” Photojournalist Tyler Hicks penned a gripping account of the final days of noted correspondent Anthony Shadid in Sunday’s New York Times. Shadid died last month from an asthma attack while on a reporting mission inside Syria with Hicks, who revealed the details of the journey for the first time: “I’m a photographer who was most interested in capturing images from an expanding war zone. But I will do my best to convey a sense of what Syria, on edge, was like,” he wrote. Seen here: Members of the Syrian Free Army attacking a column of tanks passing the town of Saraqa on their way Idib. Days later, Shadid collapsed as he and Hicks neared the Turkish border on their way out of the country. ’We finally arrived in a small town at what looked like a medical clinic. I rushed inside and found a doctor,’ wrote Hicks. ’He checked Anthony’s vital signs and confirmed that he was dead. He said he was sorry.’” Photo by Tyler Hicks, The New York Times

”Israeli soldiers fire their rifles during clashes with Palestinians who were throwing stones during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Al-Ram. The violence began after a Palestinian wounded by Israeli gunfire died in a hospital.” Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images, “Framework,” The Los Angeles Times

”An Iranian woman holds her identification papers as she waits to vote in parliamentary elections in the holy city of Qum.” Photo by Behrouz Mehri/AFP, “Lens,” The New York Times

”Powerful storms ripped through the American Midwest and South over the past week, killing people from Kansas to Kentucky. In Ridgeway, Illinois, entire blocks of homes were lost in a pre-dawn twister, as was this church. Scenes like this have become all to familiar over the past 12 months: Americans still recall with dread the series of storms that made April 2011 the most active volcano month on record, as well as the massive tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri last May, killing 161.” Photo by Seth Perlman/AP, “Big Picture,” The Boston Globe

”Mary Curtsinger, a resident of Hodgenvile, Kentucky, stands implacably in front of the remains of a friend’s house that was destroyed during the storms outbreak.” Photo by Patti Longmire/AP, “Big Picture,” The Boston Globe

”Following the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, photojournalist James Nachtwey documented the devastation for Time magazine: As many as 20,000 dead and tens of thousands of homes and businesses in ruins. Nachtwey recently returned to Japan to view how the country and its people are still struggling to recover. The “crushing sense of loss,” as the magazine puts it, is apparent in each of his images. At left: A family in Ishinomaki buries the remains of relatives lost nearly a year earlier. At right: Police search for dead and still-missing along the coast near a damaged nuclear power plant.” Photos by James Nachtwey, Time

” If you thought the battle for the Republican presidential nomination was weird, wait until you see photojournalist Justin Maxon’s view of former senator Rick Santorum’s campaign. Maxon, who recently received the 2011 Alexia Foundation For World Peace And Cultural Understanding grant for professional photographers, had never covered politics before joining Santorum’s campaign in Ohio recently. ’Every single rally looks the same and sounds the same….It’s hard to really know what’s orchestrated and what’s real,’ he notes. To capture the sense of unreality, Maxon used a variety of unconventional photographic techniques. At left: A Santorum volunteer in Mason, Ohio. At right: Rick Santorum and his daughter greet supporters in Lima, Ohio.” Photos by Justin Maxon, “Lightbox,” Time

”Five years after HBO aired the final (and controversial) episode of ’The Sopranos,’ Vanity Fair pieces together an oral history of the series that had a Mafia-loving America saying bada-bing, marone a mia, and gabagul. Fittingly, Annie Leibovitz created a foldout portrait of the show’s reunited cast for the story. It was Leibovitz who shot a seminal ad campaign for the series back in the day.” Photo by Annie Leibovitz, Vanity Fair

”Jennifer Lopez as a provocative pugilist? That’s how V magazine interprets the idea of a sports issue. Mario Testino went the distance, knocking out the cover and a 12-page spread styled by former French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld. ’Leave it to Carine and Lopez to put a…twist on a basic sports-themed shoot with a strategically placed bulge,’ said the Huffington Post.” Photo by Mario Testino, V

”Photographer Steven Klein poses a fundamental moral question in W magazine’s spring ’Fashion Bible’ issue, giving us Kate Moss two ways, and on two covers. How do you prefer your icons of style—as divinities or demons? Perhaps they’re simply two sides of the same glimmering coin.” Photos by Steven Klein, W