India decriminalises homosexuality

Abhishek Chinnappa/Reuters

10 December This was the day the supreme court in India repealed section 377 of the Indian penal code, which criminalised homosexuality. It was a momentous occasion. At the celebrations in Bangalore they were tossing activists in the air, bursting confetti and balloons. I didn’t see any hostility or fear. For me this photo depicts relief and immeasurable joy. The activist in the photo, Akkai Padnashali, said this was the happiest moment of her life. I think it speaks volumes of her belief that everyone is equal and deserves to be treated as such in the eyes of the law.

Palestinian protester, Gaza City

Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

22 October I took this picture at a dangerous time in the confrontation between Palestinians and the Israeli army in Gaza City. I certainly endangered my life – I was on the front lines. It was intense. The Israeli army were firing gas and bullets. But I think it was worth the risk. The protesters are fighting back against years of siege and it is startling to see their anger. They are still there, fighting back. For me, this man brandishing the Palestinian flag shows that they still have a sense of freedom.

Morning in a cattle camp, South Sudan

Stefanie Glinski/AFP

During dry season in South Sudan, cattle herders seek lower ground for water and pasture. I took a flight, a helicopter and swam through a river to get to this cattle camp. The animals, cattle herders and families are waking. The herders are on the road and sleep between the animals. Photographs from South Sudan normally capture problems or civil war. This was more positive. The peoples’ relationship with the animals is close. They drink cow’s milk and wash their hands and hair with cow urine. They use cow dung to keep mosquitoes and flies off, burning it to ashes with which they cover their skin. It was incredibly dusty when I got there as overnight fires had just been extinguished. That’s what makes the beautiful colour.





Mugshot of Bean, the lost dog, New Jersey

Cape May Police Dept/AP

17 July Somebody reported that this dog, Bean, was running loose. We took the mugshot to add a bit of levity and fun to our job – in most cases it’s not appropriate. Eventually someone saw the photo on social media and sent a message to the owners, so they got Bean back. He’s a really famous dog now. We’ve seen news articles from Japan and Germany about him and we had a million views on the Facebook page. We have a national night out against crime when the community gets together and Bean’s owners sent us 150 Bean photos for the kids, which they loved. We didn’t expect the response we got at all. The perception of law enforcement tends to be negative, so any chance we get to show people we are just normal people really helps.



Woman in the aftermath of an earthquake, Indonesia

Jorge Silva/Reuters

7 October Central Sulawesi was one of the most affected areas during the tsunami and earthquake in Indonesia. Everything was totally upside-down. It looked like the earth was melting. The liquefaction was turning soil to water, so it appeared like the earth was alive, running. The mosque is destroyed and toppling over in the background. This family was searching for their home in the rubble. They didn’t even recognise it – it had moved 150m away from where it normally stood. She’s holding a stuffed rabbit and you wonder: who owned that rabbit? That woman had lost her three children. I asked her to stop and I took the portrait in one frame. Then she turned around and kept walking.



The Saudi consulate after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

15 October I took this on the day Turkish investigators entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to search the building, following the death of Jamal Khashoggi. The only entrance for cars was in front of the main entrance – so the media would part to let them through, then congregate again. The security guard is trying to hold us all back. I got the photo by standing with one foot on a tree stump and the other on a steel barricade so I could see over the crowd. You only have 10 seconds to take that kind of photo, but looking back I was like, wow. It pretty much sums up the story: Khashoggi was a journalist and his death was linked to press freedom. Saudi is a closed country and here there was a security guard blocking the press from taking photos.



Golfers ignore an erupting volcano, Hawaii

Mario Tama/Getty Images

16 May I was covering the Kilauea volcano eruptions and I’d heard that this golf course had a good viewpoint. I was trying to photograph when someone yelled: “Get out of my way, we’re tryna play here!” It was incredibly incongruous – and surprising to me, how unfazed the golfers were. To people living in Hawaii, these events are a part of life. People are accustomed to the power of nature around them. Often we go ahead with our daily activities amid these incredible things happening alongside us.



Stuck in the mud at the Dakar rally

Franck Fife/Getty Images

13 January I’ve been photographing the Dakar rally since 2013. It’s more than a job, it’s a passion. I cover most of it by helicopter, strapped into my seat with the door open and my feet dangling in mid-air. We were flying over the Bolivian plateau when we saw this very muddy spot with little lakes on either side. Cars were struggling to get through, and we realised it would be even harder for the motorbikes. So we landed nearby and set up. It was completely crazy. While some avoided the mudhole, others were stuck there for 40-45 minutes. Franco Caimi, pictured here, was one of the luckier ones. He almost went over his handlebars, but then fell back into his saddle. We decided we ought to warn them, but some still carried straight on in. Interview by Phil Daoust



US border agents detain a Honduran mother and child

John Moore/Getty Images

13 June Trump had recently implemented the policy of child separation when this photo was taken. The families were in darkness after a harrowing journey. They had no idea the policy had changed and they might be separated. They just knew they were escaping something dangerous and moving into an unknown future. Immigration is often discussed in terms of statistics, but the little crying girl is the reality of the zero tolerance policy. Her mother’s documents were being inspected, and when she was asked to set her child down, the little girl burst into tears. Later I discovered they weren’t separated. That was a relief, but others were. You can only imagine the terror.





The gunwomen of Pennsylvania

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

29 January This was taken in Pennsylvania just weeks after the Parkland shooting [in which 17 students and staff were killed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida]. It’s a “commitment ceremony” in this fringe church, where guns are the centrepiece of their faith. I was on my way out when I saw the woman in the photo. There was something in her expression that was different – an almost religious bliss. It was surreal. Turn one way and you’d see an 80-year-old woman struggling with the weight of an AR15; turn the other and you’d see a young woman with a pistol in each hand. I grew up a 30-minute drive from Sandy Hook – the shooting that killed 28 people. I covered it, and I have a child, so it’s embedded in my consciousness. As a journalist you try your best to understand, but to see guns used in mass shootings being celebrated is a little disorientating.



The running of the bulls, Pamplona, Spain

Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images

7 July The running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival is an integral part of culture in Pamplona. It lasts for nine days and even people who don’t like the bulls go, for the music, dance, food and drink. The picture is taken from the balcony of Carmen, a woman who lives on that street. I knew it was a good spot because Pedro Armestre captured the festival from the same balcony in 2013 and it was a really nice photo. It’s one of the best views of San Fermin; you can really see the vibrancy and the atmosphere.

Mass start of the Ironman Barcelona

Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for Ironman

20 May I’ve been to the Ironman Barcelona race before and I knew I could get a sunrise-esque photo if the conditions were right. I went down to the beach and tested it. Walk two metres in and you’re already waist-deep in the water. It’s a real steep drop. On the day, I wore trunks, stood in the water with my camera and waited for the start. No one else was in the water. I was so close to them – maybe five metres away. Suddenly they were sprinting into the sea at full-pace, with spray going everywhere. It’s an individual sport, so this is the only moment you can capture the high energy of everyone together. At the start I was thinking “Just start now!” because the conditions were perfect. With every second the purples and the oranges that give it that hue were fading. Everything came together perfectly.

Road destroyed by earthquake in Alaska

Marc Lester/AP

30 November We are pretty used to eruptions in Alaska, but this was different. We wanted to visibly tell the story of the structural damage that is hard to see. The quake had caused traffic to grind to an absolute halt, so it was impossible to photograph this spot on foot. I knew I’d have to fly. The viewpoint from the plane captured the enormity of the damage. The subtle cracks and splinter patterns in the ice and the lakes around it – it’s so unusual to see it from that perspective. It’s surreal. The earth looked like it was prepared to swallow the surface. The earthquake was ranked as potentially deadly. It’s amazing there were no deaths.







California wildfire: ‘Oh my gosh bro, this is crazy’

Stuart Palley/Zuma Press/eyevine

9 November I’ve photographed over 100 wildfires, but the California wildfire was one of the most intense. This was a few days in and it was wholesale destruction. For 12 miles there was a line of people evacuating amid a backdrop of this huge, ominous, orange-grey fire. People were crying and screaming, watching their homes burn down, running for their lives. All hell was breaking loose. And then, almost like a movie, this guy rolled past on his skateboard saying: “Oh my gosh bro, this is crazy,” with his phone in his hand filming. That would only happen in Los Angeles. The photo really puts the fire in the context of the location.



Sea of plastic waste, Panggang island, Indonesia

Laurent Weyl/Panos Pictures

20 July Panggang is a small island in north Jakarta where there’s not enough land for the inhabitants. They are making space by throwing the plastic waste they have accumulated into the sea. Society has changed a lot there. Food used to be wrapped in leaves; it was natural, biodegradable. Now everything’s wrapped in plastic, but there’s not much education about plastic disposal – there are health problems because the community are burning soft plastics and breathing in the air. They just don’t realise it’s a problem. The girl looks so happy because it’s normal for her. I dived in the sea near this island and it was awful. It’s full of litter: furniture, bags, whatever, they just throw it in. This photo shows the worst-case scenario of overusing plastics. That level of consumption is crazy. You could walk on the plastic there.



Horses and riders in South Dakota

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

3 August I covered the Standing Rock pipeline protests and met Ivan Lookinghorse, a tribal leader on the Cheyenne River Indian reservation. A year later he invited me to this 400-mile horse ride from South Dakota to Fort Laramie, which marked the 150th anniversary of the Sioux nation’s treaty rights. I became part of their community on that ride. Without our relationship, I wouldn’t have got the photo – I was part of the action, riding around in the tall grass, doing fun thing like kids do. I wanted to show them having a fun life. That group of kids are so special. The treaty gave them some bare-minimum rights over sustenance, but it’s a bitter pill. The Sioux people used to have so much land and now their community is in crisis. They are living on reservations in the poorest counties in the US.

Snapping the crocodile: ‘People ask how I didn’t get eaten’

Sean Chinn/Caters News

26 September I lived on a boat in the mangroves in Cuba for a week before taking this shot. Between some diving we went to an area where they’re familiar with crocodiles. Guides called out “Nino” – and a minute later this crocodile came up to the boat. I was waist deep in the water. I shot this with a dome port, which gives the half-in, half-out, composition. I wanted to show the two worlds together – that we can coexist alongside apex predators. Films portray crocodiles as man-eating monsters, but they’re not. I was scared before taking this photo because I hadn’t been in the water with a crocodile before; I mainly photograph sharks. People ask how I didn’t get eaten, but the crocodile was relaxing with its mouth wide open. I was lighting it with two strobe lights and it wasn’t bothered – they’re quite chilled creatures.

Photograph: Guillermo Arias/Getty Images

Hondurans march towards the US

Guillermo Arias/Getty Images

27 October This image of the migrant caravan travelling to the US border was used by Trump as propaganda, to label them as criminals and invaders. But you can see here that they’re just trying to walk. They are in unity, marching over that bridge, next to this beautiful landscape. The danger for photojournalists is that no matter how hard we try to be accurate, others might use our work to push their agenda. People decided to leave Central America in huge numbers because they have no basic safety there. In some ways they were naive, hoping they’d get to the US and Trump would say: “Come in! Let’s come together and we’ll give you visas,” once he saw their pain. On these first steps they were very hopeful, but when they got to the border they realised it was going to be pretty dark for them going forward.

White nationalist rally, Georgia

Go Nakamura/Reuters

12 December I was covering this neo-Nazi rally in Georgia and had heard they were going to have a secret ritual after dark. We all met at this bar, and were told they were planning to set up a big swastika on a cross and burn it. There was a moment when the organiser turned on me because he thought I was there for a leftwing organisation. As the torch was burning and the men were chanting, I got a little nervous – almost high on the adrenalin. It’s a frightening photo because most people, myself included, don’t realise these secret rituals still happen until they see it. I am not Caucasian so I was surprised at how nice the organiser was to me. He thanked me for coming. I don’t know why they let us photograph.

Child soldier, South Sudan

Stefanie Glinski/AFP

7 February This was taken during the release ceremony for child soldiers who had been fighting in South Sudan’s war-torn region of Yambio. The boy was the youngest there. He was nine. He is standing in a line with the other soldiers who are also children, but much older and taller. It’s a powerful image because he’s so young, and what happened to him is so unjust. He’s been around these big guys for way too long, doing things he didn’t want to do. You can see how his innocence has been taken away from him. He was really shy and quiet. We talked about games he liked to play and it struck me that he’s just a little boy who really wants to be home with his siblings and his family.

Car submerged in floods, Bucksport, South Carolina

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

26 September I was covering hurricane Florence and it had hit landfall. There was a cemetery on the street and coffins were floating around. I’d never seen that before, and I’ve covered a lot of floods. Then I saw this quaint little old car, submerged in the water. It’s incongruous: this modern invention that still can’t reckon with nature. The photo sums up how powerless humans are to stop mother nature once it gets going. People know these floods are coming; each day it creeps up and yet for the most part no one can do anything about it.

Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Daniel Ricciardo celebrates F1 victory in Monaco

Dan Mullan/Getty Images

27 May This was my first grand prix in Monaco. Red Bull had built this massive station for the media with a swimming pool on top. Daniel Ricciardo had just won his first Monaco grand prix. Everyone was flooding the station, knowing that’s where he would go: he had to fight his way through the crowd to get in. The media were all around the pool, like a natural amphitheatre and then he jumped in. I was opposite Ricciardo on the other side of the pool. It was as much about positioning as the technical skill. If I played it wrong, I could have been on the edge, soaking wet, holding a camera above everyone’s heads, trying to get a good shot and failing miserably.

• This article was amended on 27 December 2018. An earlier version referred to section 337 of the Indian penal code when section 377 was meant. This has been corrected.



