Best photos of the year 2011

 NODAS STYLIANIDIS, Greece 

"I was doing some paperwork in my office which is located a few meters away from the bank. At some point I heard someone yelling, I looked out of my window and I saw the man protesting outside the bank while it was obvious that he was threatening to set himself on fire. I picked a camera and ran out. When I arrived I saw him pouring gasoline on himself and after a few seconds he set himself ablaze. Police, who had already been watching him, rushed to extinguish the fire. The man survived but with serious injuries". 

Canon EOS 7D, lens 70-200mm, f10, 1/500 

Caption: A man sets himself on fire outside a bank branch in Thessaloniki in northern Greece September 16, 2011. The 55-year old man had entered the bank and asked for a renegotiation of his overdue loan payments on his home and business, according to police, which he could not pay, but was refused by the bank.REUTERS/Nodas Stylianidis/www.photoreportage.gr

JOHN KOLESIDIS, Greece 

“There was a planned protest march against a parliamentary vote on Greece’s five-year austerity plan that included tax hikes and government spending cuts, which degenerated into a violent clash between protesters and riot police. 

I was standing on the elevated entrance of a central hotel on Syntagma square with other photographers covering the clashes. The police had just pushed back protesters with the use of teargas. Suddenly, through a cloud of teargas, a group of frightened tourists appeared, with luggage in hand and covering their noses, and started running towards us. The scene was totally surreal: In the middle of a stone war and teargas, tourists visiting Athens on their summer holidays were trying to reach their hotel. 

I didn’t think twice, I lifted my camera and followed their agonizing effort until they reached the hotel entrance where we were standing. The door opened and they vanished behind it, safe and into a reality much different from the one that was evolving before me.” 

Canon EOS 1 Mark IV, lens 70-200mm, f14, 1/400, ISO 320 

Caption: Tourists run from teargas in central Athens during anti-austerity protests, June 15, 2011. REUTERS/John Kolesidis