Where do you get your news? What makes you pay attention to important events and changes in the world today? What do you even remember about what has happened on any given day a week or two later? Chances are good that an exceptional photo will make you pause to get more information about what is happening and to remember it. And chances are even greater that more and more, you are viewing these photos online.

From now until August 28 at the United Nations in New York City, 56 news photos that helped to define the world in 2010 are on view at the annual World Press Photo exhibition. So whether you get your news on paper or under glass, this show is a must -- for news junkies, to be sure, and probably even more so for the semi-disaffected, because these images will make you think hard about the world we live in.

Left, Thomas P. Peschak, Nature, 1^st prize singles: A Cape gannet comes in to land during the summer nesting season. Right, Feisal Omar, Daily Life, 1^st prize singles: A man carries a shark through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, in September.

The World Press Photo of the Year, a portrait by South African photographer Jodi Bieber of Bibi Aisha, depicting a young Afghan woman disfigured in an act of punishment, retains its power to demonstrate human dignity in the face of oppression. And, as always, fading memories of horrifying disasters such as the earthquakes in Haiti and China, the floods in Pakistan, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are rekindled with shocking clarity.

But often what is brought home most powerfully to the average news-consumer are photos of situations that get little coverage in North America, such as the hardships brought on by drought and famine in Africa, the millions of internally displaced people in conflict zones, and the rapidly accelerating global food crisis.

There are also surprising photographs that lift the spirits, on subjects such as Nature, Sports, and Daily Life. This year, the organizers included a special category for Portraits, based on the number of submissions of that type.

The show is the result of a worldwide competition that began in 1955 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This year, the winning images were selected from over 100,000 photographs submitted by 5,691 photographers of 125 different nationalities. In addition to the photographs on exhibit, there is a special category this year for multimedia, featuring six winners in interactive and linear categories.

World Press Photo 2011 remains on view at the United Nations until August 28. Please visit the website for hours and information. The show is concurrently on view at Portimão, Arrecife, Edinburgh, Kazan, Ottawa, Seoul, Naarden and Stuttgart and will travel to more than 90 more venues during the coming year. Information. Visit the World Press Photo website.

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