A yearly look at 2025 through AP photographs

The Associated Press published its annual “100 Photos of 2025” gallery on Dec. 1, 2025, presenting what it described as “AP photos that defined the year.” The collection, presented as a curated gallery, includes captions and sections that move among global conflict, migration and everyday human scenes—along with images that the gallery describes in terms of light, framing and moment.

In the gallery introduction, the AP said the purpose of the roundup is to show “moments in time” that a camera shutter can “freeze the world,” and to illustrate how AP photographers documented the “violent and sometimes inexplicable” events as well as quieter and joyful ones. It also said the photographers worked in more than 200 locations around the world during 2025.

The AP said its photojournalists have won 36 Pulitzer Prizes since the Pulitzer award was established in 1917. The gallery text says the photographers are “more than eyewitnesses,” describing them as journalists, explorers and storytellers skilled in vantage point, light and people skills.

The gallery includes images tied to protests and political life. One caption described a protest outside Singha Durbar, Nepal’s government seat, in Kathmandu on Sept. 9, 2025, where a protester wearing a flak jacket carried a shield snatched from a policeman during a demonstration against corruption and a ban on social media.

Another image shown in the collection depicts migration after giving up hopes of reaching the U.S. Luis Sanchez, the caption says, rode on a boat with other Venezuelan migrants on Feb. 23, 2025, near Gardi Sugdub on Panama’s Caribbean coast. The gallery also includes images related to Venezuela’s political scene, including a photograph captioned as showing opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addressing supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 9, 2025, the day before Maduro’s inauguration for a third term.

The AP’s gallery also includes images from the Gaza Strip. It includes a captioned photograph of Israeli captive Arbel Yehoud being escorted by fighters as she is handed over to the Red Cross on Jan. 30, 2025, in Khan Younis. Other captions describe scenes connected to the war’s impact, including Palestinians gathering for iftar on the first day of Ramadan in Rafah on March 1, 2025, and bodies prepared for burial at the morgue of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on July 31, 2025.

In its descriptions, the gallery also points to single images for their composition. One caption notes “negative space,” describing a photograph by Petros Giannakouris of the Parthenon and the moon at night, with the sky framed as filling most of the image.

The gallery spans other parts of the world as well. A caption in the collection describes friends and relatives riding with the coffin of Jorge Luis Mendoza Cuelho, 14, during his funeral in Belen, a district nicknamed the “Venice of the Jungle,” in Iquitos, Peru, on May 23, 2025. Another caption describes pilgrims dancing the Sevillanas on June 8, 2025, during the annual Catholic pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of El Rocio in El Rocio, Spain.

The collection also includes images tied to the United States and other political settings. One caption says Marine One, with President Donald Trump aboard, departed the White House in Washington on May 22, 2025, en route to the Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C. for what the caption calls a crypto dinner.

The AP said the “100 Photos of 2025” gallery was curated by photo editors Benjamin Snyder, Enric Martí and Jacqueline Larma, with text attributed to Ted Anthony.