By Joseph Kahn, executive editor
The images from the earliest moments of the Ukraine conflict revealed sheer terror and disbelief. War had reached a major European capital, Kyiv, and its immediate outskirts. Refugees shoved their way onto a train headed west, pushing past a woman who shut her eyes and screamed.
A woman and her two children lay dead on a roadside, felled by a blast that narrowly missed our photographer, Lynsey Addario. The first photo we published of a dead Russian soldier in Kharkiv, a day after the conflict began, shows the corpse covered by a fresh dusting of snow.
Every year, starting in early fall, photo editors at The New York Times begin sifting through the year’s work in an effort to pick out the most startling, most moving, most memorable pictures. Recently, every year seems like a history-making year: a pandemic that killed millions; an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; and, in 2022, a war with frightening echoes of the 20th century’s devastating world wars.
Although the war in Ukraine wasn’t this year’s only story, it was the most dominant — photographers for The Times filed some 16,000 images, often in circumstances that endangered their lives.
After the shock of the invasion, the photos began to change. Lynsey, Tyler Hicks and David Guttenfelder, fellow veterans of conflict coverage, told us that the destruction of an artillery war produces too many similar scenes. They began seeking something different.
As the war ground on, they captured a new mood in facial expressions: resignation, but also resilience. A Ukrainian soldier, on leave from the front, lightly held his girlfriend as he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. In the village of Demydiv, someone carrying a bag waded alone down a street that had become a river, flooded by Ukrainians themselves to thwart the Russian advance.
By April, it had become a war of attrition. Even big battles and major advances proved indecisive, with both sides digging in for an extended conflict.
Looking at these images from 2022, it’s impossible not to see fragments of a different kind of war, one being waged here in the United States, with mass shootings taking lives seemingly every week. Sometimes, the most powerful image is of an object that reveals that pain and tragedy, like Tamir Kalifa’s photograph of a bullet-riddled notebook retrieved from a classroom in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The notebook belonged to one of those children — Uziyah Garcia, a 10-year-old.
There was also change on the social and political fronts. Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, a moment caught in a magical photograph of Leila Jackson gazing at her mother in loving admiration. It was taken by Sarahbeth Maney, who is also a young woman of color.
A gorgeous and powerful black-and-white photo of a pregnant woman in Ohio who had made the difficult decision to have a reduction — the termination of one severely unhealthy fetus to save the life of its healthy sibling — spoke to the anguish.
Hers was one of the last such procedures legal under Ohio’s changing law.
But 2022 undoubtedly belongs to the war in Ukraine, a conflict now settling into a worryingly predictable rhythm. Finbarr O’Reilly’s image of an explosion on Kyiv’s skyline, as Russia retaliated against Ukrainian advances with missile attacks on civilian targets, shows the war as raw and low-tech, because it is. Dumb bombs and artillery blow up buildings for the sole purpose of scaring people.
And yet moments of optimism and joy do arrive. A photo by Laetitia Vancon delights us with the sight of elegantly dressed teenagers dancing on a street in Odesa. We see what they have lost because of Vladimir Putin’s aggression against their country — but also what they refuse to lose.
With this collection, we recognize our photographers for their outstanding work around the world, and hope you will understand more about their thinking and their day-to-day processes as they explain, in their own words, how they got the story.
Katerynivka, Ukraine, Jan. 19. A Ukrainian soldier at a frontline position in the eastern province of Luhansk. The world watched nervously as Western countries warned that Russia was preparing to attack Ukraine at any moment.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Jan. 25. Jubilant crowds gathered in Place de la Nation after the military ousted the country’s president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, who had faced mounting public criticism for failing to stem attacks by Islamist militants.
Malin Fezehai for The New York Times
Houston, Jan. 25. Wendy Marcum befriending a dog on the street. In the wake of a divorce, Ms. Marcum experienced homelessness and debilitating depression; after years in shelters, she finally found a place of her own through a rapid rehousing program.
Elliot Ross for The New York Times
Elliot Ross joined Wendy Marcum as she did her grocery shopping for the coming weeks.
“As we were walking the final blocks to her temporary home, this sodden, shivering pregnant dog appeared and went up to Wendy under the glow of a streetlight. Instinctively, she dropped the groceries to the pavement and took this sad, smelly creature into her arms and into the house. I was struck by the parallels between Wendy and the dog — two creatures in need of home and heart.”
Louisville, Colo., Jan. 2. More than 1,000 homes were destroyed when the devastating Marshall fire, fueled by hurricane-force winds, swept through suburban neighborhoods between Denver and Boulder.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
“When you’re standing on the ground, you can’t visualize the scope of the destruction. So pulling back a little and being able to see the scale of it and seeing the whole neighborhood with the curves of the streets, you can see how the whole neighborhood had been laid out.”
— Erin Schaff
Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam, Jan. 28. Pham Thanh Hong, a dragon fruit farmer, trimming his trees. Many of Southeast Asia’s fruit producers were forced to abandon their harvest as China’s “zero-Covid” policy closed land borders and tightened the screening of goods.
Linh Pham for The New York Times
Almaty, Kazakhstan, Jan. 19. The burned remains of the mayor’s office at City Hall, which was set on fire during widespread protests driven by anger over inequality and the country’s ballooning inflation and fuel prices.
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The Bronx, Jan. 16. Mourners gathered for a service at the Islamic Cultural Center for victims of a fire at an apartment building that killed 17 residents, eight of them children.
Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Hasaka, Syria, Jan. 27. A woman and child emerged from their home as Kurdish special forces conducted house-to-house searches a week after Islamic State militants stormed a prison holding thousands of their fighters.
Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Manhattan, Jan. 22. A vigil for Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, two New York City police officers who were shot while responding to a domestic violence call at a Harlem apartment. Officer Rivera was pronounced dead at the hospital, and Officer Mora died a few days later.
Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Manhattan, Jan. 15. A storefront at the New York Flower Market. Supply chain challenges, labor shortages and poor growing conditions led to a scarcity of fresh flowers, especially the kinds grown for events like weddings.
Erinn Springer for The New York Times
Beijing, Feb. 2. A competitor in the Olympic skeleton event during a training session at the Yanqing National Sliding Center. Beijing became the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Beijing, Feb. 15. Loena Hendrickx of Belgium competing in the short program of the Olympic women’s singles competition in figure skating. She didn’t perform as well as she had hoped, and after leaving the ice got a hug from her coach.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Zhangjiakou, China, Feb. 11. An emotional Shaun White, the three-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding, after completing his final run on the men’s halfpipe in his final Games. He missed out on a medal, coming in fourth. “I’m proud of this life I’ve led,” he said.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Joinville Island, the Antarctic Peninsula, Feb. 1. A colony of Adélie penguins at Tay Head. Warming linked to climate change is among the factors that have led to sharp declines in Adélie populations in recent decades.
Tomás Munita
Kentucky, Feb. 2. A 12-year-old girl who sought treatment from her pediatrician after cutting herself. Community doctors are increasingly finding themselves at the forefront of mental health care for adolescents.
Annie Flanagan for The New York Times
Baghlan Province, Afghanistan, Feb. 19. A child working at the Chinarak coal mine. Thousands of Afghans have flocked to the country’s notoriously dangerous mines, desperate to scrape out a living amid an economy in ruins.
Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25. A woman searched through the debris of a residential building that was destroyed by Russian missiles. The Ukrainian capital was transformed into a war zone as Russia’s invasion was met with fierce resistance.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Lynsey Addario arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 14, shortly before the invasion began.
“We went to the site where the building had been attacked that morning. There was a woman who basically just kind of came out to start surveying her house. You need some human interaction when you make these photographs. You have to show the scale, the effect and what’s left behind in people’s lives. That’s the challenge with covering war. This war is an artillery war. We see the same images over and over, and it’s really hard to make anything different.”
Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 26. Julia, center, a teacher and volunteer, waiting to be deployed in the war. Though vastly outgunned, the Ukrainian Army and a growing corps of civilian volunteers mounted a spirited defense of the capital.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Kharkiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25. The body of a Russian soldier lay next to an armored vehicle. Ukrainian troops dug in around Kharkiv, the nation’s second-largest city, as they fought back advancing Russian forces.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Tyler Hicks arrived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as Russian forces were mounting assaults on the city.
“There was no way to know if you would run into Russian soldiers. I decided to get out of the car and walk to make sure we weren’t going to drive up to any surprises. There was snow on the ground and I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, but I eventually came upon several Russian soldiers who had been killed. I took the photos as quickly as I could because the area where I was working was exposed, and then I got back to cover.”
Irpin, Ukraine, March 29. Fighters with the Odin Unit waited to advance in an operation to clear out remaining Russian forces after the Ukrainians retook Irpin. The unit included foreign volunteers, among them Americans and Britons.
Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, March 4. Families clambered onto a packed train heading west. As Russian forces began to encircle the capital, panicked residents were desperate to get out.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Irpin, Ukraine, March 6. A mother and her two children lay dead as Ukrainian soldiers tried in vain to save a man. They had just crossed a bridge used by other civilians evacuating the fighting when Russian mortar shells began raining down.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
“I was photographing along a civilian evacuation route and was in the actual attack. The shell landed between us. The woman and her two children and the church volunteer were killed. I was just lucky the blast went the other direction and not toward me.”
— Lynsey Addario
Kyiv, Ukraine, March 2. Taria, 27, in her tent in a subway station, where she was living with her two children. As many as 15,000 people took refuge in the subway system to escape bombings and artillery fire.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9. Emergency workers and volunteers carried an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital damaged by Russian shelling. Neither the woman nor her baby could be saved.
Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press
From the project “Citizens of Kyiv.” Fortitude, desperation and resolve were etched on the faces of residents of Ukraine’s capital. Clockwise from top left: Natalia Dolinska; Valeria Ganich; Tasia Klochko and her father, Yuri; and Stanislav Sheludko.
Alexander Chekmenev for The New York Times
Alexander Chekmenev went to Kyiv, Ukraine, a week after the invasion to take portraits of residents who remained.
“To me, everyone who stayed and was ready to meet the invaders was a hero. They were actors, doctors, pensioners and students, and practically all became volunteers. It was important to show the war through a particular person, so that each of us could look into their eyes and see ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we would have been able to act as they did.”
Palanca, Moldova, March 1. Ilona Koval, the choreographer for the Ukrainian figure skating team, fleeing the war with her daughter, left, and a family friend. Many Ukrainians headed west to the safer regions of the country, or onward into Europe.
Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times
Lower Portland, Australia, March 9. Darren Osmotherly tried to secure furniture that was floating inside his submerged cafe, after record rainfall along the eastern coast caused some of the worst flooding in Australia’s history.
Matthew Abbott for The New York Times
Monowi, Nebraska, March 26. Elsie Eiler at the Monowi Tavern, which her family has run since 1971. The tavern is the one remaining business in the town and Ms. Eiler is its sole resident. “The bar is the town, and I’m the town,” she said.
Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times
Hollywood, Calif., March 27. Chris Rock reeled from a resounding slap by the actor Will Smith at the Oscars ceremony. Mr. Smith had stormed the stage after the comedian made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
“I was focusing pretty tightly on Chris Rock and all of the sudden I see the back of somebody come into my frame, and I think instinct just kicked in. I knew I had the picture, but I didn’t know what had happened. Later, someone asked, ‘How did you feel taking the picture that went viral around the world?’ And my response was: ‘I was so relieved I didn’t have to do the walk of shame the next day.’ Can you imagine if I’d missed it?”
— Ruth Fremson
Queens, March 14. Zhanxin Gao, an immigrant from China, at the home he shared with his wife, GuiYing Ma, who died months after she was attacked while sweeping a sidewalk. Violence against Asian Americans in New York soared during the coronavirus pandemic.
Justin J Wee for The New York Times
“Mr. Gao lost his wife when she was assaulted with a rock as she was sweeping a sidewalk in Elmhurst. I slept at his place and went with him to work the next day. He boiled a pot of dumplings for me and poured me coffee in the morning. It really felt like he was just moving on autopilot and trying to put one foot in front of the other. It was overwhelming.”
— Justin J Wee
Staten Island, March 9. Denise Lanzisera with her granddaughter, Anita Lanza, 6. Ms. Lanzisera and her husband, Willie, stepped in to help take care of Anita and her brother after their father died of Covid. As many as 200,000 children have lost a parent to the virus in the United States.
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Washington, March 21. Leila Jackson beamed with pride on the first day of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for her mother, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, center, who went on to become the first Black woman to serve on the court.
Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times
Sarahbeth Maney said it was an honor, as a biracial woman, to be present at the hearings.
“I looked up and noticed Leila looking toward her mom. I thought what it must have felt like to have her mother be in that position right then. The pride and admiration for her mother, but it also showed her knowing the challenges her mother had to persevere through to create that seat for herself.”
Kharkiv, Ukraine, April 17. An apartment building was in flames after Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Ukrainian cities and military targets in apparent retaliation for the sinking of an important naval ship and in preparation for an offensive in the Donbas region.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
“As a photographer, when you go day after day after day to these scenes, you just see over and over how people are having to cope with such tremendous loss. When I’m there in that moment, I’m seeing them in that very low point in their lives. And the next day it repeats again. And again.”
— Tyler Hicks
Bucha, Ukraine, April 8. Workers exhuming bodies buried in a mass grave outside St. Andrew’s Church. When Russian forces withdrew, they left a trail of anonymous death.
Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
Daniel Berehulak arrived in Bucha, Ukraine, after the end of a 30-day Russian occupation.
“It was kind of apocalyptic. The residents hadn’t had any kind of significant food drops in 30 days. There was a mass grave near this church in the center of Bucha where the Russians had been burying a mix of civilians and some soldiers. They found more than 100 bodies buried there. We heard terrible stories of rape and torture and the killings of civilians.”
Bucha, Ukraine, April 4. Tatiana Petrovna standing in a yard where the bodies of three civilians were found. Mounting evidence of atrocities prompted international calls to hold Russia accountable.
Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
Lviv, Ukraine, April 26. Hlib Kihitov paying final respects to his twin brother, Ehor Kihitov, who was killed along with nearly two dozen of his fellow soldiers in an artillery strike in the town of Popasna in the eastern Luhansk region.
Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
Horenka, Ukraine, April 16. A monument to soldiers who died in the world wars was damaged by shrapnel blasts. Across Ukraine, scores of historic buildings, priceless artworks and public squares were reduced to rubble by Russian attacks.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
Zmiiv, Ukraine, April 26. Relatives mourning the deaths of Oleksandr Pokhodenko and Mykola Pysariv, who set out to retrieve some potatoes and never returned. Russian soldiers had given assurances that they could carry out the errand unmolested.
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, April 21. Maksim Syroizhko, a Ukrainian soldier, with his girlfriend, Yana Matvapaeva. The couple said they had been together for the past five years but had not seen each other since the war began.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
Demydiv, Ukraine, April 24. The Ukrainians flooded this village intentionally, along with a vast expanse of fields and bogs around it, creating a quagmire that thwarted a Russian tank assault on Kyiv.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
Shamrock, Texas, April 13. The Panhandle is littered with desolate downtowns like this one, where a stray cat was among the few signs of life. After partisan redistricting, the Panhandle, a conservative stronghold, was joined in the 13th District by Denton, a racially diverse city, squelching the political voice of many nonwhite Texans.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Charlotte, N.C., April 4. Laura Jackson reflected on the loss of her husband, Charlie, as the United States neared its millionth pandemic death. Mr. Jackson fell ill in April 2020, and she was not permitted to be at the hospital with him.
Mike Belleme for The New York Times
Grand Rapids, Mich., April 22. Peter Lyoya throwing a flower into the grave of his son Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop. The encounter renewed a national debate about police conduct and use of force.
Michael McCoy/Reuters
Staten Island, April 24. Christian Smalls, a former Amazon worker, leading a rally to unionize an Amazon sorting center. Just weeks earlier, he won a campaign to unionize a nearby warehouse, one of the most significant labor victories in a generation.
DeSean McClinton-Holland for The New York Times
Brooklyn, April 8. Brad Smith, left, and his husband, Howard Grossman, at Stonewall House, an L.G.B.T.Q.-friendly housing development created by the advocacy group SAGE. “We always thought it would be a dream to live some place where we could feel comfortable and safe,” Mr. Smith said.
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Rodanthe, N.C., May 10. Two houses collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean off Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks. The once-generous stretch of beach in front of the homes has largely vanished, a result of natural erosion and rising sea levels.
Daniel Pullen for The New York Times
Jerusalem, May 13. Israeli police officers attacked mourners carrying the coffin of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist who was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
Maya Levin/Associated Press
“The crowd that had arrived to see her off was much larger than expected. People who came really wanted to honor her and march her through the streets, which is something that happens a lot for martyrs. I was up in a window of the hospital standing with a bunch of nurses and they were crying — people were shocked. She was really a beloved figure.”
— Maya Levin
Irpin, Ukraine, May 2. Homes in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, were reduced to rubble after weeks of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
Near Izium, Ukraine, May 27. A Ukrainian soldier from the 95th Air Assault Brigade on sentry duty in a trench system along the front line.
Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
At the Rio Grande, May 16. Migrants crossed from Mexico into the Texas border town of Eagle Pass. Amid turmoil around the globe, 234,088 migrants crossed the southern border in April, topping the 22-year high of 221,444 set in March.
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Reynosa, Mexico, May 4. Carlos Orlando Corvera, 8, from El Salvador, played at the Senda de Vida shelter, where migrants waited for the rare chance to cross the border at an official point of entry and claim asylum.
Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
Doolow, Somalia, May 9. A mother and her child at an aid camp for displaced people. The worst drought in four decades and a sharp rise in food prices left almost half of Somalia’s population facing acute food shortages.
Malin Fezehai for The New York Times
“The worst thing for a parent is not being able to feed your child, and what is interesting about malnourishment is it’s not necessarily hunger that kills the children — it’s that their bodies are so weak they can’t fight disease anymore. They’ll get some kind of infection their body can’t fight and they’ll pass away.”
— Malin Fezehai
Lisbon, May 8. Refugees from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music enjoyed a swim. More than 250 students and teachers from the institute fled their country after the Taliban seized power, eventually settling in Portugal, where they were trying to remake their school.
Isabella Lanave for The New York Times
Garden Valley, Nev., May 1. The artist Michael Heizer at “City,” his vast land art sculpture. The $40 million project, set in a remote stretch of the high Nevada desert, took 50 years to complete.
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Buffalo, May 25. A mourner visited a memorial to the victims of a racist massacre at a Tops Friendly Market that left 10 Black people dead.
Kenny Holston for The New York Times
Buffalo, May 24. Charon Reed cradled her son, Koda Anderson, at the funeral for her grandmother, Celestine Chaney, one of the 10 victims of the shooting at Tops.
Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
“There’s a kind of intergenerational trauma when violence happens. I really felt the deep amount of grief that was going to linger in this family in the way the Mom was crying and in the way she was holding on to the child. The kind of grief they were experiencing comes in waves and can be very quiet.”
— Gabriela Bhaskar
Uvalde, Texas, May 24. Children ran to safety after they were pulled from a classroom window at Robb Elementary School, where a mass shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News
Pete Luna was on his lunch break when a friend who follows a police scanner texted and said, ‘Are you listening?’
“I saw a little girl running out of the school directly toward me and she’s bleeding profusely from her face. I thought she had broken her nose in a stampede getting out of there. I guess she had suffered a shrapnel injury. I never heard gunshots. But later on I saw two more children running out, and they had gunshot wounds and they were bleeding from the legs and arms. I saw others being evacuated in stretchers, and it became apparent — this is actually a shooting. I only knew what was happening after the fact.”
Shanghai, May 4. A worker in a protective suit locked a barrier to a residential area. City life remained at a standstill as the Chinese authorities tightened coronavirus restrictions, even as case numbers fell.
Aly Song/Reuters
Washington, May 3. Abortion rights supporters protested outside the Supreme Court after a leaked draft ruling suggested that justices were preparing to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
Kenny Holston for The New York Times
Washington, June 24. Anti-abortion activists celebrated outside the Supreme Court after justices overturned Roe v. Wade in a 6-to-3 ruling, a momentous decision ending the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years.
Shuran Huang for The New York Times
Houston, June 24. Staff members at the Houston Women’s Clinic, the largest abortion provider in Texas, reacted with shock after learning of the Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to an abortion.
Meridith Kohut for The New Yorker
Argyle, Texas, June 26. T., 27, held her son, Cason, who was born after his mother fled from domestic abuse and was denied an abortion. T. received help from Blue Haven Ranch, an anti-abortion, faith-based nonprofit.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Odesa, Ukraine, June 15. School graduates danced in front of the Opera Theater. Defying Russia’s aggression, the Odesa Opera staged a performance for the first time since the invasion began.
Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times
When Laetitia Vancon arrived in Odesa, Ukraine, she went out for a quick look around and stumbled onto this scene.
“It was the end of the school year, just before students enter university, and usually they celebrate with a huge ball and have a big diploma celebration. But they couldn’t because of the war. They wanted to make this for social media to show what they had lost during the war. It looked like a movie scene. It was remarkable.”
Lysychansk, Ukraine, June 8. An unexploded Russian rocket protruded ominously from the ground. Moscow’s strategy of wearing away Ukraine’s forces with days of artillery barrages showed no sign of letting up.
Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
Lviv, Ukraine, June 21. Mourners prayed and sang at the funeral for Artemiy Dymyd, 27, a Ukrainian marine who was killed in action. His was one of four military funerals in Lviv that day; three of the four soldiers buried did not live to 30.
Emile Ducke for The New York Times
San Francisco, June 11. A soupy fog shrouded the Golden Gate Bridge. California’s famous fog has long defined life along the coast, but some scientists say it is decreasing — and they are not sure why.
Nina Riggio for The New York Times
Manhattan, June 9. The control room of the MSNBC studios as the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol opened landmark hearings into what it characterized as an attempted coup orchestrated by President Donald J. Trump.
Sinna Nasseri for The New York Times
Manhattan, June 26. Performing on Fifth Avenue during the Pride March. The joyous celebration was shadowed by the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling, which signaled a possible threat to other liberties, including gay rights.
Desiree Rios/The New York Times
Jordan, June 4. A woman and her daughter in the luxury car of the historic Hejaz Railway. Once an ambitious project to unite countries across the Middle East, the train now runs through only a 50-mile strip of Jordan.
Laura Boushnak for The New York Times
Uvalde, Texas, June 1. A bullet-torn math notebook that belonged to 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, one of the 19 children killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School.
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Tamir Kalifa gained the trust of the family of Uziyah Garcia, who was killed in the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“We so rarely get a glimpse into the rooms where this profound violence happens. To see an item that is so relatable with a child’s handwriting punctured by a bullet evokes emotion. It’s a symbol of a child’s life and the simple innocence of a 10-year-old just solving his math problems whose life was literally punctured by a bullet.”
Assam State, India, June 2. Hifjur Rehman, a farmer, collapsed in a paddy field that was destroyed by floods. Increasing volatility in weather patterns has made farming more precarious for vulnerable workers already facing poverty.
Atul Loke for The New York Times
Antaritarika, Madagascar, June 5. Villagers building a coffin for Estella, a 2-year-old girl who died from malnutrition. More than two million people on the island nation were facing acute food insecurity, a fate compounded by climate disasters.
Joao Silva/The New York Times
Deep space, July 12. The edge of a young star-forming region in the Carina Nebula. The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory yet built, offered a spectacular slide show of our previously invisible nascent cosmos.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
“This is a completely new observatory. It looks at things we’ve never seen before. We tried to predict what we’d see but we didn’t know. The observatory can look at objects that address all the themes — the birth and death of stars, evolution of galaxies and planets and more. The images had a tremendous impact.”
— Dr. Klaus Pontoppidan
Arlee, Mont., July 4. Harmony Kickingwoman, waiting to take part in a dance competition, showed off a diamond back piece made by her father. In powwow season, Native American families travel the country to celebrate and compete, wearing intricate garments assembled across generations.
Tailyr Irvine for The New York Times
“Some photographers treat people in powwows like zoo animals. I wanted to have meaning behind the photos. This was the first powwow after the pandemic, so it was really special. The kids had on new outfits because they’d grown out of their old ones. I wanted to show why their outfits meant something to them.”
— Tailyr Irvine
Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta, July 26. Pope Francis blessed the water in this lake renowned for its healing powers. The pontiff’s main mission in Canada was what he called a “pilgrimage of penance” to apologize to Indigenous people for abuses they endured in church-run residential schools.
Ian Willms for The New York Times
Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 13. Protesters took control of the prime minister’s office after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country. For months, demonstrators had accused Mr. Rajapaksa of running the economy into the ground through corruption and mismanagement.
Atul Loke for The New York Times
Nara, Japan, July 8. Security officers tackled Tetsuya Yamagami moments after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot at a campaign event. Police officials said Mr. Yamagami used a homemade gun to kill Mr. Abe, who was the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history.
The Asahi Shimbun, via Getty Images
East London, South Africa, July 1. An emotional scene outside Enyobeni Tavern, where 21 teenagers died. Survivors recalled that a mysterious gas had filled the room; parents were later told that the victims had died of asphyxiation.
Joao Silva/The New York Times
Breathitt County, Ky., July 29. Torrential rains turned quiet creeks into raging rivers in a matter of minutes, flooding hundreds of houses like this one and washing away many others. Dozens of deaths were attributed to the flooding.
Austin Anthony for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, July 25. Nap time at Uniclub, a family development center that recast itself after Ukraine was invaded, organizing a shelter and providing services for displaced children.
Laura Boushnak for The New York Times
Marlinton, W.Va., July 24. When Stacy Tallman, right, had a financial crisis, the government safety net allowed her family to weather it without falling into poverty. Child poverty fell by 59 percent from 1993 to 2019, an analysis found, showing the critical role of increased government aid.
Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
Arlington, Va., July 16. Nancy Cardwell and her husband, Luis Gallardo, at home doing what they love most. Ms. Cardwell was a successful newspaper editor in New York. Then she moved to Buenos Aires after falling in love with tango — and Mr. Gallardo, whom she met on the dance floor.
Melissa Lyttle for The New York Times
Near Bakhmut, Ukraine, Aug. 10. An artillery unit from Ukraine’s 58th Brigade fired toward an advancing Russian infantry unit. “We have a lot of motivation,” one captain said. “In front of us are our infantry and we have to cover them. Behind us are our families.”
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
Mykolaiv region, Ukraine, Aug. 11. The debris of a church after a Russian attack. Despite setbacks, the Russians continued to apply pressure on Ukrainian frontline positions in the east and the south.
Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
Truskavets, Ukraine, Aug. 2. Misha, 27, who lost both legs when he was hit by shrapnel on the battlefield, spent his time in a hospital gym as he awaited prosthetic limbs. Fellow patients gave him the nickname Acrobat.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
David Guttenfelder went to a hospital in Ukraine and heard the harrowing stories of war.
“The most moving thing to me was this moment when another one of the wounded received a prosthetic leg. The nurse shouted to me, ‘David, David, come quick!’ All of the other patients had come on their crutches and wheelchairs, all peering inside the room as he was being fitted and all passing the leg around and making jokes. It really felt like a family united in this shared struggle.”
Khimki, Russia, Aug. 4. Brittney Griner, the American basketball star, after learning she had been sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. Her ordeal ended in December when she was released in a prisoner swap.
Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
Libreville, Gabon, Aug. 26. An inspector checked logs arriving at a plywood factory. One of Africa’s major oil producers, Gabon has turned to another resource — its rainforest — for revenue, while also promising to preserve it.
Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times
“What I like the most about the image is that it shows how the connection between human beings and nature is everywhere. The photo shows how big nature is compared with human beings. It’s a reminder to keep that connection and keep in mind that we need to protect the biodiversity.”
— Arlette Bashizi
Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 7. Soudabeh, an activist, with her daughter. Soudabeh’s line of work — teaching rural communities about menstrual cycles — did not sit well with the Taliban, and she and her family were forced into hiding.
Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times
Greenwich, N.Y., Aug. 27. Danny Weil worked the crowd at the Washington County Fair as Johnny Dare rode his motorcycle around the so-called Wall of Death, the ultimate in gravity-defying carnival sideshows.
Desiree Rios/The New York Times
Seoul, Aug 15. Four inquisitive raccoons awaited visitors at one of Seoul’s many animal cafes, which offer not only the usual domestic creatures but a whole panoply of exotic beasts.
Robin Schwartz for The New York Times
Washington, Aug. 7. A Senate staff member took a break during a legislative all-nighter known as a vote-a-rama, a series of votes on proposed amendments, as the Democrats pushed for passage of a sweeping climate, energy and tax bill.
Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
Disko Bay, Greenland, Aug. 27. A fisherman was dwarfed by a mountainous iceberg calved from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, one of the fastest-moving and most productive glaciers in the world.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Fairview Park, Ohio, Aug. 21. Catrina Rainey rested with her partner and son at home. When Ms. Rainey learned that one of the twins she was carrying had a severe brain defect, she chose a reduction — the termination of an unhealthy fetus to protect a healthy sibling. It was one of the last such procedures performed in Ohio before the state made them illegal.
Stephanie Sinclair for The New York Times
“I didn’t understand just how much really intense heath care decisions were going to be impacted, including Catrina’s situation, where they had to terminate one of the twins she was pregnant with. The health of one fetus was going to impact that of the other and the mom. She’s a very strong woman in her own right, and she really felt strongly that she wanted her story out there.”
— Stephanie Sinclair
Lebanon, Tenn., Aug. 27. Alyse Barber, 12, got a kiss from her mother, Ashley Barber, after competing in her first demolition derby at the Tennessee State Fair. Derbying is a family passion; Ms. Barber and her husband also compete across the state.
Stacy Kranitz for The New York Times
Fort Myers, Fla., Sept. 29. A marina destroyed by Hurricane Ian, which came ashore as a Category 4 storm. The extent of the damage was difficult to comprehend, even for residents who had survived and rebuilt after other powerful storms.
Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Darién Gap, Panama, Sept. 23. A woman and child traversed the land bridge that connects South America and Central America, which for decades was considered so dangerous that few dared to cross it. In 2022, more than 200,000 people made the journey to reach the United States, most of them Venezuelan.
Federico Rios for The New York Times
“The crossing is 10 days. There is no food, no help, no nothing, no authorities, nobody to help. If something happens to you while you’re crossing, you have to rely on solidarity with other migrants. The families get muddy because it rains every day. Every night they made it to a small creek, and every night they were washing their clothes.”
— Federico Rios
Tualatin, Ore., Sept. 16. Emma Basques, 14, has identified as a girl since toddlerhood. She began taking puberty blockers at age 11, and estrogen at 13, starting her transition. “It was just really exciting,” Emma said. “I finally got to be who I was.”
Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
Istanbul, Sept. 21. Nasibe Samsaei, an Iranian woman living in Turkey, cut off her ponytail during a protest. In Iran, women burned their legally required head scarves and cut their hair in nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died in police custody after being accused of violating hijab law.
Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Queens, Sept. 2. Serena Williams after her farewell match at the U.S. Open, which she lost in three thrilling sets to Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. “It’s been the most incredible ride and journey I’ve ever been on in my life,” said a teary Williams, the greatest player in modern tennis.
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
“There was a sign saying ‘Greatest of All Time,’ and I wanted to include that. I wanted to include somebody’s reaction, too. This one lady was waving and standing up and so I waited for the right moment, and Serena turned. And this lady raised her hands, and I thought, ‘This is the shot I have to get.’”
— Hiroko Masuike
Manhattan, Sept. 12. A group class at Manhattan Fencing Center. The niche — and expensive — sport can help students distinguish themselves in applications to Ivy League and other elite schools.
Desiree Rios/The New York Times
Pohang, South Korea, Sept. 6. A man was rescued from a flooded underground parking lot after Typhoon Hinnamnor swiftly crossed the country’s southern coast, leaving much less damage than had been expected.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Chang W. Lee arrived at an underground parking garage 14 hours after flooding from a typhoon had begun.
“I didn’t know how long it would take to pump out the water. I thought it would take two hours. It took seven. As they were getting ready to go in, a lot of people waiting by the entrance were shouting that they heard a voice. Everyone was screaming in joy. I was thinking I would have a picture of a body inside, but instead there was a live person. I was so happy to hear that.”
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Sept. 6. Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle two days before her death. The queen had been modifying her schedule because of declining health. She broke with tradition by holding the ceremony to appoint Liz Truss as Britain’s prime minister at the castle instead of Buckingham Palace.
Pool photo by Jane Barlow
London, Sept. 10. William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made a rare joint appearance outside Windsor Castle to greet crowds that had gathered to mourn Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
Mary Turner for The New York Times
Brooklyn, Sept. 4. Cassandra Bromfield in her studio embroidering a silk dress meant to evoke the wedding gown of Anna Murray Douglass, the wife of Frederick Douglass. Ms. Bromfield wore her creation at an event to commemorate the couple’s 184th anniversary.
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
“I met a woman at a party who told me about this bridal dress. I put the woman’s number on a napkin and put it in my bra. In my sleep I dreamed that I took pictures of this dress being built. Later, I called her and said to her: ‘Listen, did you say you were having a block party for Mrs. Douglass? Because I dreamed I took pictures of that dress. Has it been made?’ And she said no. Afterwards, I said, this assignment came from a dream.”
— Michelle V. Agins
Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 23. Wooden crosses marked the exhumed graves at a mass burial site, where more than 300 bodies were recovered. Some were Ukrainian soldiers; most were civilians.
Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 10. Smoke rose over the skyline after Russia unleashed a far-reaching series of missile strikes against cities across Ukraine, hitting the heart of Kyiv and other areas far from the front line.
Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
“When we imagine what modern warfare might look like, we imagine things to look very high-tech. But the striking thing about being here is, the scenes are like those described by old war poets. It just looks like something from another century. This is a grinding, brutal artillery war.”
— Finbarr O’Reilly
Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 10. Civilians and neighborhoods were left battered and bloodied by Russia’s attacks, which were in retaliation for a blast that destroyed a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.
Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 29. A boy playing music for passers-by on Andriivskyi Descent, where the lamps that normally illuminate the ancient cobblestone street were sometimes dark as the country rationed its power.
Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 20. Maryna Ponomariova, 6, whose left leg was partly amputated after a strike on her home in Kherson, learning to walk again with help from Nazar Borozniuk at Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital. For countless Ukrainian children, the war has brought long-term physical and psychological injuries.
Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Moscow, Oct. 11. A Russian conscript embracing his partner at a recruitment office. The presence of men in the capital thinned out noticeably as many were called up to fight in Ukraine and others fled to avoid being drafted.
Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
Seoul, Oct. 30. Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, visiting a narrow alleyway in the Itaewon district, a popular nightlife destination, where a crowd surge during a Halloween celebration killed more than 150 people, most of whom were in their teens and 20s.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
“On the following day people were coming to pay their respects. It’s just — it’s so sad. This is something that shouldn’t have happened. I think about these young lives. I have a son who is going to be 19 years old soon, and I cannot think of it. It hurts my heart.”
— Chang W. Lee
Saghez, Iran, Oct. 26. Thousands of Iranians made their way to the hometown of Mahsa Amini to commemorate the 40th day of mourning for her, observed under Islamic tradition. The day was marred by violence as security forces attacked and shot at demonstrators in parts of the country.
Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images
London, Oct. 24. Rishi Sunak, center, outside Conservative Party headquarters after he prevailed in a chaotic three-day race to replace Liz Truss, who served as Britain’s leader for just 44 days. He became the first person of color and first Hindu to be prime minister.
Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Beijing, Oct. 22. President Xi Jinping of China, right, watched as former President Hu Jintao was abruptly escorted out of a highly choreographed meeting of the Communist Party elite. The moment prompted questions and wild speculation.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Manhattan, Oct. 17. At Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, one of the country’s oldest L.G.B.T.Q. organizations, congregants unrolled a Torah during Simchat Torah, the Jewish autumn festival celebrating the end of the yearlong cycle of Torah readings.
James Estrin/The New York Times
Greenville, Miss., Oct. 25. Sand dunes where the Mississippi River usually flows. Amid a drought, the river known for its vast reach and powerful currents withered to levels not seen in decades, choking shipping lanes and endangering drinking water supplies.
Lucy Garrett for The New York Times
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 27. Mufleh al-Qahtani and Mubarak al-Qahtani after buying Halloween costumes. Only a few years ago, Halloween partygoers risked arrest. In 2022, a government-sponsored “horror weekend” reflected a changing country.
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
South Abington Township, Pa., Nov. 3. A bus supporting former President Donald J. Trump sat parked outside a rally for Mehmet Oz, a Republican who was running for a Senate seat.
Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Tampa, Fla., Nov. 8. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, celebrated with his family as he won a second term in a rout that also raised his profile as a potential presidential contender.
Scott McIntyre for The New York Times
Collegeville, Pa., Nov. 3. John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, at a rally. Mr. Fetterman, who had a stroke during the campaign, went on to beat Mehmet Oz, helping to secure his party’s control of the Senate.
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Washington, Nov. 17. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve in the post and the face of House Democrats for two decades, was applauded by her staff after announcing she would step down from her leadership role.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
“I’ve documented Ms. Pelosi behind the scenes for over four years, which helped me gain access to this private moment when she returned to her office to receive an emotional ovation from her staff. Several of those staff members had sheltered in that office from rioters searching for Ms. Pelosi as they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
— Erin Schaff
Wilmington, Del., Nov. 16. A man and his sons returned from a store with a gallon of milk, purchased for $5.99. American families grappled with stubborn inflation that sent the cost of everyday goods soaring.
Kenny Holston for The New York Times
Kenny Holston was on a stakeout waiting for the billionaire Elon Musk when he saw a family shopping for groceries.
“I saw a dad with two little kids going into a convenience store. When they came out they had only this singular gallon of milk. I looked up how much it would have cost them a year ago. The percentage increase was wild. It was nearly 35 percent more expensive than last year, on top of a 10 percent convenience store markup. The juxtaposition of waiting for a billionaire and seeing them was fascinating.”
Florence, Italy, Nov. 21. Eleonora Pucci, the in-house restorer at the Galleria dell’Accademia, dusting Michelangelo’s David. “To be able to contribute, even in a small way, to the conservation of David’s beauty” makes hers “the best job in the world,” Ms. Pucci said.
Chiara Negrello for The New York Times
Bnei Brak, Israel, Nov. 1. Voting at a polling station during the country’s fifth election in less than four years. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s former prime minister, was running for election even as he faced trial on corruption charges.
Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Colorado Springs, Nov. 20. A vigil was held at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church after a gunman opened fire in Club Q, an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub, killing five people and injuring 18 others.
Daniel Brenner for The New York Times
Snihurivka, Ukraine, Nov. 10. A woman wept with joy as Ukrainian soldiers entered her village. The Ukrainian Army moved cautiously into areas abandoned by Russian troops, a day after Russia announced a retreat.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Kherson, Ukraine, Nov. 15. Crowds gathering for food handouts. Russian soldiers blew up and tore down critical infrastructure before their retreat from Kherson, leaving residents without running water, heat and electricity.
Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times
Along the Dnipro River, Ukraine, Nov. 22. Members of a volunteer Ukrainian special forces team called the Bratstvo battalion stealthily returned from a nighttime mission targeting Russian forces.
Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
“There was zero light apart from these red headlamps that they used to remain as invisible as possible so they’re not picked up by Russian drones. The sun was just starting to come up. They were just coming in and unloading from the boat onto the dock. The only way I could make this work was to wait for people not to be moving too much.”
— Ivor Prickett
Gasol, Indonesia, Nov. 25. Lilih Sholihat, 36, and her children in what was left of their village after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake flattened tens of thousands of homes and killed at least 310 people in the Cianjur region of West Java.
Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nov. 9. An officer from the Haitian National Police’s SWAT team patrolling Cité Soleil, a neighborhood controlled by gangs. Conditions in the country plunged to horrifying new lows as gangs carried out extreme violence.
Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
Manhattan, Nov. 30. Sam Bankman-Fried, whose $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, collapsed spectacularly and spawned at least two federal investigations, sat for an interview at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit. “Look, I screwed up,” he said.
Winnie Au for The New York Times
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Dec. 11. A caravan of up to 1,000 migrants, most of them from Nicaragua, crossed the Rio Grande into the United States. It was one of the single largest crossings in recent years along the West Texas border.
Paul Ratje for The New York Times
Kherson, Ukraine, Dec. 10. Iryna and Viktor Dudnyk wept over the body of their son, Dmytro, a 38-year-old Ukrainian sailor who was killed when a Russian rocket struck his yard.
David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
The U.S.-Mexico border, Dec. 7. A winding makeshift wall made from shipping containers separates Mexico, left, from Arizona. The wall, several miles of which crosses a national forest, was ordered built by Arizona’s outgoing governor, Doug Ducey.
Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times
Lusail, Qatar, Dec. 18. Lionel Messi of Argentina in action during the World Cup final. Scoring twice and converting a penalty in a shootout, he led his team to victory against France in one of the most exciting World Cup finals in history.
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Washington, Dec. 1. President Biden and President Emmanuel Macron of France on the South Lawn of the White House. The two leaders affirmed their support for Ukraine ahead of a cold winter that will test the alliance.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
