Taken together they manage to convey the sense of a world in turmoil: 150 images by The Associated Press captured throughout 2022, which show the fragments that make up our lives and freeze in time the moments that somehow these days seem pass faster than ever .
A man retrieves items from a burning shop in Ukraine after a Russian attack. A crowd packs the Sri Lankan president’s residence after protesters burst in demanding his resignation. Health workers try to identify victims after a bridge collapse in India. Fire engulfs a chair inside a house on fire from a wildfire in Mariposa County, California.
As the story in 2022 unfolded and the world stumbled forward – or, as it sometimes seemed, in other directions – the AP photographers were there to capture unforgettable images. Through his lens, across moments and months, the presence of chaos can seem more enveloping than ever.
Even a year of news footage can be enlightening. To see these photographs is to channel, at least a little, the messy nature of the events that come our way, whether we participate in them or, more likely, observe them from a distance. Thus, those 150 individual seats in the front row to history and life translate into a message: although the disorder in the world may spiral, the buzz of daily life in all its beauty continues to unfold in every corner of the planet.
There is sadness: Three heart-shaped balloons rise at a memorial site in front of an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas where 19 children and two teachers were massacred by a gunman.
There is determination: migrants on a wooden boat float in the Mediterranean south of an Italian island, trying to reach their destination.
There is fear: A man rolls his eyes behind him, a worried expression on his face, as he passes houses damaged by a rocket attack in Ukraine.
There are glimpses of calamity: a group of villagers gather in northern Kenya, in a drought-stricken area.
There is persistence: A girl uses a kerosene lamp to participate in online classes during a blackout in the Sri Lankan capital.
Regardless, don’t let all the violence and disorder blind you, which can drown out other things but perhaps shouldn’t. Because here too there are photos of joy and exuberance and, simply, of everyday human life.
A skier soaring in the air in Austria, overcoming gravity for a fleeting instant. Chris Martin of Coldplay, singing skyward in Rio de Janeiro. A lone guardsman marching out of Buckingham Palace just days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. An 8-year-old Afghan girl, with her eyes on the camera, poses for a photo of her in her classroom in Kabul, just days after a bomb attack at her school. Some women take a selfie in a ski resort in Lesotho.
Finally, take a moment to examine one of those lulls in the march of humanity: a boy submerging himself in a public fountain during a heat wave in Vilnius, Lithuania, enjoying the water and the sun and the simple act of to be. Even in the midst of a year of chaos on an unstable planet, moments of tranquility can be captured.
– By Ted Anthony, AP reporter
