides a short insight into why these images are so moving to them.

I’m kicking off a series of photographer’s celebrating photographs.

View more Photographers Celebrate Photography here.

Stay tuned for upcoming additions.

View 12 Great Photographs By John Paul Caponigro here.

Read more quotes by John Paul Caponigro here.

Read our Quick Q&A here.

Read our Conversation here.

View video by John Paul Caponigro here.