The World Press Photo 2009 awards required its jury to review and screen over 97,000 entries, and choose just 64 winning images (or series) representing the best visual reporting of 2008's global events. Quite a monumental task considering the effort I put in reviewing my own photographs following one of my photo-expeditions.
The high-resolution slideshow is via Lens Culture, and comes with captions identifying each photographer, the agency or media responsible for the image, and a brief explanation of what is depicted in each image.