Any “best of” list must surely be subjective. This one is no different. Choosing the best photographs of the year is an enormously difficult task, with many terrific photographs slipping through the cracks. But with major news events as a guide, and with single images I fell in love with throughout the year forcing their way into the edit, I look at my favorite pictures from the first four months of the year. Two main stories dominated headlines in the first part of the year: the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the rising of the Arab Spring. The protests in the Middle East would spread to Greece, Spain, and eventually inspire the Occupy movement in Western nations. Other stories included a historic wave of tornados in the U.S., a Royal wedding in London, and the creation of the world’s newest nation in South Sudan. Images from the rest of the year will follow in posts later this week.

White Walls will be hosting four booths at SCOPE, situated in the center of Miami’s Wynwood Gallery Arts District, featuring a MTN Colors Group show with APEX, Neon, Estria, Vogue, Blek le Rat, HUSH, Kofie and Chor Boogie, a White Walls Group show with Casey Gray, Ben Eine and Greg Gossel, and solo shows for both ABOVE and ROA. White Walls will be showing with SCOPE for the full duration of the fair as well as leading multiple projects throughout the city of Miami, bringing the work of our renowned participating artists to the streets of Miami.

In Las Vegas there’s a massive desert graveyard filled with hundreds of “retired” planes.

Brooklyn based street artist Swoon took to the streets of East London with a number of large scale paste ups based on a number of images which featured in her first London solo show.

“Après le collectif Mentalgassi, voici l’artiste espagnol Escif qui décore les murs avec des compositions colorées et très intelligentes. Au trait clair et aux couleurs simples, cet artiste de Valence montre tout son talent. Plus à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.”

Last Saturday, Shooting Gallery opened the doors to Parisian street stencil artist, C215?s latest solo show, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.