A migrant carries her belongings following a fire at the Moria camp for refugees and migrants on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 9, 2020.
Reuters photographer Elias Marcou: "The morning after a fire broke out at Moria refugee camp on Lesbos island in the olive grove next to it, helicopters were dropping water to extinguish scattered fires, while people were returning to assess the extent of the damage and recover what they could. At the time, approximately 13,000 people were living at the camp, making it the most populated in Europe. The night before, the police had blocked the road a few hundred meters from the camp to prevent refugees from walking to the nearest city of Mytilene, while the camp was ablaze, and people were desperately trying to get away from the flames, carrying with them any personal belongings they could gather in the darkness. In the grey morning, I watched as a woman carrying some blankets turned back for a moment as if to take a last look at the remnants of the life she was once more moving on from. This thought moved me deeply as I captured this image."
Protesters on horseback rally against the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, downtown Houston, Texas, U.S., June 2, 2020.
Reuters photographer Adrees Latif: "A week after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Floyd's hometown of Houston for an emotional and peaceful march to honor his life and protest police brutality. Driving into the city center, I saw thousands of Houstonians walking for miles to take part in the event. Many held signs and wore clothes bearing the image of George Floyd. As I raced towards the start of the march, I heard the distinctive sound of horses coming in my direction. A man wearing a red bandana with the words "Rap-A-Lot Records" took the lead in the procession, blocked the intersection and raised his fist in the air. Others followed in solidarity and before long, I was in the midst of a cavalry of black Americans on horseback. With my senses overcome by the sounds, smells and splendor of the horses amid the towering buildings, I moved to compose and capture the moment before it was over."
A group of men chanting pro-Hindu slogans beat Mohammad Zubair (C), 37, who is Muslim, during protests sparked by a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, Feb. 24, 2020.
Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui: "It had been a winter of protests in India, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets against a new citizenship law that many felt discriminated against the country's Muslim minority. In February, competing protests between those against the law and its supporters turned into communal riots with violent clashes. Shadowing lines of heavily outnumbered police, I noticed more than a dozen people ranging from teenagers to old men assaulting a Muslim man in white clothes. Using sticks, cricket stumps, plastic pipes and metal rods, they brutally beat the man. The attack was over in less than a minute, as Muslims on the other side of the road started throwing stones. The man, whom I later came to know as Mohammad Zubair, lay on the road alone as stones, bricks flew over him. Zubair suffered serious injuries all over his body and is still recovering."
Dr. Joseph Varon, 58, the chief medical officer at United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC), and a team of health care workers perform CPR on a COVID-19 patient at UMMC, during the coronavirus outbreak, in Houston, Texas, U.S., July 17, 2020.
Reuters photographer Callaghan O'Hare: "Houston's COVID-19 cases had been rising for weeks and it was my third time photographing patients in the intensive care unit. I was following Dr. Varon and his team as they intubated two patients with worsening conditions. The first intubation went smoothly. We walked into the second patient's room and almost as soon as they began the procedure, his heart rate dropped. The air was filled with anxiety. I was in a corner of the room with my camera and it wasn't until two medical students jumped onto the bed and began administering chest compressions that I realized the patient was dying. The whole scene took place over the course of 30 minutes as we all nervously watched the clock and his heart rate monitor."
A woman cries as a horse-drawn carriage carrying the casket containing the body of George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis police custody sparked nationwide protests against racial inequality, passes by in Pearland, Texas, U.S., June 9, 2020.
Reuters photographer Carlos Barria: "The death of George Floyd triggered a massive wave of nationwide protests demanding justice and police accountability. But it was different this time, covering protests during a global pandemic. Each time we went out on the streets, we had to work hard to assess and minimize the risk. It was very difficult to photograph people's expressions as they wore masks, but as the horse-drawn carriage bearing Floyd's casket passed on its way to the cemetery, I heard someone screaming. When I turned, I saw a woman without a face mask on, crying as she held up her phone. I took a few pictures, but only later realized that the carriage was reflected in her phone, capturing all the elements to tell the story within a single frame."
A member of Mexico's National Guard detains a migrant, part of a caravan traveling to the U.S., near the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Jan. 20, 2020.
Reuters photographer Jose Torres: "As I was covering a migrant caravan, thousands tried to cross the border from Tecun Uman in Guatemala to Mexico through military and police lines. This man came out of nowhere. He ran with fellow migrants, shouting words of encouragement, exhorting them to stand their ground and not give in to the police line standing on the Mexican side. It took three policemen to detain him. As the police tackled him to the ground, I went down as well to capture the moment, as he struggled and shouted 'Freedom.' In the end, he surrendered. The look in his eyes changed as he realized his journey was over. Since 2018, covering the caravans has become very challenging, both physically and mentally. There is a constant chance of the migrants clashing with the police, and the stories of the people traveling are always touching."
Juliana (center L), who says she was four months pregnant, reacts in front of the body of her husband Davi Barboza, who was shot in Sao Carlos during a police operation after heavy confrontations between drug gangs, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug. 27, 2020.
Reuters photographer Ricardo Moraes: "About 10 hours into covering clashes between drug gangs battling to take control of the Sao Carlos slums complex in Rio de Janeiro, and a police operation to quell the violence, I found Juliana sobbing in anguish next to the body of her husband Davi, who was found shot dead after the conflict. I was struck by the contrasts in the scene – Juliana's sorrow compared to the stoic faces of the police officers, the military uniforms and weapons surrounding her. Covering violence in Rio is always a challenge. Dealing with the police, residents or victims is not easy, and the situation can change at any minute."
Belarusian shepherd Alexey Usikov, 33, drives a horse-drawn carriage equipped with a battery, headlights and a small potbelly stove, which he crafted out of an old Audi 80 and which he jokingly called an Audi 40 as he used only a half of the car, in the village of Knyazhytsy, Belarus, May 28, 2020.
Reuters photographer Vasily Fedosenko: "Cowherd Alexey Usikov often has to brave inclement weather while tending to his herd at a collective farm in eastern Belarus. On a neighbor's suggestion, he decided to convert his old Audi 80 into an 'all-weather' cart by connecting half of it to a horse-drawn shaft. The result? A rough-and-ready home on wheels that protects Usikov from the rain. Usikov has welded the cart's body where necessary, repainted it, and lubricates and pumps the wheels. 'It gives you pleasure to ride a well-maintained cart,' he said. I wanted one photo that would show the inimitable self-made horse-drawn carriage against the backdrop of Usikov's village."
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S., Sept. 24, 2020.
Reuters photographer Tom Brenner: "We descended from Air Force One onto the hot, humid tarmac in Jacksonville, Florida. It was already our third campaign stop of the day. Rally attendees, mostly without protective masks, were shouting at anyone holding a camera to 'treat Trump fairly' and to 'stop lying.' As each Trump rally typically has the same layout of a large audience viewing area encircling an elevated podium, I knew I had to make different images to keep our coverage varied. I zoomed in with my telephoto lens to compose the giant swaying American flag around the president, then behind his open mouth as he passionately addressed the thousands of supporters listening below. I took several dozen photographs, attempting to frame the president with the flag in order to visualize his strong views on the coronavirus, the economy and the United States as a whole. It wasn't until I saw the images on my laptop that I understood that my plan had been successful that day."
Alisha Narvaez (L), 36, the manager, and Nicole Warring, 33, a resident funeral director at International Funeral & Cremation Services, a funeral home in Harlem, carry a deceased person into the basement area where bodies are stored and prepared for funeral services, during the coronavirus outbreak, in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., April 2, 2020.
Reuters photographer Andrew Kelly: "In April 2020, the coronavirus was ravaging the Big Apple. I got to thinking about where the dead were taken after the hospitals and decided to go to the nearest funeral home I could find. As I entered, I met Alisha and Nicole in the office. They told me they were inundated with the deceased and had a basement full of as well as a full schedule of funerals. As they carried the body into the basement, I was not prepared for what I saw. Bodies took up almost every available space. Before this, I had barely seen a dead person. Now, I had close to 50 before me in this small room. Even through my mask, the smell was overwhelming. This is when the enormity of the coronavirus pandemic hit me."
Brian Allen (L) and Nancy Allen stand outside their home as high winds push smoke and ash from the Currowan Fire towards Nowra, New South Wales, Australia, Jan. 4, 2020.
Reuters photographer Tracey Nearmy: "Covering Australia's sparsely populated regions is difficult. And when the bushfires started this summer, getting there was tricky. After a day of traveling, I found myself in a smoky red haze face-to-face with Nancy Allen in Nowra, New South Wales. Nancy and her husband Brian, dressed in a singlet and shorts, were trying to defend their home with a garden hose. The fire bearing down on their town was so intense, it was creating its own pyrocumulonimbus storm, and the police had evacuated the area hours earlier. Yet, Nancy and Brian stayed in the swirling smoke and ash, anxiously wetting down the front of their house. Mistaking me for an emergency crew, Nancy rushed over to ask me what they should do. Given that the suburb had already been evacuated, I told them to follow the advice to go to the closest evacuation center."
The body of Valnir Mendes da Silva, 62, lies on an Arara community sidewalk where he died after residents requested help from emergency service as he was suffering from breathing problems, during the coronavirus outbreak, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 17, 2020.
Reuters photographer Ricardo Moraes: "Valnir Mendes da Silva, 62, was a lonely man. Before dying on the streets of Arara slum, he was living alone, his partner having passed away months before. After his death, I found Seu Valnir's body on a sidewalk, covered by a blanket. It was early morning and I was in the area covering a police operation against drug dealers when we heard about the dead body. I took the picture in the morning and spent the day trying to confirm how Seu Valnir had died. The people I spoke to in the neighborhood had diverging opinions about the chance of his death being related to COVID-19. They told me he had been dead on the ground since the previous evening, and his stepson had spent hours trying to be allowed to remove his body."
Patricia McCloskey and her husband Mark McCloskey draw their firearms on protestors as they enter their neighborhood during a protest against St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., June 28, 2020.
Reuters photographer Lawrence Bryant: "That Sunday evening, several hundred black and white protesters walked through an open gate into the community where the couple – Mark McCloskey and his wife Patricia McCloskey – lived. They were met by Mark McCloskey holding what looked like an automatic rifle and shouting 'get out!' several times at the crowd. I was just trying to make frames, stay safe, dodge the barrel of the gun and stay out of sight and out of line. I'm a big, black man and I always have to pay attention to that anyway. I'm pleased with the pictures I took of the scene. I may have liked a longer lens to be able to zoom in on the couple, but the fact that I had only one camera meant I captured not just the McCloskeys, but also the protesters around them. A lot of the photos out there focus on the couple holding the guns, but to me, that's not telling the whole story. I wanted to show there were people protesting peacefully and the couple came to engage them."
A man carrying a gun exits a vehicle as Daniel Gregory is tended by medics after being shot in the arm by a driver who tried to drive through a protest against racial inequality, in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in Seattle, Washington, U.S., June 7, 2020.
Reuters photographer Lindsey Wasson: "I had just stepped to the main window of the local newspaper office, and I was looking over the crowd during a Sunday evening protest against police brutality and racism – one of several that had rocked Seattle and other places across the United States since the death of George Floyd – when I heard a scream and commotion. I rushed to the window to photograph what was happening. Stunned protesters surrounded a car that had driven into their ranks. A man brandishing a gun exited the driver's side of the vehicle and the protesters backed away from him as he ran off and melted into the crowd. Medics rushed forward to help a wounded man lying on the ground nearby."
Protester Patrick Hutchinson carries a suspected far-right counter-protester who was injured to safety near Waterloo station during a Black Lives Matter protest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in London, U.K., June 13, 2020.
Reuters photographer Dylan Martinez: "I was in the right place at the right time, and incredibly lucky from that point of view. A black protester emerged from the melee, walking briskly towards me, carrying a white man with injuries to his face in a fireman's lift over his shoulder. After witnessing sporadic, minor clashes between demonstrators and police in Trafalgar Square, I switched attention to nearby Waterloo Bridge, where several hundred anti-racism protesters had gathered. The mood quickly turned ugly when they encountered a group of counter-protesters and clashes broke out. I saw a skirmish and someone falling to the ground before the two men appeared through the crowd. Some people shouted out that the assault victim was a member of the far-right. Reuters journalists at the scene said he had been beaten in a skirmish with anti-racism protesters. Patrick Hutchinson has been hailed a hero for carrying the injured man to safety during the scuffle. "
A crow attacks a bat in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Sept. 15, 2020.
Reuters photographer Gleb Garanich: "The crow fixed its beady gaze on me as I snapped its picture, the wing of a bat firmly gripped in its beak. Capturing this shot in the beautiful morning light of Kyiv confirmed my belief that stories about the animal world need not only be found in the wild. I was on my way to cover a protest near the Ukrainian parliament and had deliberately left 90 minutes ahead of time as I like to take pictures early in the morning in the center of Kyiv. When I heard a cry and a flapping of wings, I turned in the direction of the noise, raising my telephoto lens, and saw a crow attacking something in the branches of a tree. In the next instant, a bat flew out of the branches, chased by the crow. The bat fell to the ground, hissing at the crow, which continued to attack it. I drove the crow away, but the bat was lying in the grass and could not fly off. I carefully lifted it and carried it to another tree at the end of the alley, placing it on a branch, and went on with my day. This shot reminds me that a photographer should always be alert to what is happening around them, ready to take a picture at any moment."
During the coronavirus outbreak, a leukemia patient, Hu Ping (L), and her mother, Lu Yuejin, coming from Hubei province cross a checkpoint at the Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, China, Feb. 1, 2020.
Reuters photographer Thomas Peter: "The clock was running out on farmer Lu Yuejin, desperate to get her 26-year-old daughter Hu Ping to chemotherapy for her leukemia. But Hubei was under coronavirus lockdown and she struggled to pass a checkpoint to get to the hospital in the neighbouring province. 'She needs to have her treatment. But they won't let us through,' she said when we met her at the police cordon. Checkpoints had sprung up along its borders to prevent residents from leaving. Clad in full PPE, we traveled along the edge of the exclusion zone to report on how life was changing. We found Lu Yuejin crying and pleading with the police. At one point she dropped to the ground, wailing. About an hour after she spoke with us, an ambulance arrived that took them to the hospital. I felt relieved to see them go."
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, sits in an armchair while receiving a hydration intravenous drip after a chemotherapy session in her room at Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital during the coronavirus outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, June 15, 2020.
Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi: "Over my career, I've seen my share of tragedy, drama, natural disasters, conflict, despair and other extreme emotions, but nothing could prepare me for my teenage daughter Rebecca having to battle Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare and extremely aggressive form of bone cancer, while the world was also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The evening sunlight that filtered through the window blinds into the hospital room where Rebecca sat in an armchair receiving an intravenous hydration drip as part of her chemotherapy and the blue LED nightlight she often likes using created a particular mood that reflected the melancholy we were both feeling."
Detained Filipino activist Reina Mae Nasino holds a flower during the burial of her 3-month-old baby River, who died while she was in jail, in Manila North Cemetery, Philippines, Oct. 16, 2020.
Reuters photographer Eloisa Lopez: "The moment I saw Filipino activist Reina Mae Nasino step out at the burial site of her 3-month-old baby River, my eyes locked onto her hands. She was handcuffed, in a full personal protective suit, and surrounded by armed prison guards. Her relatives and lawyers repeatedly pleaded for her to be uncuffed, even for just a minute, to give her a chance to hold her baby for the last time, but the authorities refused. It was heartbreaking to witness Nasino sob silently in front of a tiny white coffin, caressing the top of it with her cuffed hands as her sister played lullabies on a cellphone."
Gang members are seen inside a cell at Quezaltepeque jail during a media tour in Quezaltepeque, El Salvador, Sept. 4, 2020.
Reuters photographer Jose Cabezas: "Members of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs are sworn enemies and historically jails were segregated to prevent violence. However, with an increase in homicides in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic the government changed the policy and started mixing the prison populations. This cell contains Barrio 18 gang members – you can tell the gang allegiances from the tattoos that cover the men's bodies. Previous times I've visited, the prisoners were roaming about the jail but this time the atmosphere was different – the gang members were unusually quiet and controlled. The air smelt musty and heavy from so many people being crammed in together and tired faces watched our every move. I've been covering the gangs for many years and one of the things that always strikes me is how young the gang members are – an older member of the gang might be in his early 20s. For some, it's almost a miracle if they make it to their 30s."
Samburu men attempt to fend off a swarm of desert locusts flying over a grazing land in Lemasulani village, Samburu County, Kenya, Jan. 17, 2020.
Reuters photographer Monicah Mwangi: "Desert locusts have been recorded in the Horn of Africa since biblical times but this year, unusual weather patterns exacerbated by climate change created the perfect circumstances for swarms to descend in northern Kenya. The entire grazing field where they had gathered in Samburu County was covered in yellow as the insects munched on grass meant for livestock. 'The locusts are in millions, they will finish all the vegetation, and then what will our animals feed on?' said one local trying to fend off the swarms by shouting and beating on empty containers. Being in the middle of the swarm of locusts was scary, as some would hit the camera with full force and die. I had to keep on wiping my camera lens, and my movement in the cloud was limited. If I had tried to talk, I would be eating flying locusts raw."
