Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

Bill Tiernan / The Virginian-Pilot via AP

A tearful farewell at a military base in Virginia, a daredevil plunge from 71,500 feet above New Mexico, a fiery festival in Spain, a crumbling monument in Bulgaria and more.

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When my colleagues and I look at a week’s worth of unfiltered news images (about 50,000) we begin to see repeating visual themes. For example, every week we see pictures of military personnel deploying to or coming from dangerous places. We see hundreds, sometimes thousands, of political protests. We see images of defenseless people, including children, caught up in horrific world events. We see powerful natural disasters, the change of seasons, attractive celebrities and sporting events of every kind.

The occasional cynic in me sometimes flirts with the idea that photographers have run out of ideas. In my worst moments I wonder why we spend our lives retreading the same ground week after week.

But then I remember that pictures often serve as visual shorthand. I believe they provide a bridge over the the chasm of time, distance and unfamiliar culture. When you see a picture of a military wife’s hands clinging onto her husband’s head in the moments before he deploys to war it reminds you of that person you miss so much, and you empathize. A photographer can help us care in a way that a writer often struggles to achieve.

Related photo features:

• Vote for your favorite picture on our Facebook page
• The Week in Pictures Archive
• Msnbc.com Photos Front

Previous episodes of "The Week in Pictures" from 2012

• March 8 - 15
• March 1 – 8
• Feb. 23 – March 1
• Feb. 16 – 23
• Feb. 9 – 16
• Feb. 2 – 9
• Jan. 26 – Feb. 2
• Jan. 19 – 26
• Jan. 12 – 19
• Jan. 5 – 12
• Dec. 30, 2011 – Jan. 5

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•Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

Fan friendly: Celtics guard Ray Allen lands on a fan's lap during Boston's loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles on Monday, March 12. (Click the image to launch the Week in Sports Pictures slideshow)

The Week in Sports Pictures is a tour de force through some of the best sports photos from around the world. With each edition we look for the best images from all sporting events, not just pictures from the biggest games.

This week is no exception.  Thousands of photos were whittled down to hundreds and those hundreds were whacked again to get dozens. In the final edit of 22 pictures, there are 16 different sports from eight countries.

Of course March Madness made the list but so did a photo from the Cowgirl World Championships in Columbia. We hope you enjoy this week’s collection and let us know what you think in the comment section below or on Twitter @msnbc_pictures.

Related links:

• The Week in Sports Pictures: March 12 - 18
• The Week in Sports Pictures archive
• See more msnbc.com photo features

Ricardo Arduengo / AP

One last shot: This image of athletes waiting to start the Ironman in Puerto Rico didn't make the week in sports pictures edit, but I loved the magic hour light on the swimmer's faces.

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•Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

A student protester is subdued by police in Colombia, hostesses serve tea to delegates in China, the Northern Lights put on a dazzling display over Iceland and more.

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There were a lot of difficult pictures in this week’s edit. Images of conflict in Syria, the West Bank, Baghdad and Afghanistan made it into the final edit, and several of those made it into the published slideshow.

It is difficult to evaluate the visual value of conflict pictures against funny or beautiful images. It’s something we wrestle with almost every week. We often have to keep telling ourselves that the goal is to feature great news pictures. We’re not trying to retell the top stories of the past seven days.

The formal side of our training and picture editing experience is attracted to meaningful moments, great composition and interesting light. Our humanity responds to tears of loss, the love of a precious child or sometimes even an interesting bug. Somewhere in the middle of all that is rational news judgment and a cold desire to be objective, but that is hard because pictures make you care.

Related photo features:

• Vote for your favorite picture on our Facebook page
• The Week in Pictures Archive
• Msnbc.com Photos Front

Previous episodes of "The Week in Pictures" from 2012

• March 1 – 8
• Feb. 23 – March 1
• Feb. 16 – 23
• Feb. 9 – 16
• Feb. 2 – 9
• Jan. 26 – Feb. 2
• Jan. 19 – 26
• Jan. 12 – 19
• Jan. 5 – 12
• Dec. 30, 2011 – Jan. 5

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•Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

Slideshow: Week in Pictures

Mike Hensdill / AP

Children dance at a Cinderella ball in North Carolina, a man herds hundreds of sheep through a snowy field in Switzerland, protesters lob firebombs at police in Greece and more.

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The Week in Picture vote on Facebook

The Week in Pictures, TWIP, was one of the first regularly occurring msnbc.com editorial products that successfully used interactivity. Back in the late 1990s, we included a vote page using a simple interface that allowed people to vote for their favorite image. It was an uncomplicated idea that was executed well, and our users engaged with it by the thousands.

As good as that has been, we’ve always wanted to have more give-and-take with the TWIP audience. So we enabled users to “email us” and “email this” several years ago. The buttons are still in the top-right of every TWIP slideshow. Because of those two things, we’ve been aware of and participated in a rich conversation with a few TWIP audience members each week. However, that conversation is stiflingly limited by its one-on-one email nature.

It is surprisingly difficult to create a space where a public conversation can happen around TWIP. The challenges are that you need a robust, scalable system that is easy to use on both the editing and audience side. You shouldn’t need to read a manual in order to use it.

We’ve also discovered through our experience in PhotoBlog that commenting and community is tricky. We’ve learned the hard way that anonymous commenting is practically useless. It allows the outrageous few to hijack what would otherwise be thoughtful conversation, creating a wasteland of radical political agendas, hate speech and personal attacks. That’s difficult to watch when it’s sometimes directed at the subject of a photograph or the photographer. Because of these challenges, we left TWIP out of msnbc.com social networking efforts. That felt like the right choice three years ago, but it doesn’t anymore. It’s time for TWIP to join the conversation.

In order to foster an honest, respectfully engaged community, you either create an entirely new system and hope people will sign up, or you take your idea to an existing community that already works. That is why we’ve moved the TWIP vote to Facebook. The slideshow we produce is just the jumping off point. When you “Like” our page you not only get to vote. You can share your vote with your Facebook friends. You can also comment on the whole slideshow or individual pictures. If you don't want to share your choice or express your opinion then you can simply vote. Our goal is to create an engaging place where you can share what you like or don’t like about pictures. Join us. Tell us what you think.

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Samuel Aranda for The New York Times via Reuters

A woman holding a wounded relative during protests in Sanaa, Yemen, on October 15, 2011.

The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest announced Friday that it had selected a picture by Samuel Aranda as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011.

Samuel Aranda / EPA, file

An undated self portrait by photographer Samuel Aranda.

Jurors said the photo of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen captured multiple facets of the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the Middle East last year. It was taken at a field hospital inside a mosque in Sanaa on October 15.

The winning photo was selected from 101,254 images submitted by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries.

Aranda, a freelance photographer from Spain, traveled to Yemen on assignment for The New York Times. In December he gave an interview to the newspaper about the difficulties of working in Yemen—and the warmth of its people.

"What I would really like is for this photo to help the people of Yemen," he told The British Journal of Photography after learning of the award. "I think it's a country that is often forgotten."

Jury chair Aidan Sullivan said: "The winning photo shows a poignant, compassionate moment, the human consequence of an enormous event, an event that is still going on. We might never know who this woman is, cradling an injured relative, but together they become a living image of the courage of ordinary people that helped create an important chapter in the history of the Middle East."

Slideshow: World Press Photo 2012 award winners gallery

Vincent Boisot / AP

View the award winning images selected by World Press Photo.

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Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

Protest fire in Cairo, a "Soul Train" salute in New York, a  tie-and-jacket tussle in Turkey, a police strike in northeastern Brazil and more.

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Gary Hershorn / Reuters

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady leaves the field after their loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Ind. on Feb. 5, 2012.

There were a lot of “almost in” pictures during this week's edit. An “almost in” is a picture that an editor sort of likes, but isn’t passionate about or can’t convince the other editors of its worthiness.

My “almost-in” this week is the picture of Tom Brady leaving the field after his team’s Super Bowl loss. The picture is well composed, and I like the way Gary Hershorn captured Brady turning away from the celebration. It’s a story-telling picture.

Related:

• Vote for your favorite picture from this week.
• See past episodes of The Week in Pictures in the archive.
• See more slideshow and pictures stories on the msnbc.com Photos front.

Follow @msnbc_pictures

Alkazi Collection of Photography

Homai with other press photographers, at a photo session with Mrs. Gandhi

Homai Vyarawalla / Alkazi Collection of Photography

Lord Mountbatten taking the salute at the Guard of Honour, Rashtrapati Bhawan, when leaving office as Governor-General in June, 1948

Homai Vyarawala Photo Collection via AFP - Getty Images

Indian photographer Homai Vyarawalla in her early years.

Homai Vyarawalla began taking pictures in the 1930s, and is considered India's first woman photojournalist. She documented a significant period in India's history as it transitioned away from British rule. Through her camera, she captured Gandhi's life and funeral, the Dalai Lama's arrival in India after his escape from Tibet in 1956, and the departure of the last British Viceroy Lord Mountbatten.

Vyarawalla died on Jan. 15 at the age of 98, after complications from a fall. Her interest in photography began when she was 13-years-old, when she used her camera to take pictures of life in Bombay. Her biographer, Sabeena Gadihoke, described her upbringing in the Hindu:

Belonging as she did to a middle class Parsi family, Homai had to struggle for most of her life. She always said that had she not become a photographer, she would have joined any other profession that was available to her. Not working was never an option for her. Her father, an actor in a travelling Urdu-Parsi Theatre troupe had to borrow money to return to India when his company declared bankruptcy in Rangoon. He died soon after and Homai's mother augmented the family income by weaving the parsi kusti (sacred thread). Homai was the only girl in her class in the Gujarati school where she studied.

Her favorite subject was India's first Prime Minister Jawaharal Nehru. According to the New York Times:

Ms. Vyarawalla called Nehru her “all-time favorite subject” and “extremely photogenic,” and when photographing him she would wait for an informal image to materialize — lighting a cigarette or releasing a pigeon. She was present at his funeral.

“When Nehru died,” she told the newspaper The Indian Express, “I felt like a child losing its favorite toy, and I cried, hiding my face from other photographers.”

Homai Vyarawalla / Alkazi Collection of Photography

Jawaharlal Nehru lighting up a cigarette for Mrs. Simon, the wife of the Deputy High Commissioner of Britain.

Homai Vyarawalla / Alkazi Collection of Photography

Aerial View of the Republic Day Parade in Delhi taken from the top of India Gate in 1951

Often surrounded by men at events, she stood out from the pack of press photographers. According to NPR:

Draped in a sari and lugging heavy photographic equipment, she photographed in an era when the media had unprecedented access and an ongoing camaraderie. "All of us helped each other," she said of her male counterparts. "If someone was changing film, he would request another photographer to take an extra picture for him. We even traded negatives so that no one missed out on a good picture."

Vyarawalla recognized that she was a minority in a male-dominated profession and as a result adapted her behavior with her subjects. According to India Today:

"Much, much later, after I had torn too many sarees with other photographers stepping on them that I began to wear salwar kameezes," she explains. The decision to dress formally was as deliberate as the decision to stay aloof from the subjects she was photographing. "I always did my work and moved out. In fact, many times I did not even greet my subjects. I knew I was working in a man's world in an orthodox society. So I developed this 'stern' persona so nobody got any wrong signals."

Vyarawalla put away her cameras and stopped taking pictures in 1970, when she became disappointed in the shifting attitude of other photographers. According to India Today:

"The atmosphere had changed considerably," she explains. "Photographers were getting a bad name. My colleagues had all been gentlemen but the new crop did not know how to behave in high society. I did not want to be associated with such riffraff.

Homai Vyarawalla / Alkazi Collection of Photography

Gandhi with Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan and Sushila Nayar, his personal physician, arriving for the meeting of the Congress Committee, where the partition of the country was decided, 1947

Homai Vyarawalla / Alkazi Collection of Photography

Pandit Nehru releasing a dove, sign of peace at a public function at the National Stadium in New Delhi, mid 1950s

Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

Ali Ali / EPA

Palestinian playtime in the Gaza Strip, a chilly plunge in Maryland, fleeing a bull in Mexico, young Gandhi lookalikes in India and more.

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• Choose your favorite picture on The Week in Pictures Vote page.
• See previous episodes in The Week in Pictures Archive.
• Sign up for the MSNBC.com Pictures Newsletter.

Reuters

A soccer fan flees from a fire at Cairo Stadium on Feb. 1, 2012. Crowds set parts of the stadium on fire in reaction to play on the field during a soccer match held at the Egyptian city of Port Said. At least 70 people were killed and hundreds of others injured on Wednesday after a soccer pitch invasion in Port Said, healthy ministry sources said, in an incident that one player described as "a war, not football".

The final edit for The Week in Pictures can sometimes be a little unpleasant. Each of us often has a favorite picture or two, and we lobby hard for them. We do our best to keep it professional, but photography is a visceral thing - it makes you care. Having a group of photo editors choose the best pictures each week sometimes boils down to personal perspectives and how well someone can argue their point during a fluid discussion. Sometimes I struggle to find the words during our editing sessions. That usually means one of my favorite pictures doesn’t make the cut.

I believe each of us would admit that losing one of those arguments isn’t easy; but we’re convinced that the final product is better because of the process we follow. We often say to each other, “This should hurt a little.”

The picture (at right) of the soccer field riot in Egypt is the one that I regret not having in this week’s slideshow.

Watch the video below to see more background on The Week in Pictures.

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The Pacific Newspaper Group reports on its website:

Last year, Pacific Newspaper Group (The Province and The Vancouver Sun) successfully fought a court order to surrender to the Vancouver Police Department all images and video produced by our respective newsrooms on the night of the Stanley Cup riot.

The VPD modified its original application to the court and a new order to surrender images and video was delivered late last year to both newsrooms.

Based on legal opinion, Pacific Newspaper Group will comply with the order and deliver the materials to the VPD by the Jan. 21 deadline.

As a result of this decision, The Vancouver Sun and The Province have decided to make all the images we intend to surrender to police available first to our readers. The following images and videos represent the entirety of materials we will deliver, through our lawyer, to the VPD.

vancouversun.com

Screensnap of the Vancouver Sun website

I remember a day, too long ago, when I was a young photographer at a small daily Wyoming newspaper. I was driving down the road when the police scanner in my jeep went off with a call for backup at a convenience store that was right around the corner. I quickly changed lanes and pulled into the store’s parking lot. I threw the vehicle in park, grabbed my camera and started making pictures. I was young and inexperienced. Nervous excitement got the best of me. My camera settings were all wrong as I made a few bad pictures of two police officers taking down a suspect.

The newspaper ended up not using the pictures, but the next day a police detective showed up in the newsroom asking for copies of the pictures. To my surprise, the managing editor ran the detective off and then sat me down to dispense a little newsroom learnin’. He explained that journalists are not an information gathering arm of law enforcement. He told me that the newspaper would have a very difficult time reporting on drug abuse, police corruption or anything else that might involve the police if we started handing over our unpublished photographs and interview notes to the police.

At the time I felt like I was in a difficult position. I understood the ideals my editor was talking about, but as a photojournalist I needed to have a working relationship with the police. I ran into them every day at crime scenes, traffic accidents, fires and even high school ball games. I also believe that there is a natural desire in law-abiding citizens to help the police.

However, I’ve come to understand much more deeply what my editor was getting at that day, and that knowledge makes what’s happening to the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers so painful.

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This week’s edit was surprisingly difficult. My favorite images are Mike Eliason’s picture of the dramatic car wreck rescue, Kevin Frayer’s picture of a man waiting in his underwear while a street tailor alters his pants, and Robin Loznak’s perfect visual joke of the chicken that crossed the road.

Slideshow: The Week in Pictures

Robin Loznak / Zuma Press

Fowl play in Oregon, a marathon sled dog race in France, a street tailor in India, a wrecked cruise liner in Italy and more.

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View the slideshow and vote for your favorite picture.

Explore “The Week in Pictures” archive.

See the best picture from last year in “The Year in Pictures: 2011”

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George Eastman House via Reuters

George Eastman, left, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, is shown with fellow inventor Thomas Edison. The 130-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, has filed for bankruptcy.

The news that Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday saddened many, including (and maybe especially) the photographers who relied on the company's products for more than a century to record images both mundane and historic.

Almost anyone who shot a photo prior to the advent of digital photography has used Kodak film.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

Eastman Kodak black and white film, negatives, film development reels and black and white photographic prints.

Professional photographers relied on the brand from the early 1900s until the 1980s, when the company that invented the hand-held camera and rollup film began to lose market share to foreign producers. Cameras, lenses, film, photographic paper and other artifacts -- cherished by photographers and collectors -- remain as reminders of the company's contribution to the art of taking pictures.

Mick Cochran

An old Kodak film canister, photographed on Jan. 19.

Mick Cochran, former director of photography for USA Today, spoke with msnbc.com about stumbling across his own Kodak keepsakes.

Rummaging through a canvas bag inside his Rhode Island home, Cochran found an old film canister from the 1950s.

“Oh wow," he said admiring the well-worn item. "Look at that, you see the texture? The Kodak just pops. It’s the coolest thing.”

Photographers admittedly get a bit wistful when looking back at shooting and processing film, even though they enjoy the ease of digital photography, which Kodak invented but ironically never exploited.

"Anytime you could find someone to process your film, you would do it. Nobody wanted to be in the darkroom with all those chemicals. It was a rite of passage, it was messy," Cochran said.

"It was such an arduous thing we did. Digital came around and it was so much better and faster," he said.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

A collection of Eastman Kodak products.

Gary Cameron / Reuters

An Eastman Kodak Carousel slide projector, with 35mm color slide and film cannisters.

Cochran said that even though many people criticize Kodak for failing to keep up with the explosion in digital photography, he recalled that the Rochester, N.Y.-based company sent a team to Florida to interview photographers for what was the first digital photography workshop.

“It was fascinating,” he said, adding it was clear Kodak was trying to figure out what it was going to do with the new technology and how it was going to grow the business. 

"That big yellow K has always been a good thing, a quality product. You can’t deny their support of the photo business," Cochran said.