Last year at this time I started to post a series of blogs and images that I entitled “Ten favorite photographs.”  I’d like to continue that tradition.  So starting today and then each day until the end of the year, I am going to present ten of my favorite photographs, one each day.  It is my holiday gift to you, or maybe to myself, because each time I revisit a crowning work by one of the great photographers it is a special and inspiring moment.  It is a moment to relearn the power of image.

So just a few rules of the game.

1. I am only allowed one image per photographer.  I have to choose.
2. I have to respect copyrights.  This means that most of the time you are going to have to click on the title to see the image.
3. I’m allowed to talk about photographers that I have previously discussed in this blog, but I’m not allowed to repost a picture from last year’s list..
4. I’m not going to try to order the images on a scale of one to ten, except perhaps the last.  They’re pretty much in random order.

There are two points that I find interesting about the process.  First, my list from last year stands.  These are still my top ten favorites.  But second, there is a world of fabulous images and these enrich our lives every day.  They make us laugh and they make us cry, but most of all “they give us pause.”This is because they evoke what is fundamentally common and therefore human inside us.  Such is truly the magic of photography.

I very much hope that you enjoy these photographs and I invite you to send a link to your favorites for possible inclusion on the blog.