The Pictures We Loved in 2015
National Geographic editors choose the images that intrigued, delighted, and moved them.
By Alexa Keefe
Published 11 Nov 2017, 00:35 GMT
A syringe places a minute droplet of phenothrin on a honeybee—sedated in a paper cup—to test the effects of the potent insecticide in this experiment by Louisiana State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From “
Quest for a Superbee”
Photograph by Anand VarmaTwins Felix and Viva Torres, seven-and-a-half months old, take in the sights and sounds of Greenwich Village in New York City. From “The First Year”
Photograph by Lynn JohnsonThe Kumari of Tokha, nine-year-old Dangol, became a living goddess as an infant. A kumari’s eyes are believed to draw the beholder into direct contact with the divine. From “Meet Nepal’s Living Goddesses”
Photograph by Stéphanie SinclairDelirious from Ebola, a man is lifted after he tried to climb the wall of the Hastings Ebola treatment center near Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. Twelve hours later he died. From “Seeking the Source of Ebola”
Photograph by Pete MullerA humpback whale and her calf draw the attention of divers around Roca Partida, one of the four islands in the Revillagigedo Archipelago, off the Pacific coast of Mexico. From the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest
Photograph by Anuar PatjaneOn the route known as the Camino Frances, pilgrims dot a trail across the meseta, the plateau of central Spain. From “Walking the Way”
Photograph by Michael GeorgeA test that stains the tongue blue, as shown here at a lab at the University of Florida at Gainesville, helps determine if a subject is a supertaster, or someone most sensitive to various tastes. From “Beyond Taste Buds: The Science of Delicious”
Photograph by Brian FinkeA clothes vendor’s likeness is reflected in a mirror on a busy Costa Smeralda beach in Sardinia, Italy. From Your Shot’s Daily Dozen
Photograph by Giuseppe Cabras, National Geographic Your ShotIn Greenland, a movie projected onto an iceberg lights up the faces of two girls from the island town of Uummannaq, Nielsine (far left) and Jensigne (right), and of hunter Joas Korneliussen. From “How Melting Ice Changes One Country’s Way of Life”
Photograph by Ciril JazbecAn image of a parade in 1990s New Orleans appears cracked and tie-dyed. The negative sustained water damage during Hurricane Katrina but was restored five years later. From “Warped and Waterlogged, a Damaged Photo Collection Takes on a New Life”
Photograph by Chandra McCormickA red fox lies in wait, camouflaged in the autumn woods. Like all foxes, those in Italy’s Gran Paradiso National Park are adaptable opportunists; they’ll catch fish, hunt rabbits, or scavenge picnic scraps. From “Paradise Found”
Photograph by Stefano UnterthinerCatalina, 17 years old. After being abandoned at birth, she grew up in an orphanage, then lived in Bucharest’s tunnels starting at age 12. From “One Girl’s Tunnel Life: Under the Streets of Bucharest”
Photograph by Massimo BrancaHorseback riders move around the Kicking Horse Reservoir during sunrise in northwestern Montana. From “Montana Road Trip”
Photograph by Keith LadzinskiHindu priests breathe prayers into rising smoke on a festival day in Barharwa Lakhansen in the Indian state of Bihar. From “In the Footsteps of Gandhi”
Photograph by Rena EffendiA custodian is silhouetted at center stage in the ballroom of the Palmer House hotel in Chicago. From the Your Shot photography assignment “Undiscovered”
Photograph by Marcia Mahoney, National Geographic Your ShotExhausted and disappointed, photographer Cory Richards (left) and author Mark Jenkins sit by the fire in Pangnamdim, Myanmar, after they and a team of mountaineers failed to summit Hkakabo Razi, believed to be the country’s highest peak. From “How a Remote Peak in Myanmar Nearly Broke an Elite Team of Climbers”
Photograph by Renan OzturkAlmaz poses at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria. “Lagos is a very bubbly society,” she says. “If you want to make something happen really, really bad, come to Lagos. It will happen, trust me.” From “Africa’s First City”
Photograph by Robin HammondA boy and his grandmother have fun dressing up together. From the Your Shot photography assignment “The Faceless Portrait”
Photograph by Mel Karlberg, National Geographic Your ShotDog musher Brent Sass prepares his dog team to leave Eagle, Alaska, about halfway through the thousand-mile Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race. From “Survival Is the Ultimate Goal in World’s Toughest Sled Dog Race”
Photograph by Katie OrlinskyDuring the summer, Saratoga Springs, New York, bounds to life with horse races, polo matches, galas, and cultural performances. It's also a time when people feel free to dress up and show off their fancy hats. From “Off to the Races: Summer in Saratoga”
Photograph by Matt MoyerThe second day of harvest in New Raymer, Colorado, is cut short by a supercell blowing in from the west. From the Your Shot photography community
Photograph by Elliot Ross, National Geographic Your ShotUnika Vajracharya, six, takes to her throne on her first day as the Kumari of Patan, in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, her feet resting on an offering tray and a snake god guarding her head. From “Meet Nepal’s Living Goddesses”
Photograph by Stéphanie SinclairAfter a ceremony for Ebola survivors who were discharged from Hastings Ebola Treatment Center in Sierra Leone, Molai Kamara, 12, who lost his entire family to the disease, sits alone. From “Finding Homes for Ebola’s Orphans”
Photograph by Pete MullerA villager in Aqbasty, Kazakhstan, bathes in an ancient hot spring piped into a bathhouse. Aqbasty used to be on the shore of the Aral Sea. Today it’s seven miles inland. From “Sins of the Aral Sea”
Photograph by Carolyn DrakeThe queen’s court gathers on the floor of the ball and looks on as Dr. Janice Sanchez is crowned this year’s queen of Zulu in New Orleans, Louisiana. From “Notes From a Native Son: Standing Still to See the Good Times Roll”
Photograph by Tyrone TurnerA nun from Poland pauses to pray during her walk to Częstochowa. Millions of pilgrims trek there to see the Black Madonna, an icon believed to bestow miracles upon the faithful. From “How the Virgin Mary Became the World’s Most Powerful Woman”
Photograph by Diana MarkosianGinny Mooney comforts her adopted daughter, Lena, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The six-year-old has behavioral and cognitive deficits, partly from neglect in a Ukrainian orphanage. She is swaddled for her comfort. From “The First Year”
Photograph by Lynn Johnson