Near totality is seen during the solar eclipse at Palm Cove, Australia, on November 14, 2012. Thousands of eclipse-watchers gathered in part of North Queensland to enjoy the solar eclipse, the first in Australia in a decade. (Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images) #
A red deer stag looks for food in a bracken thicket after sunrise in Richmond Park in London, England, on October 27, 2012. Richmond Park is the largest of the capital’s Royal Parks and home to 630 red and fallow deer. (Dan Istitene/Getty Images) #
A surfer practices prior to competition during the 2012 Australian Surfing Open on February 16, 2012 in Manly, Australia. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images) #
A black rhino is transported by helicopter in South Africa. The seventh black rhino population established by the WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project was released after an epic trip across the country. Nineteen of the critically endangered animals were moved from the Eastern Cape to a new location in Limpopo province. (AP Photo/Green Renaissance-World Wildlife Fund) #
Lampposts are covered in ice in the Adriatic coastal town of Senj, Croatia, on February 7, 2012. Europeans across the continent battled weeks of extreme winter weather, with thousands trapped by snow in remote, mountain villages in the Balkans. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
A Dutch resident stands in his house as high floodwaters reach up to his window, in Dordrecht, Netherlands, on January 5, 2012. Gale force winds reaching up to 110 kph (about 70 mph) as well as heavy rains hit along the Dutch coast. About a quarter of the country sits below sea level. (Robin Utrecht/AFP/Getty Images)
2012: The Year in Photos, Part 1 of 3 →
2012 was an eventful year, from big events like the London Summer Olympics and the U.S. presidential race, to regional conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, to smaller issues closer to home. Reverberations from last year’s transformative Arab Spring still heavily affect Syria and Egypt; and the slow recovery from the recent global economic crisis brought bitter austerity measures to parts of Europe, leading to widespread protests. Collected here is Part 1 of a three-part photo summary of the last year, covering its first four months. Be sure to see Part 2 and Part 3. The series totals 135 images in all.
A girl walks on a disused railway track, through what is known locally as the “Tunnel of Love”, in the small town of Kleven, some 350km (217 mi) from Kiev, Ukraine, on May 13, 2012. (Reuters/Gleb Granich)
(Source: The Atlantic)
