The Guardian relies on news photography from a variety of agencies, and our picture editors view thousands of images each day. Here we showcase some of the work by photographers who have stood out over the course of the year.

Ueslei Marcelino

Billows of smoke rise from a deforested section of the Amazon jungle in Porto Velho, Brazil, 24 August.

Ueslei Marcelino, based in Brasilia for Reuters, has covered the Brazilian presidency, demonstrations, cultural traditions, political unrest in Venezuela and the crisis in the Amazon.

My biggest lesson has been understanding that we can always improve our photos Ueslei Marcelino

A demonstrator is struck by a Venezuelan national guard vehicle on a street in Caracas. Guajajara Indians forest guardians detain a logger during a search for illegal loggers on Arariboia indigenous land in Brazil.

Logs cut from the Amazon rainforest are laid out beside a road near the city of Realidade, Amazonas state, 22 August.

Kevin Frayer

Tourists struggle to walk down an icy section of the Great Wall at Badaling, China.

Kevin Frayer is based in Hong Kong and works all over Asia with Getty Images. His work has been used regularly in the Guardian, from China’s 70th anniversary celebrations to features on the honey hunters of Yunnan and life at a Huawei campus.

Ethnic Lisu honey hunters stand on a rope ladder gathering wild cliff honey from hives near Mangshi, Yunnan province, China.

A Huawei employee rests in his cubicle in the research and development area at the Bantian campus in Shenzen, 12 April.

Paula Bronstein

Pope Francis walks out from Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok, Thailand, 22 November

Paula Bronstein is a photojournalist based in Bangkok. She has covered the election in Sri Lanka, the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and a number of stories in Thailand, the Ukraine region and Indian Tibet, for Getty Images.

Supporters of the Sri Lankan presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa cheer during the last political rally before voting, 13 November.

Lidiya Bonarenko, 82, hugs her cat, who is a close companion as she lives alone, in Maryanka, Donetsk region.

Guillermo Arias

Guillermo Arias won the Visa d’Or prize at the festival of photojournalism in Perpignan, France, for his work focusing on migration in Central America. He is based in Tijuana, Mexico, for Agence France-Presse.

A girl celebrating turning 15 poses beside the border fence in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, 27 September.

A group of asylum seekers from Central America return to Mexico from the United States, escorted by Mexican migration officers, 30 January.

Junior Hernandez, from Guatemala, runs next to a section of border fence where a chart has been painted counting migrant deaths, in Tijuana, Baja California.

Pilar Olivares

A demonstrator takes cover behind a makeshift shield during an anti-government protest in Santiago, Chile, 15 November.

A Peruvian photojournalist based in Rio de Janeiro, working mostly for Reuters, Pilar Olivares has covered ongoing anti-government protests in Santiago, Chile.

Supporters of the former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrate his release from prison at a bar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 8 November.

The best photographers are those who can handle natural light as if it were a big projector directed from the sky Pilar Olivares

A demonstrator watches a burning barricade during a protest in Santiago, Chile, 12 November.

Rodrigo Abd

Thousands of hectares of Amazon jungle destroyed by illegal miners in Tambopata province, Peru.

Rodrigo Abd, a staff photographer for the Associated Press, is from Buenos Aires and is currently based in Lima, Peru. He has covered environmental stories across South America as well as the unrest in Santiago and the crisis in Venezuela.

Children play on top of an abandoned car at the Aguerridos Liberator shanty town in Caracas, Venezuela, 9 May.

The Elizalzabal and Silva families, who fish for a living, outside a family home on the shore of oil-contaminated Lake Maracaibo in Cabimas, Venezuela, 3 July.

You can see more of Abd’s work on the fishermen making a living on the shore of Lake Maracaibo in this gallery.

Rebecca Blackwell

A churchgoer prays in the street during a march in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 22 October.

Rebecca Blackwell is based in Mexico City for Associated Press and has covered the situation in Haiti extensively, in addition to Mexican news.

Fireworks explode over the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City on Independence Day, 15 September.

Members of United Front of Guerrero Community Police, a vigilante group, patrol in Xaltianguis, in Mexico’s Guerrero state, 29 May.

Temilade Adelaja

Men carry a boy who was rescued at the site of a building collapse in Lagos, Nigeria, 13 March.

Temilade Adelaja is a documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Lagos, Nigeria, working for Reuters. Her image of a boy rescued from a collapsed building in Lagos was widely used in March.

Members of the GKB academy, a unicycle club, juggle during a training session in Lagos, Nigeria, 11 October.

First-time voters Emmanuella Aiyeola, a 19-year-old student, and Azonmayon Moses, 21, a teacher, in Lagos.

Felipe Dana

A boat navigates at night near to a large iceberg in eastern Greenland, August.

Felipe Dana is based in Rio de Janeiro for Associated Press and has covered stories all over the world, from the conflict in Syria to the ongoing crisis in Hong Kong and environmental issues in Greenland and Albania. See his set of Hong Kong protester portraits here.

A protester stands in front of a projected image in Hong Kong.

A woman reacts after being pepper-sprayed by police in Hong Kong, 20 October.

Nariman El-Mofty

Ethiopian migrants disembark from a boat in Ras al-Ara, Yemen, 26 July.

Nariman El-Mofty is based in Cairo for the Associated Press and has covered migration through Yemen and the world athletics championships in Doha. We ran a gallery in April of her images of Bedouin women working as tour guides in Egypt.

A policeman stands guard after a train rammed into a barrier at Ramsis station in Cairo, 27 February.

Umm Yasser, the first female Bedouin guide from the Hamada tribe.

Roman Pilipey

Models wait backstage before a show during fashion week in Beijing, China, 30 October.

Roman Pilipey is based in Beijing for the European Pressphoto Agency. We have featured his work many times in 2019: you can see more of his work on the Monlam prayer festival here, and on the trend for lavish wedding photography sessions in China here.

Tibetan Buddhist monks chant during the Monlam Great Prayer festival at Labrang Monastery in Xiahe County.

People pass by a couple posing for a photographer taking pre-wedding pictures on a road in Wuhan, China, 29 April.

Jessica Taylor

John Bercow speaking in the House of Commons, London.

Jessica Taylor works in the House of Commons for UK Parliament, and her images are distributed via agencies. While not an independent press photographer, her work from the confines of the chamber added value to our reporting of a turbulent political year.

Jeremy Corbyn during a debate on 14 October; Theresa May on the backbenches on 23 October.

Delil Souleiman

A Syrian boy on his bicycle looks at a convoy of US armoured vehicles patrolling fields near the town of Qahtaniyah, at the border with Turkey, 31 October.

Delil Souleiman is based in Syria covering the conflict for Agence France-Presse, from the fall of Islamic State’s last holdout in Baghuz, to the Turkish offensive against Syria’s Kurdish forces.

A woman stands on the side of a road on the outskirts of Tal Tamr, near the Syrian Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain, in north-eastern Hassakeh province, 16 October. The tyre fires had been lit to reduce visibility for Turkish warplanes during their offensive against Syria’s Kurdish forces.

Women and children leave the village of Baghuz, in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, 14 March.

Smoke billows after shelling of Islamic State’s last holdout, Baghuz, 3 March. Syrian families fleeing the battle zone between Turkey-led forces and Kurdish fighters in October.

Maja Hitij

Philip Neville talks to his players after England’s defeat in the Women’s World Cup semi-final, 2 July.

Maja Hitij is a photographer for Getty Images based in Berlin and covered the Women’s World Cup, featuring in this selection from the tournament.

Greta Thunberg at a climate march in Brussels, Belgium, 21 February.