The year in photos: AP’s most memorable photos of 2023

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The year in photos: AP’s most memorable photos of 2023

BY TED ANTHONY
Updated 11:36 PM CST, November 30, 2023

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The mission of photojournalism is to capture moments that represent — and, at their best, truly reveal — the endless spectrum of the human experience.

Associated Press photographers across the world have spent 2023 doing exactly that — sometimes at great risk or personal exertion, always with ethics and compassion and quality, and with an eye forever trained toward the memorable.

When those photographers encounter the world, though — from Israel and Gaza to Brazil, from Mongolia to the American heartland and beyond — often they have no idea what they’ll find until it is upon them.

Here is some of what they found in 2023, in all its contradictions: Conflict. Ambition. Anger. Injustice. Striving. Merriment. Poverty. Blood. The quest for excellence, no matter the arena. The human body, in glorious and panicked motion and, too often, sadly stilled. Struggle — to protect loved ones, to navigate a warming planet, to escape strife and oppression, to survive nature’s capriciousness.

Death, life and more death — in all its unwelcome permutations. Bursts of joy in unexpected places. Tears upon tears upon tears. Wars that have just begun, wars that continue, wars already almost forgotten. The gamut of human existence.

Today, in a connected and absurdly complex world, a single year contains far more cataclysmic news than we can ever begin to process. Ways to make sense of it are rare. But using technology to freeze moments — capturing them in unforgettable photography — offers a small chance to pause and say: At this particular hour in our civilization, this is what happened to us.

Police stand outside Planalto Palace, the official workplace of Brazil’s president in Brasilia, as seen through a shattered window after supporters of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the building on Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Coal miner Jonny Sandvoll poses for a portrait in the break room of the Gruve 7 coal mine in Adventdalen, Norway, on Jan. 9, 2023. Gruve 7, the last Norwegian mine in one of the fastest warming places on earth, was scheduled to shut down this year but got a reprieve through 2025 because of the energy crisis driven by the war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Children ride a model of World War II-era Soviet tank during a military historical festival at the family historical tank park outside St. Petersburg, Russia, on Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Nina Nikiforovа, 80, cries outside a church in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 11, 2023, after attending the funeral of her son Oleg Kunynets, a Ukrainian military serviceman who was killed in the east of the country. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Ngwiza Khumbulani Moyo, a vintage collector, holds an old radio outside his home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Palestinians enjoy a day on the beach in Gaza City on March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Afghan brides and grooms participate in a mass wedding ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

A tribal woman tries to catch small fish as her granddaughter dozes on her back at a paddy field on the outskirts of Guwahati in India’s Assam state on March 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Migrants cross the Rio Grande into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on March 29, 2023, a day after dozens of migrants died in a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

Former President Donald Trump is escorted to a courtroom in New York on April 4, 2023, to appear on charges related to falsifying business records in a hush money investigation. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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Retired Lebanese security forces and other protesters scuffle with members of the Lebanese army as they try to advance toward government buildings during a protest in Beirut on April 18, 2023. Earlier in the day, Lebanon’s Parliament voted to postpone municipal elections in the crisis-stricken country, which had been planned for May, by up to a year. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A race fan walks on the grounds of Churchill Downs before the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race in Louisville, Ky., on May 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

A villager pours water into a canister as others gather around a well to draw water in Telamwadi, northeast of Mumbai, India, on May 6, 2023. Tankers bring water from the Bhatsa River after it has been treated with chlorine. There have been protests in the region since so much of the river water is diverted to urban areas, including Mumbai. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

A woman draped in a British flag smokes during the Big Lunch celebrations in London Regent’s Park, on May 7, 2023. The Big Lunch was part of the weekend of celebrations for the Coronation of King Charles III. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system fires interceptors at rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Migrants reach through a border wall for clothing handed out by volunteers in San Diego, as they wait to apply for asylum for entry into the United States on May 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman carries two children she is caring for at Fontaine Hospital Center, which treats malnourished children in the Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuelan migrants wave a U.S. flag at a television helicopter flying over the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, on May 12, 2023, a day after pandemic-related asylum restrictions called Title 42 were lifted. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Cadets practice with gas masks during a lesson in a bomb shelter in a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Tetiana holds her pet dogs, Tsatsa and Chunya, in her home that was flooded after the Kakhovka dam blew up overnight, in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 6, 2023. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, located in a part of southern Ukraine that Russia controls. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

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Fisherwomen and men pull in a net of fish off the coast of Chuao, Venezuela, in the early morning on June 7, 2023. Some women are joining a family tradition of fishing or launching new careers after losing jobs during Venezuela’s economic crisis. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

An art installation called “Double Ducks” by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is viewed through a prop at Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, on June 9, 2023. The two giant inflatable ducks marked the return of a pop-art project that sparked a frenzy in the city a decade ago. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)




In this photo taken with a long exposure, girls dance during an afternoon ritual on the second day of the Wyra’whaw coming-of-age festival in Tenetehar Wa Tembe village, located in the Alto Rio Guama Indigenous territory in Para state, Brazil, on June 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)


EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - The following image may be disturbing to some viewers.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - People pass by the body of a man who was killed and set on fire in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on June 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Longhorn cattle are returned to their pen at the end of the world’s only twice daily cattle drive in historic Forth Worth, Texas, on April 21, 2023. Since the early 1600s, ranchers raising cattle have cemented the image of longhorn steers, rugged cowboys and awe-inspiring vistas into the nation’s consciousness as what it means to be a Texan. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The Moradi family sits for a portrait on a small boat in Band-i-Mir lake, a tourist attraction in the Bamiyan Valley region in Afghanistan, on June 17, 2023. The family traveled there from far away Helmand for their summer vacation. This image was taken with a box camera, once ubiquitous in Afghanistan, but mostly a lost art form due to the Taliban’s intolerance of photography and the advent of the digital age. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

An injured demonstrator in Tel Aviv is dragged by police to be detained during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system on July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A mourner cries during the wake of Indigenous regional leader Fredy Campo Bomba, in Caldono, Colombia, on July 29, 2023. Campo Bomba was killed by unidentified gunmen on July 26. (AP Photo/Andres Quintero)

Sunlight bursts through a cloud over the wreckage of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Residents are blocked by police as they try to reach their houses in Benijos village as a wildfire advances in La Orotava in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain on Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

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The Mongolian State Honor Guard enters the Saaral Ordon Government Building in Sukhbaatar Square after the welcoming ceremony with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Pope Francis on the square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Sept. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Chris Blowes, of Australia, duck-dives under a wave during the U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championships in Oceanside, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2023. More than 100 athletes with disabilities from 17 countries competed in the event. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of Shani Louk, a German-Israeli dual citizen, during their cross-border attack on Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ali Mahmud)

Israelis killed by Hamas militants lie on the road near Sderot, Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated southern Israel Saturday and fired thousands of rockets into the country, prompting Israel to begin striking targets in Gaza in response. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas militants from Gaza carried out a cross-border massacre in Israel. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

A Venezuelan migrant laughs as she jokes with her husband, who gave her a few flowers he picked in the grass, as they wait along the rail lines in hopes of boarding a freight train heading north in Huehuetoca, Mexico, on Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Mourners react beside the body of Mapal Adam, during her funeral in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 11, 2023. Adam was killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 as they carried out a cross-border massacre that killed over 1,200 people. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Police officers clash with pro-Palestinian demonstrators trying to enter a train station in Barcelona, Spain, on Nov. 11, 2023. Thousands of protesters had earlier taken part in a march against Israel’s response in Gaza to a deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Israelis take cover as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in Rehovot, Israel, on Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Dor Kedmi)

Javier Milei, the presidential candidate from the Liberty Advances coalition, talks to supporters during a campaign rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 18, 2023, ahead of the general elections set for Oct. 22. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - The following image may be disturbing to some viewers.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Blood is splattered in a child’s room following the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, as seen on Oct. 19, 2023. Nir Oz is one of more than 20 towns and villages in southern Israel that were ambushed in the sweeping assault. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A Palestinian girl reacts as a child is carried from the rubble of a building after an airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Oct. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

People, one of them carrying an esterada or independence flag, walk in downtown Barcelona, Spain, during the Catalan National Day on Sept. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A Palestinian wounded in an Israeli bombardment waits at the hospital in Deir al Balah, in the Gaza Strip, on Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

A Palestinian boy mourns his relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah on Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

A model runs backstage during the fashion show of Spanish designer Claro Couture at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid Spain, on Sept. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

An injured Palestinian boy cries as rescuers try to pull him out of the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip, on Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)




Men donning angel wings share a kiss in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina, where thousands gathered to commemorate the 32nd annual Pride Parade on Nov. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Palestinian men flee to northern Gaza as Israeli tanks block the Salah al-Din road in the central Gaza Strip on Nov. 24, 2023. A cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war began as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)

A tourist arrives in a classic American car for a cabaret show at the Tropicana performance hall in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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