The right frame can freeze a moment in time, creating meaning for the masses from a fist pump over a bloodied ear, a bridge crumbled by a ship, towns shredded by nature, and a victory sealed with an on-field kiss.
In 2024, photographers across the U.S. captured glimpses of humanity, ranging from a deeply divisive presidential election, to hurricanes and fires that ravaged communities, to campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The gallery from The Associated Press illustrates a new chapter of political history — the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the moment President Joe Biden announced he would no longer run again, the campaign sprint by Vice President Kamala Harris in Biden's place, and the raw emotion from voters during a grueling contest ultimately won by Trump.
Hurricanes whipped through the country with devastating imagery, leaving a path of wreckage and death from Florida to Appalachia. After Hurricane Helene, Lake Lure in North Carolina was shown in a jarring photo covered in shards of debris thick enough to hide the surface of the water. Hurricane Milton ripped apart the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, home to Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays.
The scale of destruction experienced in some corners of the country in 2024 was hard to capture and might have been harder to fathom. That was the case when a container ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse and crumple around the vessel, killing construction workers on the bridge.
As flames torched the landscape in California, another image captured firefighters and sheriff’s deputies pushing a vintage car away from a burning home. Elsewhere in California, one photo is aglow with bright orange flames, broken up only by the subtle features of an animal running through them.
But hope also persevered in the face of devastation. In Helene’s aftermath, an image from Crystal River, Florida, shows Dustin Holmes holding hands with his girlfriend, Hailey Morgan, as they sloshed through floodwaters with her 4- and 7-year-old children to return to their flooded home. And in Manasota Key, Florida, a family was lit up by the glow of flashlights as they walked to check on their home damaged by Milton.
Other photos from 2024 also grabbed the darkness and shadows to emphasize light: among them, a rocket liftoff and a total solar eclipse. And, yes, eclipse glasses were back in style for a shared moment of skygazing.
But many other photos delivered a blast of color, from the spectrum of the northern lights across a Maine sky to a crew of workers wading into the deep-red of a Massachusetts cranberry bog.
And, once again, Taylor Swift captured the country's attention, even as a part of the crowd. She rushed down from the stands to kiss her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship, en route to another Super Bowl win.
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