It’s that time again, when the photo editors on the picture desk at the Guardian sift through the edits of the best of the millions of images that they see over the course of a year, supplied by the various press agencies from around the world, from staff and freelancers alike.
It is not possible to mention as many of the talented photographers who have supported our journalism visually, creating outstanding work and stories of their own, as we would like to but we have picked out a few.
Felipe Dana
Drug users detained during a Taliban raid walk in line on their way to the detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical hospital for drug treatment in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2 October 2021.
Felipe Dana is a photojournalist covering news and stories for Associated Press. Felipe’s work this year has taken him from Brazil via Israel and the Occupied Territories, to Tokyo for the Olympics. In Afghanistan, where he has largely been since September, he has gained close access to the Taliban regime, spent time with fighters and covered their drug treatment programme.
A family sits inside a makeshift tent built amid the rubble of their home, destroyed by an airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, 14 June 2021.
Portraits of Taliban fighters taken at various police stations in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Migrants arrive aboard a Spanish coast guard rescue ship at Arguineguín port, in Gran Canaria island, Spain, 21 November 2021.
Zohra Bensemra
Female primary school students leave school after a class in Kabul, Afghanistan, 25 October 2021. See more on this story here.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, Zohra Bensemra has covered drought and Covid, and has been in Kabul since October, one of the few female members of the international press working in the country, where she has covered the evolving situation for women and girls under the new hardline Islamist Taliban regime.
Fallou Diop, 19, a jockey, rides a young mare called Raissa Betty, whom he trains to compete with in the future, out of the Lambafar stable, in Niaga, Rufisque. See more on this photo story here.
Supporters of Gambia’s president and presidential candidate Adama Barrow celebrate after partial results of the presidential elections showed Barrow leading in Banjul, 5 December 2021.
Emilio Morenatti
Volcano’s lava flows destroying houses in Las Manchas village, on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain, 6 December.
Emilio Morenatti is chief photographer for the Associated Press in Spain and Portugal. His ethereal photographs of the ash-covered La Palma, Canary Islands have really stood out and engaged our readers, in addition to his coverage of Tokyo’s Olympics anddomestic news in Spain.
A couple kiss in front of a barricade set on fire by demonstrators during clashes with police following a protest condemning the imprisonment of rap singer Pablo Hasél in Barcelona, Spain on 18 February 2021.
Melissa Stockwell plays with her children, Dallas and Millie, in their home in Colorado Springs, ahead of the Olympics.
Abandoned cats wander in search of food at a road covered by ash, and a soccer field is covered with ash on La Palma, Canary Islands, 1 December 2021.
People dance on a promenade facing the Mediterranean Sea, as sun sets at a beach in Barcelona in October 2021.
Yasuyoshi Chiba
Wounded captive Ethiopian soldiers arrive on a truck at a rehabilitation centre in Mekelle, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia, 2 July 2021.
After being stationed in São Paulo, and then Rio in Brazil, Yasuyoshi Chiba has been posted in Nairobi since 2016. This year his work has taken him from Kenya to Ethiopia for the unfurling Tigray crisis, Sudan and Uganda, as well as to Tokyo for the Olympics.
A local farmer walking in a swarm of desert locusts in Meru, Kenya, February 2021.
Supporters of the incumbent Ugandan president, Yoveri Museveni, celebrate in the streets of Kampala on 16 January 2021. Right: Members of Dance Centre Kenya perform in a dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker in November 2021.
Ariana Cubillos
Children jump a rope as they play at a court close to the Pavia garbage dump in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 3 March 2021.
Colombian photographer Ariana Cubillos is based in Caracas, Venezuela. The desk has noticed her joyful stories filed among the difficult times that the country is facing, such as the Musical Vaccine orchestra tour.
Musicians join pianist, composer and conductor Jose Agustin Sanchez on the bed of an 18-wheeler truck for a musical tour coined a musical disinfection in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 4 March 2021.
A woman holds a sign that reads in Spanish: “Sex education to decide, contraceptives to avoid abortion” as she jumps with another woman as part of the Global Day of Action for access to legal, safe and free abortion, outside the parliament in Caracas, Venezuela , 28 September 2021.
Danish Siddiqui
People wait to cremate victims who died due to coronavirus at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, 23 April.
Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, based in Delhi, who led the national Reuters multimedia team, was killed on 15 July while covering clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban forces near a border crossing with Pakistan. His work during the year covering the tragedy of the wave of Covid infections across India was very powerful.
A member of the Afghan special forces keeps watch as others search a house during a combat mission against the Taliban, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, 12 July 2021.
Demonstrators are stopped by police during a protest against the arrest of 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi, outside police headquarters in New Delhi, 16 February. A Naga Sadhu wears a mask before the procession for taking a dip in the Ganges river during Shahi Snan at Kumbh Mela festival, in Haridwar, 12 April.
Lillian Suwanrumpha
Pro-democracy protesters confront riot police whilst marching to Government House to call for the resignation of Thailand’s prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, in Bangkok on 18 July.
Lilian Suwanrumpha is a Thai photographer who has been based in Bangkok for Agence France-Presse since 2016. In 2021 they covered ongoing anti-government demonstrations, environmental issues and daily life alongside the coronavirus pandemic. They have covered a tumultuous year for the the country.
Pro-democracy protesters make the three-finger salute during an anti-government demonstration in Bangkok on 24 March 2021.
Medics haul an oxygen tank onto the back of a police car for an elderly Covid-19 coronavirus patient in Bangkok, 30 July. Right; A research team from Chulalongkorn University collect sweat samples from vendors in a fresh market as they develop a novel device that detects the Covid-19 coronavirus through specific odours.
Brandon Bell
People walk through the French District during Hurricane Ida on 29 August 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Brandon Bell is a staff Photographer for Getty Images, based in Houston, Texas. He has covered the border story extensively, as well as some remarkable work during Hurricane Ida.
Migrants are accounted for and processed by border patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, 1 July, in Roma, Texas.
Medical assistants Crystal Leyva and Keitia Perez administer Covid-19 sampling tests, to laboratory technicians, at Foxconn Assembly in Houston, 13 August. Right Bailey Salinas, 10, meets Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke after a campaign rally at Republic Square, Austin, on 4 December.
People exit a border patrol bus and prepare to be received by the Val Verde Humanitarian Coalition after crossing the Rio Grande, 22 September, in Del Rio, Texas.
Fatima Shbair
Palestinians return to the rubble of their destroyed homes in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, 24 May.
Fatima Shbair, 24, is a a self-taught, freelance photojournalist photojournalist based in Gaza. Shbair is the youngest winner of the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award.
A Palestinian girl stands amid the rubble of her destroyed home on 24 May 2021 in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.
Farah al-Bahtiti, 5, and Sarah Al-Matrabiee, 4 in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, who were injured by missile strikes on the Gaza Strip in May.
Hollie Adams
Hollie Adams is a freelance photographer based in London shooting largely for Getty Images. Her coverage of UK news has stood out, from rare London snow in January through a turbulent year.
A patient is transported out of an ambulance by medics at the Royal London hospital on 2 January.
Demonstrators hold smoke flares during a Reclaim Pride March, 24 July. Right; women in The Purge costumers pose for a photo on Halloween at Between the Bridges at Southbank on 31 October.
Hannah McKay
Fish-eye view of fireworks after the Olympic cauldron is lit during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Reuters staff photographer Hannah McKay is based in London. In 2021 her images from the Clapham Common vigil arrest went viral.
Patsy Stevenson is held down by two male officers at a vigil in Clapham, south London, following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard, in London, 13 March.
Olympic athletes in action as rain falls in Tokyo, 2 August.
People watch a Fridays for Future march from their windows, and activist Greta Thunberg speaks later in the day at the same march, 5 November, Glasgow.
Christopher Furlong
Messages of support at the newly repaired mural of England footballer Marcus Rashford by artist AKSE_P19 in Withington, Manchester, after after it was defaced by vandals in the aftermath of England’s Euro 2020 final loss on 13 July.
Christopher Furlong is Getty Images chief photographer in the UK covering news, documentary and daily life.
Dancers take to the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom and move to the sound of the famous Wurlitzer organ, 5 August.
Festival fans listen to the Lathums during day two of the Tramlines Festival at Hillsborough Park in Sheffield, 24 July.
Boris Johnson tries to open his umbrella next to Prince Charles, at the dedication ceremony of the new national UK police memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, central England, on 28 July 2021. Right; Nine migrants drift in the Channel after their engine failed in Dover, 6 September.
Wakil Kohsar
A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on 18 August.
Few nations endured as tumultuous a year as Afghanistan in 2021, and Afghan-born Wakil Kohsar currently serving as the chief photographer for AFP in Afghanistan, captured the dramatic fall of the country to the Taliban following the sudden American withdrawal in August including the scenes at Kabul airport.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the airport in Kabul on August.
A US soldier point his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport in Kabul 16 August. Right; Afghan newspaper journalists Nematullah Naqdi and Taqi Daryabi show their wounds in their office in Kabul after being released from Taliban custody.
