Visions of China: The Opening Ceremony

08/08/08 has finally arrived! Today, the luckiest date of the Chinese calendar, which occurs but once a century, heralds the official start of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Seven years after the awarding of the Games to Beijing, the opening ceremonies came together in a spectacular show of fireworks, smiling faces and world leaders. See here, in exclusive photographs, the first of the daily photo galleries from NEWSWEEK's photo team. Our photographers, Vincent Laforet, Donald Miralle and Mike Powell have been given a simple creative brief; capture the Games as you see them, and make original photographs distinct from those seen anywhere else. Each photographer is managing their own photo blog called, Visions of China, and from those images I will be posting a "best of" gallery here each day. I will also be a choosing a Picture of the Day where I will explain why I, as a photo editor, consider an image to be particularly significant. Please join us in what I anticipate being a photographic record of the Games like no other.
—Simon Barnett, Director of Photography, Newsweek