Dec. 1: Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.

Dec 1: Week in Photography

Welcome to your weekly JPG newsletter!

📸Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs 📸

We took this long holiday weekend as an opportunity to reflect and regroup. We looked back at the most powerful photos of the decade (take a minute with this — it’s a lot) and forward to see how our future is being pictured in an interview with Reuters News, which has shifted how it covers climate change to be more thoughtful and more thorough. Give it a read — it’s worth thinking about how you see the world.

For the holidays, we put together a guide for the best photo books you should definitely consider getting (for yourself or others, we won’t judge). And check out these Thanksgiving photos from ancient history, aka the ‘90s.

THE MOST POWERFUL PHOTOS OF THE 2010s

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

BuzzFeed News combed through thousands of pictures from this past decade, and while this list could not include every major world event of the last decade, we attempted to collect images that were singularly powerful and which spoke larger social shifts. Here are the most powerful photos from the 2010s.

THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF 2019

New York Times / Abrams Books

Just in time for your holiday shopping, here's a look at some of our favorite photo books from this past year.

THERE IS A NEW WAY TO SEE CLIMATE CHANGE

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Reuters News has made climate change a topic of focus — and thats slowly changing the way the general public sees climate change. Read our in-depth interview with their photo desk on why image variety matters.

THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING PARADE IN THE ’90s WAS PURE PERFECTION

Pure. Deflated. Perfection.

FOR YOUR 👀 ONLY:

LOOKING AT COMMUNITY WITH PHOTOGRAPHER

AMY SACKA📸

Amy Sacka is a documentary photographer based in Detroit, who has traveled the globe and photographed everything from ice fishing to her own neighbors. She agreed to speak with BuzzFeed News about her personal project, Roommates After 40, which examines her life with her housemates.

First of all, how many roommates?

Amy Sacka: At one point there were four of us in the house and two dogs. And then three and now there are two again (and one dog).

Amy Sacka

Can you tell us a bit about this project?

AS: I bought this pretty big house in Detroit, thinking, at the time, that I was close to getting engaged and I had this vision for having a family, which didn’t work out.

This project is very much about transition. For myself, I love that space of transition because there is adventure in it, and it allows you to get these insights into people’s lives and there’s some sort of freedom in that.

Who knows how long this will last for me, but as a photographer, I have to make ends meet, and so there is a financial component, big time, for me to have roommates as well.

I always felt like the house was meant for something, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. Through Documenting Detroit [a photography workshop], I had photographers and editors staying at the house, and I thought, OK, that’s been really fulfilling for me. What if I considered having roommates as well?

Amy Sacka

What I love about this project is how it’s made me think about modern family. I’ve given my roommates a camera to take pictures of me, but it’s really about me philosophizing about how things have changed in different stages in my life.

There is a bittersweet nature that you can have, with what you imagine for your life, and having a bit of sadness that oh, it doesn’t look the way that I thought it would be, or it doesn’t look the American Dream or like the vision that my mother had for me.

But then, wow, having these women in my house, and the laughter, the community and the stories that we share, has made me think differently about what an amazing life can look like, and what a fulfilling life can look like, and how it could possibly be more than I imagined.

I’ve had a lot of people reach out about how this project gives them a sense of hope.

Amy Sacka

Any advice on living with roommates?

AS: I’ve known all the people I’ve brought into the house in some capacity, so that was helpful. At the same time, you need to be open-minded, because I have been shocked by some of the things that I have learned about these women. Sometimes great things, and sometimes not so great things, but that’s part of being a family, you see all the sides.

Amy Sacka

What does a home mean for you now?

AM: I really like thinking about this, because so much of my work, even if it doesn’t encapsulate a physical space, is about belonging — trying to belong in a city, finding people that give me a sense of belonging, trying to figure out how I can better fit into the relationship with my father.

I have a very historic home, and it’s a home that I never dreamed that I would have. I feel like a steward, I feel like I need to care for it, and I mean that literally and metaphorically. It’s a special place, and it feels like a haven. I am the fourth owner since it was built in 1926. I want it to be a space where it’s loved and has a sense of history.

I definitely feel the ghosts of my family and the neighborhood. My grandmother raised my mother and her eight siblings a mile away from my current house, so for me, there is a spiritual grounding to where I live.

When I moved in, I needed a space of comfort and a space to feel safe. This house, there’s something very solid about it — the fact that it’s built from steel trusses, which is apparently very odd, there is something very grounded in that. I think we feel it, and that it’s provided a sense of solidarity and solidness for the people who have lived here.

📸WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

We’re looking for photos from YOU that show the idea of community.

They can be of your family, your hometown, your friends — anything fun, weird or poignant is welcome.

The best photo selected will be featured in the JPG newsletter, and on Instagram. Who knows, you might catch the eye of an editor somewhere.

Submit your images here by December 14, 2019.

"That's it from us for now. See you next week! —Gabriel and Kate

“Only photograph what you love.” —Tim Walker

📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Gabriel Sanchez is the photo essay editor based in New York and loves cats. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. You can always reach us here.
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