Pictures of the Year by Brandon Twichell

I always enjoy looking at Pictures of the Year. Some of my all-time favorites are those currently on display in the RJI lobby. While all of the photos on this website are excellent, my personal favorites are Global Vision. The views of the various stages of destruction of the Amazon rainforest (photo #4) send very powerful messages about the effects we humans have on the planet. At first I thought photo #13 was of an oasis in a desert but was surprised to learn that it was a plot of rainforest surrounded by destruction. If that does not show the amount of pain we are putting on the land, I do not know what does.

Another one of my favorites was photo #22 in that same group of photos. It is a very strange ice formation that I have honestly never seen before. I hope to take beautiful pictures like this someday and to hopefully be among the photographers honored by Pictures of the Year.