"Trends in Political Photographs" – 2011

1. As much as the year of the protester, it was also the year of women taking to the streets.

2. It was the year flags ceased to be wallpaper.

3. It was a year of mixed metaphors, kidding and not at all kidding.

4. It was the year where the will of the people reverberated in physical space.

5. Also about the physical, it was the year “the body politic” and “the face of democracy” wasn’t abstract at all.

6. It was a year commonality meant everything.

7. Finally, it was a year in which signs, less like slogans and more like typography, reduced the newswire to its telegraphic roots in amplifying “the people’s dialogue.”

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Photo Credits:
1. Peter van Agtmael for The Wall Street Journal

FEBRUARY 2, 2011 – The crowd Tuesday featured large numbers of young women. Whole families were also in attendance, as was Egypt’s upper crust.

2. Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME.

Rebels and citizens celebrate in Tripoli’s renamed Martyrs’ Square following the fall of Gaddafi’s regime.

3. Adbusters poster produced in June, 2011 promoting the start date of the occupation, September 17, 2011

4. Ed Ou / The New York Times

Feb 8, 2011. Demonstrators crammed into Tahrir Square to reject anything less than the president’s immediate ouster.

5. Hani Mohammed / AP

A protestor, his face painted with the colors of Palestine, Yemen, and pre-Gadhafi Libya flags attends a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 12, 2011.

6. Nevil Zaki

Citizen photo distributed from Twitter, published in the Globe and Mail – Feb 3rd, 2011. Christians faced outward and joined hands in a circle to protect a Muslim group of protesters as they prayed in Egypt.

7. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Occupy protesters clash with Long Beach Police Department officers after blocking the road leading to SSA Marine, a shipping company that is partially owned by investment bank Goldman Sachs. Following a general strike coordinated by Occupy Oakland that closed the Oakland port on Nov. 2 hundreds are expected to try and shut down all West Coast ports as Occupy movements in Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Tacoma have joined the demonstration.