[caption id=“attachment_149710” align=“alignnone” width=“620” caption=“Lightning flashes around the ash plume above the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain near Entrelagos, Chille - Carlos Gutierrez/Reuters”] [/caption] Reuters has released 100 of their best photos for 2011. Each picture is accompanied by a short comment by the photographer, detailing the circumstances under which each photograph was taken. There is for instance a moving recollection by Toshiyuki Tsunenari who was in Japan during the devastating tsunami that struck the country in March. Tsunenari says, “I headed to the Yuriage district of Natori city in Miyagi prefecture just two days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan. The tsunami had destroyed buildings and left water everywhere. Smoke still hung over the smoldering ruins. I met Akane Ito amid the rubble as she sat crying on the side of the road, from where she should have been able to see her house. The tsunami had washed away her home together with the memories and her pet, which was family to her. It is not easy to photograph those in tears, but I took the picture as I felt it represented the sorrow the entire region was experiencing. I feel honored if readers were able to feel part of this sorrow. What I want to be able to do is to allow our readers to see what is taking place in the disaster-hit areas. I also sincerely wish for a swift recovery in the disaster-hit areas.” [caption id=“attachment_149714” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan - Asahi Shimbun/Reuters”] [/caption] Other pictures include photographs of rioters in London, reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s death in Pakistan, protestors and fighters of the Arab spring and suicide attacks in Afghanistan. There are also more artistic photographs that are not all about death, disaster and gore however. Eric Thayer has snapped a beautiful image of a plane that looks it is flying into a beam of light, while Carlos Gutierrez has captured the terrible beauty of mother nature in his photograph, that shows a cloud of ash spouting out of a volcano, surrounded by streaks of lightning. View a slideshow of all the images here View slideshow of some of the best images of 2011 from Reuters [fpgallery id=345]
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