TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2023

2 minute read
The McDougall Creek wildfire burns on the mountainside above houses in West Kelowna, B.C., on Aug. 18.
Flames from the McDougall Creek wildfire encircle a mountainside above homes in West Kelowna, British Columbia, on Aug. 18. Extreme weather conditions fueled Canada's worst wildfire season on record, with thousands of fires devastating millions of acres and darkening skies thousands of miles away.Darryl Dyck—The Canadian Press/AP

Did you see this photo??
*link*
Wow.
Omg!!

Follow this exchange with a dynamic discussion, hit repeat, and you have a pretty accurate snapshot of the TIME photo department’s typical Slack conversations. Even though we collectively scroll through thousands of photographs each day, there are still those that stop us in our tracks on a regular basis.

As we draw close to the end of another year punctuated by grief and conflict, but also records broken and breathtaking moments of human achievement, photographers continue to astound us by offering new ways of seeing the world. How incredible it is to think you’ve seen every photo of a president, a protest, a sporting event, only to see it anew through the lens of a storyteller who showed up with the intent to inform and to illuminate the connectedness of humankind.

What has become clear in 2023—a year dominated by the rapid rise of AI imagery—is that photojournalism has become more important than ever. The storytellers who are dedicated to bearing witness to events across the globe in real time are critical in providing lucidity to an otherwise muddled world. As such, the weight of responsibility on them to act ethically, and with the highest level of journalistic integrity, is greater now than perhaps ever in history.

Below is the 2023 Greatest Hits version of “Did you see this photo??”: an unranked collection of 100 of the images that moved us the most. We hope that you’ll take some time to reflect on the year that was, with thoughtfulness, clarity, and wonder.

— Katherine Pomerantz, Director of Photography

Warning: Some of the following images are graphic in nature and might be disturbing to some viewers.

A Ukrainian soldier of the 28th Brigade, call sign Snowball, is digging a trench under fire at the outermost positions a few hundred meters from the enemy trenches, in Bakhmut on March 26. Due to the fact that they are far away from the place of supply and the constant digging of trenches, his hands and the hands of many other infantrymen are cracked and black like the ground. The cold, the earth, and no way to wash them, only wet wipes do that to almost every infantry soldier's hands. Bakhmut area, March 2023.
A Ukrainian soldier of the 28th Brigade sits a few hundred meters from the enemy trenches, in Bakhmut on March 26. Due to the fact that they are constantly digging trenches, the hands of many infantrymen are cracked and black like the ground. Maxim Dondyuk for The New Yorker
Migrant families from Venezuela disembark from the train known as ‘La Bestia,’ finally arriving at the U.S. Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez after months of travel, on May 16.
Migrant families from Venezuela disembark from the train known as ‘La Bestia,’ at the U.S. Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez after months of travel, on May 16.Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Observer
Orange skies seen in New York City from the smog caused by Canada’s wildfires, on June 7.
Orange skies seen in New York City from the smog caused by Canada’s wildfires, on June 7.Dina Litovsky—Redux
Strikers on the United Auto Workers picket line in September.
A striking union auto worker holds his daughter while listening to remarks from UAW President Shawn Fain during a visit to picket lines at a Jeep manufacturing plant, in Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 30.Philip Montgomery for The New Yorker

Photo Editing by Kaya Berne, Kim Bubello, Eli Cohen, Sangsuk Sylvia Kang, Kara Milstein, Dilys Ng, and Katherine Pomerantz

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