Bin Laden, Part 1. ”The photographic narrative of the events of May 1, 2011 begins in the basement of the White House, where President Obama and his senior staff gathered in the Situation Room to watch kept a real-time vigil as Navy Seals dropped into Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The picture is from the official White House photographer. A classified document in front of Hillary Clinton has been blurred out.” Photo by Pete Souza/The White House, New York Times

Bin Laden, Part 2. ”The word went out to the White House press corps that the president would be making a televised statement on Sunday night. The nine-minute speech, from 11:35pm to 11:44pm Easter Time, was seen by some 56 million viewers. Among those who saw it in person, and from a sidelong angle, was photographer Jason Reed of Reuters.” Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters, ”In Focus”, The Atlantic

Bin Laden, Part 3. ”Following the speech, crowds gathered outside the White House to cheer the news of Bin Laden’s death. Image after image showed young people waving American flags—college students, perhaps, from nearly George Washington University, rejoicing at the demise of a haunting figure of terror from their childhood.” Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, ”In Focus”, The Atlantic

Bin Laden, Part 4. ”The images of celebration could not help but offer a kind of visual closure to the physical and psychic wounds inflicted on 9/11. Here, members of Ladder Company 4 of the New York Fire Department sit atop an aerial ladder parked in the middle of Broadway in Times Square, watching the news. The photographer, Michael Appleton, was 23 years old in 2001 and just starting his photographic career when he covered the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.” Photo by Michael Appleton/New York Times, New York Times

Bin Laden, Part 5. ”A nearly perfect picture shows people celebrating bin Laden’s death, their shadows cast against a wall at Ground Zero in New York City.” Photo by Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters, ”In Focus” The Atlantic

Bin Laden, Part 7. ”A newspaper famed for tabloid sensationalism added another entry to its long list memorable front pages.” Front Page, New York Daily News

Royal Wedding, Part 1. ”Royal weddings are both personal affairs and state events. Here, John Giles describes latter with a wide shot of London’s Parliament Square, filled with military bands for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29.” Photo by John Giles/Reuters, ”In Focus”, The Atlantic

Royal Wedding, Part 2. ”Photographer Toby Melville provided the visual intimacy with this tight shot of the bride, now the Duchess of Cambridge, and the prince leaving Westminster Abbey after the ceremony.” Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters, ”In Focus”, The Atlantic

Royal Wedding, Part 3.”The most memorable photo of the wedding? An early favorite is this shot, in which Prince William’s three-year-old goddaughter, Grace van Cutsem, a bridesmaid, reacts to the noise of the crowd at Buckingham Palace.” Photo from AP, ”Lens”, New York Times

Weather, Part 1. ”Violent storm systems across the southern United States have killed hundreds this spring. Here, a tornado moves through Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27.” Photo by Dusty Compton, Tuscaloosa News/AP, New York Times

Weather, Part 2. ”A woman comforts her granddaughter amid the rubble that once was her home in Concord, Alabama. The house was destroyed by a tornado.” Photo by Jeff Roberts/The Birmingham News/AP, ”Big Picture”, Boston Globe

Portraits, Part 1. ”Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lent her profile to a New Yorker story about U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings.” Photo by Martin Schoeller, The New Yorker

Portraits, Part 2. ”After years as the sober voice of NBC News, anchorman Brian Williams has earned a reputation for his comedic skills on TV sitcoms. Matthias Clamer captured Williams’s inner Ron Burgundy in this portrait.” Photo by Matthias Clamer, New York magazine

Elsewhere, Part 1. ”The venerable Boing 747, perhaps the most popular passenger jet in history, is being rebooted to compete against modern rivals. Dan Winters traveled to the Boing plant in Everett, Washington where, in the largest building in the world (by volume) he created a series of stunning images previewing the new Boing 747-8 Intercontinental.” Photo by Dan Winters, Conde Nast Traveler

Elsewhere, Part 2. ”Sometimes scale is everything in a photo. Here, an opposition political party in Singapore holds an SRO rally in preparation for upcoming parliamentary elections.” Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP, ”Lens”, New York Times