Here are the most interesting and powerful photo stories from across the web.
"The 46 Most Powerful Photos Of 2016" — BuzzFeed
"How to summarize an entire year into a single, comprehensive photo essay is one of the most challenging and most fun assignments for an editor. 2016 was unrelenting — the number of historic milestones and the number of tragedies threatening to overwhelm. BuzzFeed News Photo Essay Editor Gabriel Sanchez edited several hundred photos down to the top 200 and then he and I whittled the selection down to 46. The final edit is the result of more art than science as we considered the importance of events, moments, artistic style, and the balance of the overall tone of the selection. To his credit, Gabriel resisted my tendency to focus deeply on hard news and tragedy, and I relented on a wider edit given the range of magnitude of the year. We hope you enjoy!" —Kate Bubacz, senior photo editor, BuzzFeed News
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
"Reindeer Herding In Russia's Arctic" — Reuters
"Look, this is not 100% in true holiday spirit. To the rest of the world, reindeers are cute, red-nosed creatures that prance across our skies and sprinkle magical dust. But in the Arctic regions like Nenets, Russia, these guys are commodities. Sergei Karpukhin’s well-photographed story shows us the real side of the reindeer industry." —Anna Mendoza, photo editor, BuzzFeed Australia
Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
"The Best Sports Photography Of 2016" — BuzzFeed
"There’s a special relationship between sports photographers and their subjects. On one end, the raw athletic intensity of professional athletes, many of whom are seen performing above and beyond what many had thought was humanly possible. On the other end, the photographer, whose calculated anticipation of the athlete’s every move is able to capture the exact moment of action in perfect composition. Here, BuzzFeed rounds up the year’s most remarkable sports photography — a feat both on the field and behind the camera lens." —Gabriel H. Sanchez, photo essay editor, BuzzFeed News
Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
"Finding India's Lost Musicians" — National Geographic
"Fading rural traditions is not exclusive to India. It’s the same problem we see everywhere else where the young leave for the big city for a more lucrative life, and funding doesn’t reach the furthest in society. This National Geographic feature proves how a connection to a culture, albeit remote, can help give light on these fragile traditions, because often, it’s just lack of exposure that’s causing these intangible customs to disappear." —AM
Souvid Datta / National Geographic