![12 most impressive images of 2024 54 Brazilian surfer poses with his hands in the air during the Olympic men's surfing heats in Tahiti (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3mtz.jpg.webp)
From an awe-inspiring photo of a Tahiti surfer to an iconic shot of US President-elect Trump taken after an assassination attempt, these are the 12 most eye-catching images of the past year.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 56 Reuters (Credit: Reuters)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3h25.jpg.webp)
1. Solar Eclipse, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
An airplane bisects a total solar eclipse over Bloomington, Indiana on April 8th. Its long contrail is silhouetted against the shimmering corona. Of course, this isn’t the first time the paths of the plane, moon, sun, and Earth have intersected. In January 1925, the U.S. Navy airship USS Los Angeles was equipped with a 500-pound (227 kg) telescope and seven scientists to observe as closely as possible the long-awaited solar eclipse as it passed directly over New York City. Brains were loaded. According to some, this is the most observed solar eclipse in history. American painter Howard Russell Butler was not on board the ship, but watched closely from behind his easel back on Earth, calling the event the stunning painting he hoped would inspire. Captured as the third panel of a solar eclipse triptych (1918, 1923, 1925). Elementary school students.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 58 Thomas Jolly (Credit: Thomas Jolly)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3ktn.jpg.webp)
2. Olympic Opening Ceremony, Paris, France
Knowing your art history can save you a lot of stress and heartache. At least that was one of the lessons learned from the controversy surrounding the decadent tableau photos taken during the Olympic opening ceremony. The image, which depicts a naked figure lying decadently on a platter in an oversized table setting, surrounded by drag queens and a seductive singer seated at a fruit bowl, has attracted some Christian and conservative critics. Misunderstood by some as a satire of The Last Supper. Who denounced this work as disgustingly blasphemous. The Paris 2024 organizing committee apologized for the confusion and said the painting was not intended to evoke Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, but instead to summon the Greek god Dionysus, and that Jan・He revealed that it reminded him of Van Bylert’s later painting “Feast” instead of an outline. of the gods, 1635.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 60 Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3kzt.jpg.webp)
3. Transit Center, Lenku, South Sudan
Sudanese refugees wait in a crowded line for aid at a transit center in Lenku, South Sudan, in February. By early 2024, more than 500,000 people had fled fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and South Sudan’s resources were stretched to breaking point. The joyful fluidity of the colorful fabrics and the rhythm of the rich patterns contrast sharply with the austere circumstances of the immigrants. The intensity of this photo recalls the rhythm and texture of the abstract works of famous Sudanese artist and filmmaker Hussein Sharif. His poetic paintings blur the lines between the colors we see and the colors we feel.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 62 AFP Photo/Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (Credit: AFP Photo/Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3l2g.jpg.webp)
4. Volcanic eruption, Indonesia
Images of Mount Luang, Indonesia’s powerful volcano that erupted multiple times in April, throwing columns of hot lava and smoldering ash into the sky, were both menacing and mesmerizing. The terrifying power of volcanic activity has fascinated filmmakers for thousands of years, but the sublime images of incandescent volcanic ash, vaporized pumice, and molten ore spewing into the atmosphere were first created by British Romantic artist John – Strangely aligned with Martin’s violent visions. Two centuries earlier, he revisited the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD in his apocalyptic painting The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1822).
![12 most impressive images of 2024 64 AP (Credit: AP)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3lh1.jpg.webp)
5. US President-elect Donald Trump, Pennsylvania, US
Some of the photographs are self-choreographed, foreshadowing their own enduring symbolism. For example, we think of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima or the Black Power salute by American athletes who raised their fists during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Reflecting elements of both of these two milestones in image production, the photo of a defiant, fist-pumping Donald Trump with a bullet pierced through his right ear by a would-be assassin, his face covered in blood. This is a photo of him climbing up. At a campaign rally in July, a disproportionate American flag was tilted behind him, and many wondered if this was the moment he won the election.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 66 Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3ljz.jpg.webp)
6. Palestinian refugee camp, southern Gaza
Two Palestinian girls prepare for Ramadan by lighting lanterns to decorate a crowded refugee tent in southern Gaza on February 29. The soft light of the lantern contrasts sharply with the eerie darkness of the eerie sunset flickering in the distance. By summer, 90% of Gazans (approximately 2 million people) will have been displaced by the war. The enchanting act of lantern lighting reflects famous scenes from art history. John Singer Sargent’s charming portrait of his friend’s daughters in a garden at dusk in south-west England, Carnation, Lily, Lily and Rose, was painstakingly painted over many months. In the fall of 1885, the light was just right for just a moment each night. All that’s missing is green grass, wildflowers, and a lasting sense of peace.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 68 Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3lkm.jpg.webp)
7. Olympic men’s surfing heat, Tahiti
Emotional images of Brazil’s Gabriel Medina soaring into the sky after taking on a giant wave off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia, during the third round of the men’s surfing heat on July 29th It spread. Medina’s seemingly effortless levitation recalls the countless religious expressions of mystical ascension in Western art, from Giotto to Rembrandt, from Il Garofalo to Salvador Dali. What seals the remarkable simultaneity of athletic elevation and spiritual ascent is Medina’s raised right arm and his hand, pointing exactly where his body and soul seem to be headed. It was a calm thrust of his index finger.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 70 AP (Credit: AP)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3lwm.jpg.webp)
8. Flood, Valencia, Spain
On October 30, a woman in Valencia, Spain, watched from her balcony at the flooded neighborhood below as swept-away vehicles crashed into each other like a herd of steel bulls tearing through the streets. A weather phenomenon known as DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos), or “cold drop,” hit Valencia the previous day, causing unprecedented rainfall. In just eight hours, 500 mm (20 inches) fell, devastating the area. The dizzying perspective of a Valencian woman, who observes the world crumpling and twisting through her eyes, echoes Italian cubist Carlo Carra’s 1912 painting Simultaneità, La donna al balcone. Reminds me of crumpled perspective. (Simultaneous scene, woman on balcony).
![12 most impressive images of 2024 72 Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3lmc.jpg.webp)
9. Billie Eilish, New York City, USA
At a listening party celebrating the release of her album Hit Me Hard and Soft in New York City in May, American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish revealed that her body was suddenly amplified. It seems to evaporate into a heavy sound and dissolve into a dream of light suspended in smoke. , silhouette if intangible. The expression of the self dissolving into a glowing mist recalls the evaporating visions of British painter JMW Turner. His complex painting “Light and Color (Goethe’s Theory) – The Morning After the Flood”, 1843, imagines a seemingly unfathomable moment of sublime illumination that sets the stage. For all the shimmering shades of existence that follow.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 74 Getty Images (Credit: Getty Images)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3lv8.jpg.webp)
10. Toppling of the statue, Syria
On December 9, a circle of civilians in Syria stamp on the head of a toppled statue of former President Hafez al-Assad with their shoes in a sign of deep contempt. After Syria’s Ba’ath regime collapsed and the Assad family fled the country, Syrians were seen in cities across the country destroying countless statues of ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s father. Of course, the image of the rejected ruler, as seen in William Walcutt’s 1857 painting of a circle of ecstatic New Yorkers pulling down British sculptor Joseph Wilton’s statue of George III, There is a kind of communal catharsis in the joy of being taken off the pedestal and shared. In July 1776, after the just-adopted Declaration of Independence was enthusiastically read out.
![12 most impressive images of 2024 76 Beth Adler (Credit: Beth Adler)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3m47.jpg.webp)
11. Ballerina, New York City, USA
In April, more than 350 dancers gathered to set a Guinness World Record for the most ballerinas in the en pointe pose at the same time. Photos of many participants excitedly preparing to compete capture the grace and energy of this momentous occasion. The claustrophobic unrequited love of many young women would undoubtedly have appealed to French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas. It seems that Degas not only enjoyed watching the master dancers (whom he called the “little monkey girls”) practice and perform. The sound of agonizing joints “cracking” echoes. “I think of women like animals,” he confessed to the painter Pierre-Georges Janiot, “and I probably think that way too often.”
![12 most impressive images of 2024 78 OhmyTV via AP (Credit: OhmyTV via AP)](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p0kd3mdk.jpg.webp)
12. National Assembly, Seoul, South Korea
A Korean woman fearlessly grabs the barrel of a soldier’s loaded rifle. The image, taken shortly after President Yoon Seok-yeol declared martial law, shows Ahn Gwi-ryong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party, carrying heavily armed soldiers ordered to prevent a gathering of lawmakers. The photo shows him struggling with soldiers. Anne later said of the collision: “My only thought was to stop them. I pushed them away, shook them off and did the best I could.” Anne’s unflinching determination and even the steely glint of light from her dress recall British artist John Gilbert’s moving 19th-century watercolor portrait of Joan of Arc. Masu.
*The numbers in this work do not represent rankings, but are intended to make different entries as easy to understand as possible.