The Year in Pictures 2021: Visions of a Volatile World
Washington, Jan. 6. After reinforcements arrived, police officers forced people out of the Capitol. Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
The year 2021 opened with the promise of vaccines, and the belief that we would all return to “normal” after the tumultuous year of the pandemic. But the year instead took off with an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, and saw a summer of carefree gatherings derailed by a fast-spreading virus. Governments fell, democracies were challenged, and climate-related destruction was unleashed, all while the casualties of the pandemic continued to amass. The vaccine saved some lives, but human passions, hopes and fears did their usual work to create a year that was anything but calm, and is ending with the prospect of a new variant upending plans once again.
This is the story of 2021 told visually, through the eloquent universal language of photography...
The New York Times. The Year in Pictures 2021: Visions of a Volatile World
New Delhi, April 23. As India recorded as many as 350,000 infections per day — more than any other country had since the pandemic began — bodies were brought to a crematorium ground for Covid-19 victims. Atul Loke for The New York Times
Kabul, Afghanistan, May 2. An American soldier sat aboard a Chinook helicopter as U.S. troops began their withdrawal from the country, loading up ammunition and supplies from Kandahar Airfield. Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
La Palma, Canary Islands, Oct. 30. A house peeked through an ash-covered landscape more than a month after the Cumbre Vieja volcano first erupted, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press
Bruzgi, Belarus, Nov. 16. Migrants desperate to reach the European Union camped in squalor near the Poland-Belarus border. They were caught in a standoff between Belarus, which encouraged migrants to come, and Poland, which fought to keep them out. James Hill for The New York Times
