Taken at the height of Belgium’s COVID-19 outbreak, a black-and-white photograph by Cédric Gerbehaye shows a medical gown and a face shield discarded …
2020 in Photos
2020 was a year full of rapid innovation, discovery, unrest – against the backdrop of a new disease that redefined the way we live. Here, through the eyes of National Geographic photographers, is a collection of images, essays and on-the-ground reports from a year that will be etched in history.

Photo: static.nationalgeographic.co.uk
The photo shows insects crawling across a white sheet in the Arizona desert. It’s nighttime and the sheet is illuminated with light, attracting …
Though most lives have been shaken by the global pandemic, documenting the year of COVID-19 has been a particular challenge for photographers, …
“The key is to be mentally flexible, learn how to problem-solve, and accept change as a challenge rather than an obstacle,” says Mary Alvord, …
As vehicles were overturned, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and a police precinct erupted in flames on Thursday night in Minneapolis, …
This photojournalist documented two little-seen front lines in the UK's war against coronavirus. Her images reveal intensive care of every kind – …
Photojournalist Joshua Irwandi shadowed hospital workers in Indonesia, taking a striking image of a plastic-wrapped body of a COVID-19 victim while …
COVID-19 may have complicated our ability to travel this year, but the pandemic did not diminish our passion for exploration. As we eagerly anticipate …
The pandemic has brought quiet, at least to some. Noise still fills hospitals crowded with coronavirus patients and homes containing pent-up kids. …
Longer exposures than this are rarer, and harder. They risk over-exposure or over-abstraction, and exhaust camera batteries, the patience of the …