A president returned to power in America and rattled the global order. A wildfire, almost unfathomably, ravaged populated neighborhoods of Los Angeles. A fragile cease-fire took hold in the Gaza war, and a conflict in Sudan wore on.
Over the course of a turbulent year, photographers captured those and other events with intrepidness and determination — even as they so often put themselves at risk. Doggedly, they trailed a young mayoral candidate as he electrified his base in New York. In cities across the United States, they were on the front lines of an increasingly aggressive immigration crackdown.
In their bold photographs, they show their own neighbors eking out life amid the rubble of their destroyed homelands. Their diligence allows us to peek inside a quiet vigil for a coyote returning to its pups, and to observe a tender hug between a boy and a man with 100 years between them.
Looking back on the year through those fleeting moments gives us a chance to reflect on the world, and endeavor to understand it better.
— Dionne Searcey
“It was a surreal experience. These ordinary neighborhoods and landmarks I knew turned into cinematic scenes of orange balls and people carrying their lives in bags. There’s a mental calculation between the picture you want to take and the risk you want to take. That’s what was going through my head. I was watching the land and the escape routes.” Philip Cheung
“Usually when we enter, we come in through the colonnade in the Rose Garden, but for this one we came in from inside. We were at the side of the resolute desk and he was pensive, just listening a lot on a video call. I really hadn’t seen him in that position before.” Eric Lee
“Fishing was such a big part of the community, so I was trying to get a sense of what life was like for fishermen. It was so cold I could barely use my hands. It was a nice moment where I saw them gutting their catch, and every single seagull in the fjord arrived. A beautiful place.” Ivor Prickett
“I was struggling to find something that wasn’t just completely destroyed, something that showed human life and habitation. Besides maybe one house that didn’t burn, it was kind of hard to tell what you even were looking at. I thought the pool was something you could relate to. Times were had there.” Kyle Grillot
February
“Communication was a big problem. We wrote our WhatsApp numbers on big sheets of paper and left them on the sidewalk, but nobody was able to enter or leave the hotel. We managed to get some numbers and started chatting with people detained inside the building. After chatting with Artemis, we found that her room was facing my hotel. We found a way to be right in front of the room, and she came to the window.” Federico Rios
“It was a much-anticipated meeting. It was not expected to be contentious at all. Then it turned into a full-on yelling match. It became so bad. It was incredible to be in the room, to witness it all and to photograph it, and to see firsthand how foreign diplomacy is worked out.” Doug Mills
“When the city fell, we were stuck at home for two or three days. Then the Red Cross started going out and collecting bodies. They put them in the general hospital, but there were too many. They didn’t have any more space. Identification was complicated. Some had been dead for five or six days.” Guerchom Ndebo
“These were the first pictures of deportees being brought to Guantánamo Bay, where they were going to be housed. It was very rewarding that I was there to capture it, because people need to see what’s going on and to understand where they are going. Immigration is one of the No. 1 issues in the country.” Doug Mills
“A lot of people were going back to their homes for the first time. This little boy had come back and stepped on a mine. Many people think of war as the dangers during active combat, but there are so many casualties after a war finishes. These are the quiet stories that speak volumes about how war has tentacles everywhere.” Lynsey Addario
March
“I took their pictures because I felt they were clinging to life, tending to their wounds and trying to rebuild their lives with the simplest of means. This was a year full of challenges, with none of the essential resources we need for our journalistic work. I worked under immense pressure, but I was committed to conveying images from Gaza.” Saher Alghorra
“We were gathering on the South Lawn for the president’s departure to Mar-a-Lago and, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Elon Musk. He had stopped short of the driveway, so he was out of the presence of the cameras. I felt like that lurking feeling was a summary of his role in the administration.” Haiyun Jiang
“This was President Trump’s first opportunity to address Congress, and the Democrats were clearly against everything he was saying. As the president was speaking, he had made a statement that the Democrats felt was very false, and so they all simultaneously held up these signs. It was a really intriguing and unusual scene.” Kenny Holston
“Just days later, those same troops we were with took over the river and presidential palace, and within two weeks it was all under the control of the Sudanese military. Declan Walsh [chief Africa correspondent] and I were some of the first journalists to set foot inside Khartoum proper. That was a huge moment and a privileged position.” Ivor Prickett
May
“Artillery positions are now completely underground and concealed, because they were being targeted by Russian drones. The entire landscape of war photography in Ukraine has changed in less than a year. It’s very difficult to see much anymore, because to try to fight out in the open, like in this photograph, would expose you to being targeted immediately.” Tyler Hicks
“The play was really an escape for some of these kids. Losing a school is traumatic, but some of these kids lost their homes as well. Their school had been an oasis in the hills. It had a yurt and an orchard, and the kids used to garden and take care of chickens. It was their own wonderland.” Isadora Kosofsky
“It was a small, intimate and tearful service. There are murals of Mr. Floyd around Houston’s Third Ward, where he grew up, and his old friends were out by them on the anniversary. They felt like progress had been made in how Black men were treated by the police, but that there was still a lot of work to do.” Meridith Kohut
“They were standing on the steps of the courthouse in protest before they went up to hear the verdict in the case. She was the face of quiet determination and fortitude. I’ve never met a group of people who were so unbelievably brave, focused and determined. I was proud to tell their story.” Victor Blue
“I was working with a wildlife ecologist. We set up a camera and immediately retreated. I stood in the forest hiding behind a tree on top of a stepladder. I waited for four or five hours until one of the coyote parents came back. I just started furiously clicking the remote trigger in my hand, hoping I had something good.” Loren Elliott
June
“Mahmoud Khalil had missed the birth of his son. So much rhetoric swirls around stories such as this that it tends to distract us from the real lives at the center of it. I always strive to find intimacy in my work. It’s especially meaningful when someone welcomes you to their home after such an ordeal.” Todd Heisler
“There was a little scuffle, and I saw the mounted police. They moved in really quickly and started pushing all the protesters out. It was this perfectly timed moment: The horse with his tongue out looking visibly stressed, and the intense focus of the police officer looking down the sight of his weapon. This image for me told the story.” Philip Cheung
“I kept my eye on what they would do after all the principals had gone into the palace. What were they going to do with this whole show? Sure enough, some of the palace guards started rolling up the red carpet that leads all the way to ‘the Beast.’ It was interesting to see them doing that in those outfits.” Haiyun Jiang
“He was greeting the residents there, and I could tell they already knew who he was. They looked at him with pride. I think this moment really shows who he is. When he greets people, he always greets with both hands. He smiles and is genuine and sincere. He makes sure he spends time with every person he speaks with.” Shuran Huang
“The hospital courtyard was filled with the dead, and the screams still echo in my mind. One woman’s screams caught my attention in this photo, but as soon as I looked through my camera, I found that in every corner there was a scene— a farewell, a story, a moment of grief.” Saher Alghorra
July
“There were belongings everywhere, even in the trees. If you went to camp as a child, you can remember this stuff your parents packed for you. In Texas, everybody buys a trunk, and my mom and I would decorate it and fill it with all of the things I needed. Seeing these trunks scattered around, broken — it was so moving.” Callaghan O’Hare
“Members of the community, who contacted us knowing we had been documenting recent Israeli expansion across the West Bank, stood together as the homes were razed. When we reached the site, families were gathered in solidarity, drinking tea and picking through the debris for whatever could still be saved.” Daniel Berehulak
“Many of the detentions I photographed were so abrupt that we were unable to glean any information about the person. Often nearby family members were left reeling, sobbing, unable or unwilling to speak. Sometimes we could barely get a person’s country of origin as they were whisked off. Throughout the day, this tableau plays out over and over.” Todd Heisler
“What shocked me while taking this photo was that, before capturing it, I had tried to play with him to make him feel at ease. But I found the child like something without a soul — extremely frail, unresponsive to any of my attempts. His eyes stared, barely able to open. Taking this photo tore me apart.” Saher Alghorra
August
“I saw all those people trying to get in those trucks, full of hope. But we later went to that camp where Sudanese refugees were being relocated, and many of them didn’t find good living conditions. Instead, they were just surviving. Whenever we went to this transit center, there was always something new and sad we found.” Arlette Bashizi
“Everyone told us he had one of the worst times there. He didn’t want to talk about his experience. He was traumatized by it. They put him in an isolation cell with another guy who had a horrible time there, and they both thought they were dying. The bond they made in isolation was pretty strong.” Adriana Loureiro Fernandez
“This was a day or so after the strike. A few people were looking into the pit of the basement. As so often happens in these locations, life goes on around it. These girls were playing and circling the building, running up and down exposed stairwells. It was a combination of destruction and reflection.” Finbarr O’Reilly
“I rolled up and saw a bunch of different agencies searching a car. I noticed a bus coming by. There were these kids on board filming the scene. Their faces were so shocked seeing that level of law enforcement. We’re used to seeing Secret Service and the police, but these were federal agencies we’d never seen before.” Eric Lee
“I followed the ventriloquist from her house to her performance. The whole train was looking at her. She was doing a little performing, doing her voices and things. People were coming back from work, everybody was tired, and you could see how delighted everybody was. They probably came home and told everybody about it. It was a fun train ride.” Dina Litovsky
September
“This was almost like a Rembrandt when you looked out and saw all of this high-brass military sitting as stiff and straight and proper as you can. Never had that many generals been assembled in one location to hear the president speak. It was so striking to see them sitting in chairs like they were at the movie theater.” Doug Mills
“Being in Saudi Arabia and photographing something like this is difficult to begin with. I was worried for myself and wasn’t so sure how this would be received. The stories themselves were sensitive. The kids made things a bit easier; they were cute and innocent and playful.” Iman al-Dabbagh
“I had just taken the name of a person and was standing there looking down. Kirk was shot, and I heard the sound. I was right up next to the barricade, and I was swept down with everyone. I was on the ground, and I was next to people screaming, ‘Stay down.’ Some people started running away. It was chaotic.” Tess Crowley
“It was an early morning and the mood was joyful. The swimmer in this photo, Heather Hempel, saw it after it was published and emailed me to say, ‘That photo captures one of the most magical moments of my life. I had just swum the race of a lifetime.’ I loved getting to hear her perspective on the moment.” Erin Schaff
October
“This building had been hit multipl
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