Nov. 10: Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.

Nov. 10: Week in Photography

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

MOST POWERFUL PHOTO OF THE WEEK

AP Photo / Patty Nieber

This emotional photo captures the moment that 92-year-old Melpomeni Dina reunited with two members of the Jewish family that she rescued and hid during the Holocaust. In 1943, Dina and her older sister offered refuge for the family of seven as Jews were round up in Nazi-occupied Greece. On Nov. 3 this year, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Dina was introduced to 40 descendants of that family, each of whom owe their lives to her heroic actions.

We begin this week’s BuzzFeed News photo stories marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Emotions run high in these pictures as family members and friends reunite as one Germany for the first time in decades. Another anniversary worth noting is the 50th birthday of the beloved children's television program Sesame Street. Witness the behind the scenes magic during early tapings of the show.

On today's world stage, we hear from photographer Emin Özmen, whose reporting from Turkey's border with Syria shows a conflict with no easy solution and no end in sight. Lastly, we explore the fascinating history of aerial photography with author Eamonn McCabe.

Here are more photo essays published by our friends elsewhere.

ONE GERMANY: PICTURES FROM THE FALL OF

THE BERLIN WALL

Patrick Piel / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Witness the emotional scene as Germans celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

NEIGHBORHOOD PALS: BEHIND THE SCENES

OF SESAME STREET

David Attie / Getty Images

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this beloved children's television program, here's a look back at the magic behind the cameras during the early years of Sesame Street.

NEVER-ENDING CONFLICT: THE TURKS AND THE KURDS

Emin Özmen / Magnum Photos

BuzzFeed News spoke with Emin Özmen, a photographer based in Turkey who traveled to the Turkish–Syrian border to report on Turkey's incursion into northern Syria.

FROM ABOVE: THE HISTORY OF AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

NASA

Throughout history, people have been fascinated to see the world from above as birds do. A new book chronicles the exciting and at times dangerous story of aerial photography.

FOR YOUR 👀 ONLY:

CALIFORNIA DREAMING WITH HUGH HOLLAND 📸

During the 1970s, an emerging counterculture was brewing in the streets of sun-drenched Los Angeles. Skateboarding was coming into its own as a new generation of young people began to experiment with new tricks, styles, and equipment. At the center of this moment, photographer Hugh Holland trained his eye on capturing these wild kids in action.

A new book titled Silver. Skate. Seventies: California Skateboarding 1975–1978 brings together his pictures from the era in a stunning portrait of the fashion and fun of skateboarding in its early years.

Here, Holland shares with BuzzFeed News his story of photography and skateboarding:

I’m a retired furniture finisher — and my retirement is the photos I took back in the ’70s! I grew up in Oklahoma and was about 24 when I packed up and left for California. The year was 1966, and California was really the place to go back then. We used to call it “the land of fruits and nuts”!

I was just getting into photography at the time. America was just coming out of the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal was shaking the nation. By summer ’75, I began to notice these skateboarders all over the place — it felt like an explosion of activity all around me. I couldn’t help but take snapshots of them, but I wasn’t thinking about posterity or anything other than just having fun. I was just enjoying photography, and the truth is that I still am!

I didn’t start taking pictures of skateboarders in earnest until I started to see them go vertical. Urethane wheels had just hit the market, and the kids were testing them out on any surface imaginable. Right away, they discovered that they could push the boundaries with their new equipment — they discovered that they could ride walls and concrete banks and even go vertical.

During those early years, I took thousands of photographs and, just like the skaters, I honed my abilities and improved. This was all so exciting for a young photographer like me because the sport was very dramatic. I was fascinated by the entire atmosphere of the California street scene. Southern California was very smoggy, which I think gives the photos a nice warm glow.

Today, I often think about how big skateboarding has become. It never crossed my mind back then that it would eventually become an Olympic sport. To have witnessed and documented the beginning is an incredible feeling. Things changed very fast in the years following when money started coming into it. The market moved right in, and I could see that skateboarding was rapidly becoming a respected sport. But before the money, the kids in these pictures were just pushing the limits of what they could do and having fun at the same time — and I was having fun recording it!

—Hugh Holland

📸YOUR WEEKLY PALATE CLEANSER:

Emilee Chinn / Getty Images

In this unexpected moment during the New York Giants–Dallas Cowboys game on Nov. 4, a solitary black cat makes its furry way across the field of MetLife Stadium. Who knew high-speed sports photography could be so cute!

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

“Start with a style and you are in chains, start with an idea and you are free.” —Richard Avedon

📝 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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