Final Embrace

Taslima Akhter, Rana Plaza, Savar, Bangladesh, 2013 After the garment factory building collapsed on April 24, Akhter spent the day helping rescuers, then went into the ruins around 2 a.m. and found two people embracing in the rubble, their bodies trapped under concrete. She spent months trying to learn who they were, without success. Time named it one of its top 10 photos of the year, saying it captured Bangladesh's united grief in a single shot, and it became the face of a collapse that tied cheap clothing to unsafe factories. Akhter is an activist as well as a photographer, and the picture carries that purpose. It is the strongest entry here for readers interested in workplace safety, because this disaster was built, not natural.