I’m not sharing this because the ethereal light breaking through the dark clouds onto the river feels so hopeful or divine. I’m sharing it because, when a glacier collapse and floods in Tibet and Nepal killed more than a thousand people, the world’s inattention seemed grotesquely out of sync with the photo’s emotional pull—and the realization that climate change can now level mountains.
Petrified
This is a haunting scene from central Nepal, where the hills just beyond the Kathmandu Valley face extinction. Hardened into a gray expanse of mud, rock, and wreckage, the earth looks petrified—as if the violent flood had fossilized the valley. The scene made me think of Pompeii and our own fate, as the climate crisis has rendered this landscape almost indistinguishable from an archaeological ruin.
Center of Gravity
If this were any other president, the astronauts and their mission would be the focus, with the president receding into the background. But with Trump always first in line—the constant focus and object of mirroring—the perceptual dynamics are reversed. Whereas an astronaut and their suit ought to expand the imagination—a human being made newly strange and heroic—these helmets erase identity, and the astronauts seem less like people than mannequins.
Stricken
Set against the cruel beauty of an idyllic landscape, this visceral photo evokes both physical and emotional injury. The boy’s expression makes me ache for our own disorientation—the deadly mix of grief and blindness amid spiraling heat and fire. This gut-punch image could serve as a wrenching poster for climate migration.
For a Moment, at Least
It’s a touching scene in Kyiv, torn apart by drones and missiles. For a moment, the sky is filled only with bubbles.
No Holds Barred
I chose this for how unapologetically graphic it is—in contrast to the far right’s procedural and supposedly bloodless assault on democracy and human rights. Lady Justice has been transformed from a symbol of neutral law into a witness to its capture, holding the scales of justice in her left hand and a cup in her right for protesters to douse her in still more blood. The immediate catalyst for performance artist Samantha Scarcello's protest is the assault on voting and election integrity, which is gaining speed as the midterms draw near.
The Enigma
The Lindsay Clancy story resists comprehension: the alleged acts, the claims of postpartum psychosis, and the question of responsibility. Looking toward her lawyer, Clancy appears both present and unreachable. They say the eyes are a window to the soul. But the power of the photograph lies in what it withholds: a face we instinctively try to read, and cannot.
Images of Distinction
These photos were featured at this summer’s Visa pour l’image 2026: the Perpignan festival of photojournalism.
Great photos recall other vivid imagery in our minds. Because of the structure—you can hardly tell the shimmering sharks are in water—I associated the image with this. And, given their vicious reputation—does that one shark have the other’s head in its mouth?—I thought of this.
The photo’s mutedness is precisely what makes it so striking: a domestic moment in Tehran, softened by pale walls, pale cars, the birds’ balance and peacefulness, and the tree’s surprising contrast. In this image, Iran is not an abstraction, nor merely the object of demonization based on the war with the West or the regime’s actions and targeting. It is also a place of civilian life, layered beauty, and quiet intimacy.
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