Every day, Bloomberg photographers capture hundreds of images to illustrate the world’s top business and financial news stories. And every year, we ask our team of editors and photographers to weed through hundreds of thousands of images to select the strongest photos — the ones that illustrated the unillustratable, told a story in a single frame and helped Bloomberg and other news outlets around the world to tell the most important stories of 2014.
And then we asked the team to do the impossible — pick a favorite.
Here are the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) team’s picks for the Best of the Best Photos of 2014:
I want a photographer’s work to make me stop; for the photographer’s work to engage me and provoke questions & discussion. Jason (Alden’s) image does exactly that. His skill in using the soft evening light and the capture of the subtle reflection from a nearby building makes the image much more than just another photograph of the Shard. It’s a great image and is more comparable to a fine painting than a photograph.
—Bryn Colton, Head of EMEA Photo Team
A near impossible decision, I finally decided that my favourite is Tomohiro Ohsumi’s shot of the couple rowing amongst the cherry blossom in Tokyo. I love how it’s instantly identified as Japan by the blossom and the way Tomohiro has leant so little space to his human subjects makes the trees look so grand and impressive, especially with thecontrast and lack of colour in the shot.
— Rhys Absolom, Video Editor, EMEA
I love the muted tones, the softness and the gentle lines, what the image tells you from what you can see and what you can’t, and the sense of patriotism in a year full of momentous stories about people standing up for what they believe in.
— Rosie Wilson, Video Editor, EMEA
It’s a tough call for me as the variation in content is superb this year, and there are some truly great images there. However, I love how the light in Martin Divesk’s image of Dukovany power station highlights the whitewashed chapel, a tiny place of calm, juxtaposed by the looming concrete chimneys of the nuclear power plant. A really subtle, but lovely image.
— Rob Bodman, Photo Editor, EMEA
Tough decision with so many great photos to choose from, but Simon Dawson’s photo from his tour of the “Cheesegrater” building does the trick for me. The reflected Gherkin stood in the shaft of daylight, the city’s skyline, that silhouetted person passing on a floor and the diagonal lines come together to form a great composition which throw my eye off guard and really demand closer inspection.
— Alex Jones, Photo Editor, EMEA
There was clearly some chemistry between these two economic leaders which comes across so well in this photo. Although there were so many other beautiful, strong images to choose from, what I particularly like about this image is that we cover so many news conferences but it is rare that special moments like this are captured! Following on from this meeting, a number of trade deals were signed between German and Chinese companies.
— Gina Turner, Photo Editor, EMEA
See the full collection of photos from the 2014 Best of the Year collection.
