Curated by Tanvi Mishra
The Women Photograph Year in Pictures showcases 100 images from 100 of our 1,300+ members across the globe, highlighting assignment work, long term documentary projects, and personal stories from the past year. As we collectively continue to battle COVID-19, widespread political unrest, and mounting climate catastrophe, this collection once again feels like a reflection of a dark, challenging year — but not without its fair share of softer and more contemplative moments that offer a glimpse into some of the select silver linings of a pandemic that has continued to allow us more time at home and with loved ones.
Photo editor and curator Tanvi Mishra assembled this year’s essay, including stories from Malta to Uganda to Thailand to Bolivia. You can pre-order the fourth issue of the Women Photograph Annual here, and donate to Women Photograph here. Thank you, and we wish everyone a safe and happy end to 2021.
BEGO ANTÓN
www.begoanton.com | @bego_anton
The Gallop series documents the Hobbyhorse universe—a world in which hundreds of Finnish preteen and teenage girls ride on toy horses made of wooden sticks and cloth heads, imitating dressage and jumping. Participants fuse fantasy with athletics: the lower part of the body imitates the movements of a horse, and the upper part remains upright like a jockey. Siiri (12) and Elma (12) swim in the lake after a day of training in a summer camp. For years, this Finnish subculture has been considered a secret community subjected to stigma and bullying. Many of the girls lead a double life, in which their practice is a big secret they don’t like to share. Belonging to this community makes them feel safe at a delicate time in their lives, as they are forming their identities.
ALANA PATERSON
www.alanapaterson.com | @alanapaterson
The Northern Lights Wildlife Society in Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada has one of three grizzly bear rewilding programs globally. The controversial program, begun in 2007, has reared and released 24 cubs orphaned when their mothers came into conflict with humans. The public is passionate about saving these cubs and guilt-ridden over the mothers’ deaths. If they don’t go to the orphanage or a zoo, they are shot. It’s unclear whether the bears can survive in the wild or will integrate well enough into the wild population to breed. The project’s lead investigator, Lana Ciarniello, will be radio collaring the bears on their release. Arthur, the biggest bear and the only male in the study, gets his own pallet. He is tranquilized and blindfolded for the flight on a pallet in a net slung underneath a helicopter.
For The New York Times: It’s a Grizzly Bear Survival Program. For Grizzly Bears.
ANDALUSIA SOLOFF
andalalucha.tumblr.com | @andalalucha
As the COVID-19 pandemic expanded in Mexico, more people turned to bicycles both as a mode of transportation and for employment as delivery workers, bringing food to those who had the privilege of staying home. Subsequently an increased number of cyclists died in transit. In January 2021 a group of bikers held a die-in at a major intersection in Mexico City to protest these avoidable deaths.
KIANA HAYERI
www.kianahayeri.com | @kianahayeri
Men and women dressed in their best outfits and wearing makeup arrive in the remote village of Nalij in the Miramoor district of Daikundi, Afghanistan. On the first day of spring, residents of Nalij village host a massive Now Rouz celebration that attracts thousands of people from neighboring villages and districts. This year the organizers estimated that between eight and ten thousand people attended. Hosting the celebration has been a tradition in Nalij village for so long that no one knows when it started. Some say it has been held for over 100 years.
During the Taliban rule, Now Rouz was banned as an "ancient pagan holiday centered on fire worship." While historically, extremist organizations have planned disruptive activities and attacks targeting the large gatherings during Now Rouz, Nalij village has remained untouched.
TOYA SARNO JORDAN
www.toyasarnojordan.com | @toyasjordan
Honduran migrants Kami, aged five, and her aunt Mariana listen as other migrants discuss hygiene norms within their makeshift camp at the El Chaparral border port of entry with the United States, in Tijuana, Mexico.
For Reuters.
CHARLOTTE YONGA
www.charlotteyonga.com | @charlotteyonga
Ina Makosi and Malika Diagana at the Lycée Jacques Prévert. Image taken during the photo residency with the Blachère Foundation in Senegal. Charlotte recalls, “For the theme ‘Love’ I chose to photograph two women who are both artists and photographers. They were collaborating on a project at that time, and I felt a very strong connection between them. I spent two evenings chatting with them about our life paths as women artists, about our strengths and weaknesses. I felt a lot of admiration, empathy, respect, and tenderness exchanged between us. I wanted to put them in outfits I had seen them wearing on previous days and isolate them, in a vibrant and special scene of intimacy, close to my personal feeling of love between women: striking, powerful, implacable, but also disturbing, impenetrable, and sometimes hard to understand for others.
LUJÁN AGUSTI
www.lujanagusti.com | @lujanag
Portrait of Jose with a baby goat. Jose is from the Indigenous Mapuche community of Lof Cayún, in San Martín de los Andes, Patagonia, Argentina. The women of the community are working on a food sovereignty program and network of ancestral traditions, with the support of the International Forum of Indigenous Women.
For FIMI.
AMINA KADOUS
www.aminakadous.com | @amina.kadous
A self-portrait taken standing holding a bouquet of cotton flowers covered by a veil in my grandmother’s kitchen at our family’s old home, on January 20, El Mehalla El Kobra, Egypt.
GULIGO JIA
www.cargocollective.com/guligojia | @guligo_jia
A dancer performs a modern dance in a park in downtown Chengdu, China.
CLAUDIA RUIZ GUSTAFSON
www.claudiafineart.com | @claudiaruizgustafson
A naked, mixed-race woman with long dark hair is leaning on a table. On her back we see the three caravels in which Columbus arrived: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, navigating her body. The woman symbolizes the native and wild America. This image represents a contemporary version of the colonization of our bodies, our land, and our minds.
DIA TAKACSOVA
www.diatakacsova.com | @diatakacsova
Pharrell Winterstein at his caravan home in Pessac, France. In France, the term Travelers is an administrative notion created for those without a fixed domicile. This Traveler community of about 500 caravans temporarily settled in the vicinity of the local university campuses.
ANDREA GJESTVANG
www.andreagjestvang.com | @andreagjest
This summer marked 10 years since the mass shooting at a youth camp on the island of Utøya in Norway, in which 69 people were killed and many were seriously injured.
Andrea writes, “In the year after the attack, I photographed 43 young people who survived. In 2021, I made new portraits of some of them. Cecilie, 26, from Sarpsborg, had her arm amputated because of a bullet wound. Today she is 100% incapacitated for work after the injuries she sustained on Utøya.”
“I am actively working to get out of what I call the Utøya prison. But because of the physical injuries, I believe that I will never be completely free. Even though I am strong, it is still difficult to survive every day. In good periods, I feel a greater joy of life than before. I have become more confident and reflective,” says Cecile.
MARLENA WALDTHAUSEN
www.marlena-waldthausen.de | @marlenawaldthausen
“The life of trans people is so invisible in public. And most of the stories that do reach a wider audience are about loneliness and pain,” Max says.
The project Max & Alex aims to show their relationship outside those stereotypes of loneliness and pain—simply as a relationship between two people.
For De Volkskrant.
ANNICE LYN
www.annicelyn.com | @annicelyn
Children wearing facemasks play with bubbles at a park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. People have been taking advantage of loosened COVID-19 restrictions across Malaysia as long periods of lockdown are lifted, allowing them to gather outside and in groups for the first time in months in many parts of the country.
BERTA TILMANTAITE
www.godoberta.com | @BertaTil
Mwesigwa Robert stands in front of the church during Sunday mass in Bwindi, Uganda.
FOROUGH ALAEI
www.foroughalaei.com | @foroughalaei
Ali Sabouki and his friend play in the plastic pool he bought for his little boy, Raha. Ali and Fateme Javanmardi, his wife, decided last year to move to Babolsar, an Iranian city on the coast of the Caspian Sea. It was a tough decision for them to go there from the capital, Tehran. However, the pandemic with all its restrictions put enormous mental pressure on them, especially on Raha. They had to stay indoors and couldn’t visit others regularly. In Babolsar they’ve enjoyed a lower cost of living, a bigger house, fresh air, and beautiful nature.
For De Volkskrant.
OKSANA PARAFENIUK
www.oksanaparafeniuk.com | @oksana_par
Mila Kuznetsova, a famous model, poses for a portrait after plunging into the freezing water as part of the Orthodox tradition of Epiphany in Kyiv, Ukraine. Immersing yourself in the freezing water three times through holes chopped in the ice is believed to wash away sins and be good for health in general. It’s always cold in January, but that day the temperature was cruel, at -16°C, or about 3°F.
JANA AŠENBRENNEROVÁ
www.asenbrennerova.com | @asenbrennerova
Jackob, 14, poses for a portrait. He is a member of the Mennonite community of Indian Creek in Orange Walk district, Belize. Mennonites settled in Belize in the late 1950s, when they were given farmland as part of a deal with the local government. Today, they dominate the local agricultural produce industry. The lifestyle of these Russian descendants is structured around religion, family, and labor. They run their own school and speak mainly Plautdietsch—a dialect of German. The approximately 12,000 Mennonites living in the country (about 4 percent of the Belizean population) are considered the world’s most conservative Mennonites. While some lean toward modern technology—like cars and cell phones—many others avoid the use of electricity and travel by horse and buggy.
SARA ALIAGA
www.sarawayraphoto.weebly.com | @sarawayraphoto
A man from the Monte Sinai community of the Tacana Indigenous people, located in the Cobija department of the Bolivian Amazon, holds the skin of a jaguar.
JEN OSBORNE
www.jenosbornestudio.com | @jen_osborne_photography
A woman leans on an old-growth tree stump. She discovered it along with a group of forest defenders who had been blocking the road to prevent loggers from entering the area. This photo was taken one day before the enforcement of the Fairy Creek injunction began. The blockades have been removed subsequently by police, and old-growth forests continue to be logged in the Fairy Creek area outside Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, Canada.
For The Globe and Mail: The Destruction of the Last Old Growth Forests Has to Stop. We Must Protect the Mother Trees
TRACY BARBUTES
www.tracybarbutesphotography.com | @tracybarbutes
From the Heat Cannot Be Separated from Fire series. A firefighter walks near Caldor Fire flames in Pleasant Valley, California, US, on Saturday, August 28. He set a backfire in an attempt to prevent the fire from moving toward a densely populated area. The fire burned more than 221,000 acres from the Sierra Nevada foothills to South Lake Tahoe, including downhill ski areas at high elevations.
GIHAN TUBBEH
www.gihantubbeh.com | @gihantubbeh
This image belongs to a seashore, shot from a cliff at Nazaré, Portugal. Can nature’s inscriptions, shot from different distances, provoke a higher sense of sound than a sound itself?
BETHANY MOLLENKOF
www.bethanymollenkof.com | @fancybethany
Betye Saar is an American artist known for assemblage and collage works. With a found-object process, she is a visual storyteller and an accomplished printmaker. Saar was a part of the Black Arts Movement in the 1970s, which engaged myths and stereotypes about race and femininity.
CAMILA FALCÃO
www.camifalcao.com | @camifalcao
Nube, photographer and videographer, sits holding a tangerine in their hands at their home in São Paulo, Brazil. Their face is painted white shironuri style; they wear a pink robe and pants. This picture is part of the project "when the body no longer feels patriarchy won."
JAIDA GREY EAGLE
www.jaidagreyeagle.com | @jaida.l.greyeagle
Mary Anne Quiroz performs traditional Danza Azteca outside the Hennepin County Courthouse on March 8, the first day of Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.
FIORA GARENZI
www.fioragarenzi.com | @fioragarenzi
Photograph from the documentary From S. to S. One of Sardar's daughters, Puna, sits at the window of the family home in the village of Sirwan, Iraqi Kurdistan.
MARYLISE VIGNEAU
www.marylisevigneau.com | @marylisevigneau
Alina Mambetalieva, the first soloist at the Kyrgyz National Opera, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, dances around a veiled warlord, Bishkek Baatyr.
Ten days later, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, inaugurated a monument to this legendary figure. Bishkek Baatyr is mentioned in the school syllabus, but historians are skeptical about his existence.
Since the 1990s, statues of Baatyr (“warlord” in Kyrgyz) have been erected all over the country. Each place is supposed to have its own Baatyr. For the regions, it is a way to express their importance and underline their history. Many of the new monuments in Kyrgyzstan were erected to the hero of the eponymous epic, Manas, which combines historical facts and myths. Manas is a legendary Baatyr who united the Kyrgyz tribes and restored their homeland. This image is part of the series Faded Reds, Ardent Blues, which constitutes a portrait of little-known Kyrgyzstan, 30 years after its independence from the former Soviet Union.
VICTORIA RAZO
www.victoriarazo.com | @_victoriarazo
Border Patrol agents, mounted on horses, attempt to contain Haitian migrants as they cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas, US. The images sparked criticism, which increased after reports of overcrowding and squalor suffered by the migrants in the makeshift camp.
TARINA RODRIGUEZ
www.tarinarodriguez.com | @tarophotopty
A migrant father and son wait for their turn to register at San Vicente Camp, after walking for several days through the dense jungle of Panama’s Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous parts of the journey for all migrants heading to the United States from South America. Here they either have to spend the night or will be transported to another camp near Costa Rica. San Vicente Camp has capacity for 400 people and is a place to get drinking water, food, bathrooms, and medical attention.
SUMY SADURNI
www.sumysadurni.com | @sumysadurni
Blessing (left) and her family share a moment of tenderness on a chilly Sunday at home, in Entebbe, Uganda.
DANIELLE VILLASANA
www.daniellevillasana.com | @davillasana
Migrants, mostly from Central America, cross the Rio Grande into Roma, Texas, US, on a raft at night with assistance from “coyotes.” Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, said immigration authorities are experiencing an "unprecedented number of migrants" at the United States’ southern border. According to US Customs and Border Protection, for the first time in 21 years, the number of migrants detained along the border with Mexico was more than 200,000, including nearly 19,000 unaccompanied teenagers and children.
For National Geographic: These LGBTQ+ migrants imagined a better life in the U.S.—did they find it?
HEATHER WALSH
www.heatherwalsh.com | @heatherwalshphotographs
Nights twist together. Shapes form out of unfamiliarity. Time pushes past in a slowness worth examining during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic on Long Island, New York, US.
FATMA FAHMY
www.fatmafahmy.com | @fatmah.fahmy
Khwater, 35, from the north of Sudan, had to seek refuge in Egypt to be with her sister, the only one who had separated from her family, because of wars and conflicts. Her sister was a great support for her through that hard time.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard for her financially, mentally, and physically, but being with her sister made it much more manageable.
Difficult moments didn't end there, but intensified when Khwater discovered that her sister was in the final stages of cancer. After her sister's death three months later, Khwater said, “The world stopped for me. It was the most challenging time ever. I wish everyone to exploit every moment with their siblings as separation is very hard.”
ELYSE BUTLER
www.elysebutler.com | @oceanelyse
Marisa Wriston gives birth to her daughter Rhea in water, surrounded by her family and midwife at home in Hawaii, US.
ALYSSA SCHUKAR
www.alyssaschukar.com | @alyssaschukar
Braxton Miller, aged five, swings near a culvert that connects the historic African American Pughsville neighborhood to the larger drainage system. Residents in Suffolk, Virginia, US, say that new homes have caused increased flooding after rainfall and sewage backup in their bathtubs and toilets.
For The Guardian: After slavery, oystering offered a lifeline. Now sewage spills threaten to end it all
TERRA FONDRIEST
www.terrafondriest.com | @terrafondriest
“Our family on one of our summer evening walks after dinner down our dirt road here in the Ozarks of Saint Joe, Arkansas, US. My two kids were enjoying their dessert, a couple of suckers that our neighbor keeps them in constant supply of. An Ozark Childhood has become a long-term project of mine as I tell the stories of my family and community over a period of 10 years.”
LAUREN CREW
www.laurencrew.com | @laurencrew
The Linda Lindas practice at home in Los Angeles.
For Buzzfeed News: Meet The Linda Lindas, The Young Punk Band Whose Song About Racism Rocked The Internet
ANDREA DICENZO
www.andreadicenzo.com | @andreadicenzo
Kids play table football on the sidewalk in front of the Al-Nouri Mosque complex in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq. Public opinion in Iraq is divided about reconstruction plans for the mosque complex after the United Arab Emirates–funded UNESCO restoration design was announced earlier this year.
For The New York Times: ‘A Fiasco’: Redesign Around Mosul Landmark Prompts Outcry
ASMAA WAGUIH
www.asmaawaguih.com | @asmaawaguih
Members of the Taliban police force examine alcoholic beverages and other confiscated items at a police station in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban are shifting from being fighters to acting as an urban police force.
ÖZGE SEBZECI
www.ozgesebzeci.com | @ozgeseb
Ali Hisaini, 36, Mahube Hisaini, 25, and Elisa, 9, sit together in the Turkish city of Trabzon. Originally from the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the family fled Taliban advances over the summer and arrived in Turkey last month. “In the news you can see the Taliban saying that they've changed, that they're a new Taliban. But I don't trust them. The Taliban is the same,” Hisaini said.
For NPR: His Family Fled Afghanistan. In Turkey, Other Afghans Help Them Build A New Life
HANNAH YOON
www.hannahyoon.com | @hanloveyoon
Three friends embrace one another while paying respects at the memorial outside Gold Spa in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Saturday, March 20.
For The Washington Post: Sorrow, Hope, Rage, Pain
CAROLINE YANG
www.carolineyang.com | @carolineyangphoto
A view into the love, fear, and loss so many of us in the Asian American community felt as our elders were violently attacked during the pandemic. Intergenerational relationships are celebrated in our culture, and elders are revered.
FLORENCE GOUPIL
www.florencegoupil.com | @florence.goupil
Concepcion, a Quechua woman, testifies that she was sterilized without her consent while she was sleeping, after giving birth to her third child at the age of 28. Between 1996 and 1997, 180,000 Indigenous women were brutally sterilized in Peru. The government has not yet given them justice, those responsible are still in high office, and political practice has not changed either.
ROSA PANGBABEAN
www.rosapanggabean.com | @rosa_panggabean
A portrait of Waikem, 55, a farmer who joined the transmigration government, at her house in Gorontalo, Indonesia. She is one of the farmers who invested in livestock as a strategy to avoid debt to middlemen and uses manure from the cattle for compost.
DAN AGOSTINI
www.danielaagostini.com | @dn_agostini
Lolla does sound and image tests before an Instagram Live at the support house for transgender women where she lived in São Paulo. Lolla uses her Instagram account to share a little bit of her life and conducts Live sessions about trans identity and transphobia.
CALLAGHAN O’HARE
www.callaghanohare.com | @callaghan_ohare
Lila Blanks holds the casket of her husband, Gregory Dwayne Blanks, who died of COVID-19, ahead of his funeral in San Felipe, Texas, US, January 26. Greg died on January 17 at the age of 50. The father of seven served in the US Army and later built a career as an HVAC technician.
For Reuters: Texas Family Mourns Father Lost to COVID
TAILYR IRVINE
www.tailyrirvine.com | @tailyrirvine
Aiyanna Highwolf, one of Allison Highwolf’s four daughters, tends to her mother’s grave in Busby, Montana, US, a town on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
Allison Highwolf’s body was found alone in a motel room in February 2015. She died at 26 years old, of smoke inhalation from a fire of unclear origin.
Six years later, the circumstances of Ms. Highwolf’s death remain a mystery, one of many involving Native women, who disappear or meet violent ends with alarming regularity. Her family and the local authorities agree that the case was shoddily handled and the initial investigation haphazard, as often happens when crimes are committed against Native Americans. After pressure from her family and an advocacy group in California, Ms. Highwolf’s case is under review.
PILAR OLIVARES
pilarolivares.photoshelter.com | @pilarrio
Children roll cooking-gas cylinders to help their mother take them home after buying them at a fair price amid high energy costs caused by inflation, as part of an initiative organized by the Federation of Oil Workers, in the Vila Vintem slum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
PAULA BRONSTEIN
www.paulaphoto.com | @pbbphoto
An Afghan father walks his daughter on a bicycle through the bird market in Kabul, Afghanistan.
For the BBC: A Love Letter to Kabul
NADJA WOHLLEBEN
www.nadjawohlleben.com | @nadjawohlleben
“My partner, Sebastian, soothes our newborn daughter, Nia. Seeing my two loves together makes me so happy. Our daughter was born in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the three of us are at home alone, inside our puerperium bubble, the dramatic reality outside seems so far away.”
PRESTON GANNAWAY
www.prestongannaway.com | @pgannawayphoto
Corn snake, 2021. EJ and Morgan out on a date at an exotic pet store. From the series Remember Me, a 16-year-long essay about a boy in New Hampshire, US, following the death of his mother.
ARIN YOON
www.arinyoon.com | @arinyoon
Arin Yoon, a photographer and the wife of US Army infantry officer John Principe, has been documenting the unseen burden war has on military families, including her own. Here, Arin and John's son, Teo, draws close to his father, who wears a hearing aid, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, US. Service members are more likely to suffer hearing loss than their civilian counterparts, a result of exposure to loud sounds during training exercises and deployments.
For National Geographic: Military mothers face their own battles—family and community gives them strength
RAÏSSA KARAMA RWIZIBUKA
@raissa_rkar
Girls with traditional hairstyles embrace in the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu in July. From Congolese Beauty, a series on the return of the "nappy" movement, which has resurrected the desire for Congolese women to be themselves and proud of their braids again. Many of them now braid their hair, replicating African and traditional hairstyles.
For The Carmignac Foundation.
RACHEL BUJALSKI
www.rachelbujalski.com | @rachelbujalski
Sean—with his dog Lucky—attributes his homelessness to a cycle of meth use he cannot break. The spread of P2P meth is part of a larger narrative—a shift in supply from plant-based drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin to synthetic drugs, which can be made anywhere. Methamphetamine, different chemically than it was a decade ago, is creating a wave of severe mental illness and worsening America’s homelessness problem.
For The Atlantic: ‘I Don’t Know That I Would Even Call It Meth Anymore’
EVA PAREY
www.evaparey.com | @eva.parey
Shamaila, originally from Bangladesh, was eight months pregnant when she was admitted to the Hospital del Mar with lungs affected by COVID-19 in January. The medical team decided to perform a Cesarean section to reduce the overall strain on her body before treatment and to prevent the baby from suffering. After three weeks in the ICU, with sedation and tubes, she woke up and began to breathe on her own. The medical team arranged a meeting with her family outside the building facing the sea, so she could see her husband and children. The curative walks on the seafront, organized by the Hospital del Mar, are part of a pioneering program to humanize medical treatment, launched two years ago, which introduces various therapies to lower patients’ stress levels.
KRISTINA BARKER
www.kristinabarker.com | @kristinabarker
“My mom, Kate Barker, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s eight years ago. In the years since her diagnosis, as I watch her mind and body change and deteriorate, I’ve been grieving the loss of someone who is still here, still right in front of me. To make sense of this grief in my late 20s and now into my 30s has impacted my life in a way I still don’t quite understand. I’m angry and sad this has happened to her. I look to nature for grounding. Love of open space and the natural world is also one of the things that bonds my mom and me. My mom at home in bed in Island Park, Idaho, US.”
KRISTINE NYBORG
www.kristinenyborg.com | @kristine_nyborg
Big brother, aged seven, reads to little sister and little brother, both aged six, on Monday, January 18, before school in Ottawa, Canada. During the pandemic the siblings grew closer than ever before, both physically and emotionally. The children spent 18 months with only each other for company before returning to physical school in the fall. They were in the 21 percent of children in their school district who were kept home for virtual school because of the pandemic.
AUDE GUERRUCCI
www.audeguerrucci.com | @audeguerrucci
A mother breastfeeding her two-month-old baby, Gabriella, is part of a migrant caravan heading to the northern border in Santo Domingo Zanatepec, Mexico.
ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN
www.ilanapl.com | @ilanapl
A mother holds the hands of her children after attempting to seek asylum on the Gateway International Bridge. A group of more than a dozen migrants walked to the center of the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, trying to gain entry to the United States, where they were turned away by Customs and Border Protection officers.
For The New York Times: Biden Takes on Trump’s Migrant Policies and Confusion Reigns at the Border
ÁNGELA PONCE
www.angela-ponce.com | @angelaponce_photo
Cledis Chanchari nurses her daughter Geinsha at their home in the Hijos de Profam human settlement, in Lima, Peru.
For Reuters.
NADA HARIB
www.nadaharib.com | @nada_harib
A family member mourns over victims of the Al-Kaneyat massacre, Abdurahman (16), AbduAlmalek (15), Mohammed (10), and their father, Abdulaali al-Falous (53), at their funeral in Tarhuna, Libya, on March 5.
For Getty Images.
JULIA ROBINSON
www.juliarobinson.com | @juliarphoto
Alex Johnson holds four-month-old Mikayla Johnson in the car before driving to a relative’s house, also without power but with a fireplace, in Austin, Texas, US, on February 17. Johnson and his extended family had been huddled together without power in their apartment but decided to move after two days of using their stove as the only heat source. Johnson is seen through a hole in the driver’s side window, which shattered from the cold.
JULIE DERMANSKY
www.jsdart.com | @juliedermansky
Heavy black emissions from the Shell Norco Manufacturing Complex the day after Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, US, as a Category 4 storm fill the sky in Norco, behind a gift shop on Apple Street. Shell’s site, along with many other industrial sites located on an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, known as “Cancer Alley,” burned off excess hydrocarbons after losing power because of the storm.
NADÈGE MAZARS
www.nadegemazars.com | @nadege_mazars
While part of the May Day march was moving peacefully toward the house where the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, lives, the police threw tear gas at the demonstrators. A young woman stopped in the middle of the tear gas for several seconds, showing her determination by refusing to leave. Since April 28, Colombia has been experiencing a national strike that affects most major cities and some of the main roads. As of May 9, the NGO Temblores has counted 47 deaths among the demonstrators in the national strike.
JOANNA DEMARCO
www.joannademarco.com | @_joannademarco
Members of the African community in Malta protest for basic rights and better working conditions in the island’s capital, Valletta. The protest was organized after a construction worker belonging to their community, Jaiteh Lamin, was left seriously injured on the side of the road after falling at a construction site.
ESTHER RUTH MBABAZI
www.esthermbabazi.com | @esther_mbabazi
Babu Enock, 47, a herbalist in Tolowo village, Kween District, Uganda.
As a herbalist, he used to get plants from the forest, but now he is not comfortable going there because of the Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers. “They say it’s trespassing to collect plants in the forest. If we could go back to our ancestral grounds—we could get our resources for free. We used to coexist with the animals in the forest because most of them were treated as our totems, so we didn’t hunt them.
“We need to be known in Uganda as a native Indigenous community. I am Ugandan, belonging to the Benet Indigenous community. We have been displaced from our ancestral lands. Without recognition, we don’t have representation, we aren’t able to access the same opportunities as Ugandans.”
LENA MUCHA
www.lenamucha.com | @lena_mucha
Kristina Berning, 21, holding her cow Ellie with her sisters Celine (left) and Michelle (right) sitting next to them. Kristina grew up with Ellie on her father's conventional dairy farm. Ellie has been on Hof Butenland, an old-age cow farm, for six years and turned 13 this year. She suffers from arthrosis and heart problems. She died two days later.
For The New York Times: On This German Farm, Cows Are in Charge. Or at Least Coequals.
KIMBERLY DELA CRUZ
www.kimberlydelacruz.com | @kimiisstellar
A girl wades through floodwater brought by high tide in Paombong, Bulacan, in the Philippines. High tide and land subsidence make flooding a common occurrence during the rainy season in many villages in Bulacan, compounded by rising sea level in Manila Bay. Using satellite data, scientists concluded that ocean levels in the Philippines are rising at a rate five times the global average, potentially displacing millions of people if the climate crisis is not mitigated.
METTE LAMPCOV
www.mettelampcov.com | @mettelampcov
Lizette plays on her bicycle as strong winds blow across her neighborhood in Salton City, California, US.
Not much water reaches the Salton Sea, and the little that does enter is all agricultural runoff laced with pesticides and fertilizers. As the lake shrinks it uncovers sand and dust that blow into the air, exposing people living nearby to hazardous particulate matter.
SAARA MANSIKKAMÄKI
www.saaramansikkamaki.com | @saaramansikkamaki
Sisters M. (9), F. (11), and V. (14), spending just another evening of their summer holiday at their home in a small countryside village in Karkkila, Southern Finland, and trying out different scarf styles.
LETICIA VALVERDES
www.leticiavalverdes.com | @leticiavalverdes
Beka Munduruku and a friend in front of the Brazilian National Congress. In August 2021, over six thousand Indigenous people from 170 different ethnic groups from all over Brazil congregated in Brasilia in the “Fight for Life” protest. They were there to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro and the “Marco Temporal,” legal action brought by the Brazilian government against the Indigenous people of Brazil.
Indigenous people claim the law could take away their ancestral lands and held a week of demonstrations against what they call Bolsonaro’s “anti-Indigenous agenda.”
The protest came as the case was to open at Brazil’s Supreme Court. Beka and other Munduruku were present after traveling for three days by bus to Brasilia.
For The Times: Inside the Amazon tribe fighting deforestation: ‘This is war’
WATSAMON TRI-YASAKDA
www.watsamontriyasakda.com | @junewatsamon
“While Thailand is viewed as ‘paradise' for the LGBTQ+ community, in reality, there is neither equal marriage nor Bangkok Pride. Since the first time I attended Pride in other cities, I have always wondered what Pride in Bangkok, my own hometown, would be like—all the love, smiles, and tears during the event. As Pride Month was approaching, I decided to transform my own imaginary Pride of Bangkok into reality. I invited people from different groups who have contributed to the Thai LGBTQ+ community in many ways—social movement, human rights, politics, and entertainment—to express themselves as if today were Bangkok Pride.”
MARY INHEA KANG
www.marykang.com | @mary.kang
Portrait of Butterfly Lovers performers. Butterfly Lovers centers queer Asian diasporas’ love and was produced in collaboration with the Wing On Wo & Co. Project in New York City, New York, US, in celebration of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 150th anniversary.
SARAH PABST
www.sarahpabst.com | @_sarahpabst_
“A self-portrait a week after giving birth to my son, on July 18, near Cologne, Germany. Together with the abrupt hormone change, the empty belly causes all kinds of emotions. It feels as if the body is suddenly out of balance, the belly a big balloon without a function. One tries to find a new place in the world, searching to be reborn as well.
Immense joy, sadness, fear, excitement—all those feelings interchange at high speed. And then, slowly, while the body recovers and settles, so does the mind. Step by step back to a new me.
EMILIENNE MALFATTO
www.emalfatto.com
Fatma Mahmood, 10, sits in a boat on the Euphrates in southern Iraq.
SUZANNE PLUNKETT
www.suzanneplunkett.com | @suzanne_plunkett
A boulder falls into the English channel from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza.
As part of their Protect the Oceans campaign, Greenpeace have been dropping boulders in the North Sea to keep supertrawlers from destructive fishing in Marine Protected Areas. Bottom trawling in a Marine Protected Area is the equivalent to bulldozing a national park.
For Greenpeace.
NYIMAS LAULA
www.nyimaslaula.com | @nyimaslaula
A tender moment as Aurel bathes on the ocean with her dog during sunset at Rote Island, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
KARLA GACHET
www.karlagachet.com | @kchete77
An egret is reflected in a puddle on the street on the south side of the island of Kauai, Hawaii, US.
LAURA LARMO
www.lauralarmo.com | @lauralarmo
Two food delivery riders resting and charging their phones at Camera del non lavoro, ”Chamber of non labor,” a trade union dedicated to temporary workers in Milan, Italy. The young men, modern-day low-wage workers, sit in front of a painting by the artist Chiara Loca, depicting historical low-wage workers, the mondine—seasonal rice-paddy laborers who were common in Italy until the first half of 20th century, especially in the Po River area in the north. The mondine’s job was to remove all the weeds among the rice plants, work that is done by herbicides today. The two groups share low pay as well as poor working conditions, few protections, and contracts that are far from ideal.
GRETA RICO
www.gretarico.com | @gretarico
A newborn baby still maintains its connection to the placenta. Recently it has been shown that the placenta continues to pass nutrients even after birth, so midwives do not cut the umbilical cord until the mother and father decide to do so.
This picture is part of the documentary project Urban Midwives that portrays the almost unknown work of midwives who serve in one of the largest cities in Latin America, Mexico City, Mexico. In the metropolitan area, a place where more than 20 million people live, there are only two midwifery practices and approximately eight midwives who attend births at home.
SOFIA ALDINIO
www.sofiaaldinio.com | @sofialdinio
Emilda and her family get together on a Saturday afternoon before heading to the beach to receive the fish in San Juanico, Baja California, Mexico. Emilda lives with her daughters and grandchildren. She comes from a long line of fishermen, but she hopes for something different for her grandchildren’s future. Living off what the land provides is not sustainable anymore, she explains.
LAUREN DECICCA
www.laurendeciccaphotography.com | @deciccaphoto
A young Thai antigovernment protester is tended to by medics after Thai police used water cannons laced with tear gas to break up a rally on September 29 in Bangkok, Thailand. Antigovernment protesters have continued to hold rallies since July of 2020, with recent gatherings ending in clashes with Thai police. Protesters call for governmental and monarchy reform.
SMITA SHARMA
www.smitasharma.com | @smitashrm
Chandro Tomar, 89, practices shooting with an air pistol at the site of a shooting range she is building in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India.
For The New York Times: An 89-Year-Old Sharpshooter Takes Aim at India’s Patriarchy
CAYLA NIMMO
www.caylanimmo.com | @caynimm
Shawn Perkins of Western Texas College rides bareback at the College National Finals Rodeo at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyoming, US, on Monday, June 14.
FRANCE KEYSER
myop.fr/photographer/france-keyser | @france_keyser
In France, secularism has long imposed restrictions on where and when Muslim women can wear head and face coverings. In this series, French veiled Muslim women testify. Nathalie Bendjilali, 44, is a mother of seven. She says, “This legislation goes against the republic’s values. We are one community: the French community. Just because we are visibly Muslim, it doesn’t mean we can’t be an integral part of the French Republic. . . . We’re in France, we all have a choice. Most women in France choose to wear it.”
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI
@louisa.gouliamaki
A woman chants in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens during a massive demonstration marking International Women's Day, on March 8. Hundreds of women marched at a protest with special poignancy as the country goes through a belated #MeToo awakening.
For the AFP.
REHAB ELDALIL
www.rehabeldalil.com | @rehabeldalil
Every day, the women of AlTarfa village walk in a group of four from sunrise to sunset, leading the herd of sheep and goats as they feed on wild plants in the surrounding mountains. As the herd feeds, the women talk, share concerns, ask for advice, and learn from one another—a sisterhood that is formed through mutual support and unity. From left to right: Nora, Nadia, and Mariam stand on a mountainside looking over their village, AlTarfa, Saint Catherine, South Sinai, Egypt.
UMA BISTA
www.umabista.com | @uma.bista
Hira Khatri, 20 (right), resident of Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City, traveling to Duduwa Rural Municipality at Banke District, Nepal. Hira, who has low vision, is a rights activist in her area. Locals often throw used condoms, threatening to rape and kill her for raising her voice against child marriages. Laxmi Thapa (left), Hira’s cousin, often accompanies her when she is traveling away from home.
GABRIELA HASBUN
www.gabrielahasbun.com | @gabrielahasbun
Celebration of Dr. Huey P. Newton Memorial Sculpture unveiling in Oakland, California, US, on Sunday, October 24. His wife Fredrika Newton (left) and artist Dana King, who created the sculpture, were among those attending. The sculpture is the City of Oakland's first permanent art installation honoring the Black Panther Party.
MALA HAYATI
www.malahayati.wixsite.com | @dymalahayati
“Under Indonesia's marital laws, a Muslim man can have more than one wife if permission is granted by a religious court and his first wife gives her consent. If permission is not obtained from the religious court, then the marriage cannot be authorized. When my father married another younger woman without consent from my mother, it really broke her heart. So my siblings and I decided to contest my father's second marriage.
“This image from my pregnancy reminds me of one of the hardest moments in my life, since I had to visit religious courts in Jakarta many times to take care of the annulment of my father's second marriage. This picture is part of my personal project On Condition, about polygamy practices in Indonesia.”
WARA VARGAS LARA
waravargas.weebly.com | @wara_vargas
Agustin Mamani, Indigenous to the Chipaya culture in Bolivia, sitting on the foundations of his native architecture. The origins of the Chipaya culture date back to approximately 2500 BC.
MARISOL MENDEZ
www.marisol-mendez.com | @marisol___mendez
¨La Salo,¨ mother, sower, midwife, and healer from Potosí, Bolivia.
“This image belongs to my project MADRE. Piecing together past memories and current observations, MADRE explores the influence of race and religion in shaping the perception and representation of Bolivian women. Through it I strive to challenge macho-patriarchal structures and celebrate the diversity and complexity of my culture through the portrayal of its women.”
TUANE FERNANDES
tuanefernandes.46graus.com/portfolio | @tuanefernandess
Dandara, 10, resident of Quilombo do Rosario in the Region of Salvaterra, Marajó, Pará, Brazil.
The community is threatened by rice farmers who want to take over their territory.
CORINNA KERN
www.corinnakern.com | @corinnakern
Streaks of light are seen as Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system is launched to intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 16.
For The New York Times: Tel Aviv, Israel’s Bustling Financial Hub, Is Shaken as Rockets Rain Down
JOHIS ALARCÓN
www.johisalarcon.com | @johis.alarcon
Katherine Pupiles, 20, poses for a portrait in her bedroom. She is a communitarian teacher and physiology student at Quito University, Quito, Ecuador. She returned to the San Clemente community when the COVID-19 pandemic began. She is one of the five Indigenous youth who opened a communitarian education space in the school. As a physiology student, her motivation is to help the children grow up in a healthy environment. "They make me feel good with them, they transmit me beautiful happiness, it is not possible to explain it in words, they make me feel good, their energy is contagious. I wanted to be with them again."
For The Guardian: Ecuador: Community Education During the COVID Pandemic
ROSEM MORTON
www.rosem.xyz | @rosemmorton
Karen Cantor, 27, ICU nurse
“We had nurses get sick. We had nurses die. We had family members of nurses die. We had to take care of their family members.
“I wrote my will last year. It was cathartic—at least you had a plan. I needed a sense of control.
“I didn't start seeing a therapist until like the beginning of this year. I don't think there were openings by the time I was looking. So, now I've started seeing a therapist, and unpacking, like, all of the traumas of last year.”
For Photoville and NPR: Filipino American Health Workers Reflect on Trauma and Healing on COVID’s Frontlines
SALGU WISSMATH
www.salguwissmath.com | @salguwissmath
Charis Hill, disability activist, poses for a portrait in their home in Sacramento, California, US. Hill is advocating for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to prioritize high-risk people under 65. The state’s new vaccination plan will prioritize people by age rather than by risk of infection beginning in mid-February, and people with disabilities and other groups said that not only is unfair but also puts their lives at risk.
Hill has a condition called axial spondyloarthritis, which causes inflammation in the spine, leads to pain and fatigue, and puts them at a higher risk of complications from the coronavirus. Hill has long been bothered by the misconception that only older people face serious complications from the virus.
For The San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Age-Based Vaccine System Angers People With Disabilities
NNEKA EZEMEZUE
www.nnekaezemezue.com | @nnekaezemezue
Dr. Henang Kwasau sits in the church where she found lodging—a way to save money and reduce her commute—during her unpaid internship at a hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Kwasau had agreed to take the post, then the pandemic hit.
For NPR: How 9 Health Workers Stay Strong in a Pandemic Year
CHALINEE THIRASUPA
www.chalineethirasupa.com | @chalinee.thirasupa
A traditional Chinese opera actress wearing a face shield poses for a picture during Lunar New Year celebrations in Bangkok, Thailand. The COVID-19 outbreak, which emerged in December 2020, has spread to most of Thailand’s provinces, dealing another blow to the tourism-reliant economy.
For Reuters.
WHITNEY CURTIS
www.whitneycurtis.com | @whitneycphoto
The lights remain on at a party supply store on Main Street in Festus, Missouri on Jan. 13. As COVID-19 cases continued to rise, the director of the Jefferson County Health Department received threats after supporting a mask mandate and other measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in the county.
For The New York Times
Pre-Order the 2021 Women Photograph Annual Now!
Now available for pre-order: the limited edition Women Photograph 2021 Annual featuring the work of these 100 photographers. The annual is a 6x6 inch soft cover booklet that will ship in February 2022, worldwide.
And don’t miss the 2020, 2019, 2018, and the 2017 Year in Pictures!