Photo of the year: Michael Yon
Posted by Richard on December 14, 2005
Each week, Time’s online readers vote for the Picture of the Week, and at the end of the year, Time puts the top ten vote-getters up for Picture of the Year. One of the ten, and the only one not by a professional photographer, is Michael Yon’s moving image of Maj. Mark Bieger cradling an Iraqi girl who was mortally wounded by a suicide bomber. Yon described it this way:
It was an instant of clarity in a blur of chaos that, for many of us, frames and defines the nature of this war. Any US soldier who has ever served in combat can probably give countless examples of moments like this. I just happened to be on the scene that day when a terrorist who had been trailing a Deuce Four patrol in a car packed with explosives waited until a crowd of children had gathered around the soldiers and selected that moment to drive into the crowd and detonate. Although little remained of him to be shown in this frame, the image somehow still reveals the true nature of our enemy in this war.
You can see all ten finalists and vote for your favorite by clicking this link. It takes you to a slide show; click the Next button to step through all ten images, which are all well worth seeing. When you reach the tenth one, click the Next button once more. That takes you to the voting page. Choose your favorite and click Vote. Then, the current voting results appear.
When I voted, Michael Yon’s photo had 61% of the vote. The second-place photo had 6%. Bravo, Michael — and well-deserved.
UPDATE: Yon also leads by a mile for Best Media/Journalist Blog in Wizbang’s 2005 Weblog Awards voting. Voting continues through the 15th, so you can still help extend his lead — or cast a sympathy vote for such worthy opponents competitors as Mark Steyn and James Lileks.
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