NGM's Top Ten Photo of 2009

Chris Johns, the National Geographic Magazine's Editor In Chief, has listed the magazine's Top 10 Photos of the Year, which starts off the process by which its best 2009 photograph is picked. The photos cover a broad range of subject matter, from unexplored caves and endangered freshwater dolphins to the global food crisis and vanishing cultures.

In 2009, National Geographic’s photographers took more than one million images from which only 1,000 could be published in the magazine. From 1,000, these 10 were singled out for lasting significance. The photographers are John Stanmeyer, James Nachtwey, Nick Nichols, Martin Schoeller, etc.

I'm always at a loss at understanding (or rationalizing) photo editors' choices, and this list is no help at all. In my view, I've seen thousands of photographs in the 2009 issues of the National Geographic that should have made the list. So I shrug it off, and call it for what it really is...a way to generate publicity for the magazine.