2022 Magazine Photojournalist of the Year

John Rule, 60, a receptionist at Rowland Brothers funeral home, takes a moment away from his work to say goodbye to his mother, Mary Rule, who passed away with COVID-19 at 86 years old, in Croyden, South London, January 13, 2021.

Fires burn along the Trans-Amazonian Highway near the Aripuana National Forest, in the state of Amazonas, in Brazil, September 2021. Deforestation continues at extraordinary rates across the Amazon, led by land clearing for meat producers and cattle ranchers, along with illegal mining. The most common means of deforestation is by fire, when ranchers burn the land in order to create farms to raise and graze cattle. Roughly one fifth of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed, and according to Greenpeace, “land grabbing on public lands is linked to one-third of all Amazon deforestation in Brazil.

Bulale, dehabur
Solar powered bore well mostly for animals
Because the water table is low, government dug some and some NGOS and some are clan owned

Big one owned by clan
Some
Camel herders walked 12 days to get to well. Because of the drought
Before we received the last rain, there was little rain so we shifted.

Someone’s we go all the way to jijiga
Previously during the drought we were suffering due to locusts so we couldn’t feed the camels. But now the rains are little and we are worried about the locust s
I was moving one month and a few days

Camel herders from Dollo close to border with Somalia there was drought there. Walking around 11 days uh

Bulale well



Abshir Mussie, 25 (red shirt with watch with greenish skirt) Ahmed Abdi (red short with longer hair)25, Abdulahi Mohammed 25 (green shirt with blue-red skirt), Ibrahim Mohammed , 30 (whatsapp orange shirt with yellow-black skirt) 0983894292 Abdulahi - they are all from Garowe, went to dollo zone because there was rain

A slaughterhouse for cattle outside Porto Velho, Rondonia, in the Amazon in Brazil, September 2021.  Deforestation continues at extraordinary rates across the Amazon, led by land clearing for meat producers and cattle ranchers, along with illeg
A slaughterhouse for cattle outside Porto Velho, Rondonia, in the Amazon in Brazil, September 2021. Deforestation continues at extraordinary rates across the Amazon, led by land clearing for meat producers and cattle ranchers, along with illegal mining. The most common means of deforestation is by fire, when ranchers burn the land in order to create farms to raise and graze cattle. Roughly one quarter of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed since the 1960s, and as the rainforest is destroyed, it can no longer absorb as much of the world's carbon emissions as it once did, which accelerates climate change.

Demetra Efstratiou, 71, is treated with oxygen for COVID-related symptons on her fourth day in intensive care of the COVID section of Barnett Hospital in a North London in the Intensive Care unit, in North London, January 15, 2021.
There are roughly 240 patients being treated with Covid at Barnet Hospital, a large part of their bed base, and 30 patients in the Intensive Care Unit--a unit which normally accommodates 15-19 patients in the ICU. Hospitals across the country are stretched to the brink with Covid-19 patients, medical staff are at their breaking point, and the death toll is soaring. Hospitals across parts of England are re-allocating wards to deal with a surge in COVID patients, and re-assigning medical staff from departments to assist nursing and bedside staff in COVID areas.

Stephanie Lockhart, 28, from the North Lake Tahoe Fire District, works to protect homes and shelters as the Caldor fire rips through the canyon near the Sierra Nevada mountain range at a Lake Tahoe lodge along Highway 50, in California, August 29, 2021. The dramatic fire activity was seen during a day where red flag warnings were in effect, humidity was low, and winds were high, along with other factors that often provide fuel to a fire. According to CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, the Caldor fire started August 14, 2021. As of October 19, the fire was 98 percent contained but had burned through roughly 222,000 acres.

A home burns as the Caldor fire rips through the canyon along Highway 50 south of Lake Tahoe, in California, August 29. The dramatic fire activity occurred when humidity was low and winds were high, factors that often fuel a fire. According to CAL FIRE and the U.S. Forest Service, the Caldor fire started  August 14 and was fully contained by October 24, after burning 221,775 acres and at 98% containment. Because of increasing levels of drought across the state of California, fires are more common, and burn for longer periods of time.

Brenda Rocha Fernández, 20, center, joins other firefighters from San Mateo Santa Cruz as they help cut a containment line around the perimeter of the Caldor fire as it smolders near the Carson Pass near the Kirkwood Mountain Resort in California, September 1, 2021. Fernandez has been working with CAL FIRE for five months.

Heather Kirkendall, 27, and another firefighter with The San Mateo San Cruz unit nap in the cab of a fire engine after a long day on the Caldor fire as they wait for instructions on a possible firing operation at night along the Carson Pass, near the Kirkwood Ski Resort, in California, September 4, 2021. Kirkendall is on her second season with CAL FIRE.

Melissa Bell, 36, from Livermore, California, works the saw while helping to mop up a hot spot on the Dixie fire outside of Susanville, California, on August 26, 2021. "I consider myself one of the guys," Bell says. "And if you work hard, that's what's important. And getting the job done, working as a team, teamwork is huge in the fire service. It's not just one person doing all the work, you guys kick butt together, out there." Melissa bell, who has known she wanted to be a firefighter since she was eight years old, and who has been with CAL FIRE for seven seasons, explained, “And when I first started out, I had some struggles, but the important thing is how you're going to adapt and overcome. How bad do you want it? And with anything, if you want it bad enough, you'll train hard for it. It is a very physically demanding job. So it's not just only about physical fitness, but also nutrition too, and staying healthy for the longevity of the career is so important. And the exposures that we get from different aspects of our job, whether it's vehicle fires, structure fires, vegetation fires, wearing the proper PPE, staying physically fit, and nutrition, are huge.”

Madalyn Schiffel, 26, from Mountain Ranch, California, prepares her personal belongings to return to her regular firehouse after temporarily manning West Point Station, in California, September 4, 2021. Schifffel was a volunteer firefighter for a year and started with CAL FIRE in April. Before that she was a professional soccer player in Norway and Seattle after getting drafted out of college. Schiffel says, “women in the fire service are few and far between, but the women that I have met have been really successful and groovy. And I just, I admire everyone, even if they're at my level, like seasonal firefighters, up to chiefs and captains that I know.”

Natalie Kerr, 32, from the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit in California, uses a chainsaw near midnight in a burning forest near Heavenly Valley Lodge around South Lake Tahoe to clear the area around a fire line to help contain the flames near South Lake Tahoe while working the Caldor fire in California on September 3, 2021. Kerr carries more than half her body weight—roughly 80 pounds—in hoseline and a personal pack. She was heading to lay down hoseline while working the Caldor fire, in California, on September 3, 2021. Kerr has been with CAL FIRE on engines for two years. "There was that little stigma that women weren't physically capable. 'I don't want to work next to someone who can't drag my body out of a

At 8:45 a.m. Natalie Kerr, 32, brushes her teeth and makes coffee at the end of a 24-hour shift laying hoseline during the Caldor fire in the Sierra Nevada mountain range around South Lake Tahoe, September 3, 2021. The Caldor fire started on August 14, 2021. During two months of burning, flames scorched through roughly 222,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings before the fire was 98 percent contained.

Firefighter with The San Mateo San Cruz unit, Meglan Enz, 26, from Hollister, California, shows off her toe ring while waiting for instructions on a possible firing operation at night along the Carson Pass, near the Kirkwood Ski Resort, in California, September 4, 2021.   Enz is in her third season with CAL FIRE.  
“’So what I do to stay feminine?’ I mean, that's such a funny question because when I first started, I was like, I have to wear a hat all the time, like my hair has to be nasty. Like, you know, I can't have anything resembling being a girl, and it took me a few months and I was like, Why am I doing that? Like, no one even told me to do that, I just kind of put that on myself just because of the facade like you have to be a boy, you know?”

Melissa Bell, 36, conducts a fire operation on the Dixie fire to clean up the remaining brush after flames swept through the area, leaving dangerous brush "fuel" unburned, which could potentially spread a fire to other areas near Westwood, California August 27, 2021. This was Bell’s seventh season with CALFIRE where she often works 24-hour shifts. “It's not just coming to work and working with people,” Bell says. “This is my family...It's like blood to me, because you spend long days working with different people and you become a family.”

A man rows through what was once dry land in the village of Patiou in Twic East County, Jonglei State, South Sudan, October 22, 2021. According to the United Nations, 27 of South Sudan’s 78 counties are impacted by the floods, affecting more than 630,000 people. Most of Twic East County in Jonglei State, for instance, is accessible only by canoes and motorboats with engines small enough to navigate between flooded homes, trees, street signs, and dikes that once demarcated the now uninhabitable land. The reasons are various but boil down to a combination of climate change, deforestation in neighboring Ethiopia, population growth, and poor water management across Africa, experts say.

Estela Juwan, 35, walks with two of her eight children through the flooded area surrounding her house, in the village of Walang Walang, outside of Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Juwan is carrying her one-year-old son Dogale Tombe. The family has been dealing with excessive flooding for several years. In 2020, their house collapsed from the rising water and they built another makeshift shelter to live in. “This place was the garden but now it is all under water,” Juwan says. “We can’t move to the other side because we can’t afford the life on the other side, we don’t have money to go.”

Men use buckets to extract water that flowed over a dike following a night of rainfall in Paliau village in Jonglei State, South Sudan. Across vast stretches of this remote region, thousands of people are crammed onto patches of high ground bound by stacks of sandbags.

At a makeshift school in Dhiam Dhiam that is housing families displaced by the floods, Amour Abach, 16, wears a mask for the first time after a UNICEF team in South Sudan distributed them almost two years into the worldwide pandemic in Jonglei state, South Sudan, October 2021. In a country where flooding, malaria, acute respiratory infections, and diarrhea are rife, the Coronavirus-- and receiving the vaccine--has not been the primary concern of many. Even when the South Sudan government, had received over one hundred thousand doses of the Coronavirus vaccine, flooding of airstrips and towns prevented the delivery and implementation of the vaccine and other essential medicines.

Achiek Abach, 35, is rolled onto his side by his siblings and others as he struggles with malaria in Dhiam Dhiam, in Jonglei state, in South Sudan, October 26, 2021. Parts of South Sudan are experiencing some of the worst flooding in six decades, exacerbating most of the illnesses commonly seen and transmitted in rainy season: malaria, acute respiratory infections, and diarrhea. The health situation is dire, says Twic East County Commissioner Mabeny Kuot. “There is an outbreak of malaria, and to find even antimalarial drugs in any of the health facilities is difficult,” he says. “To find even antibiotics in any of the health facilities is difficult. So, there are cases of waterborne diseases. And since the place is flooded … the cases of snake bites are very high.”

A woman makes her bed inside a school building in Panyagor being used as a shelter, in Twic East, Jonglei State, South Sudan, October 2021. According to the United Nations, roughly two-thirds of the population has fled to more stable, dry ground, those who remain in the flood zones spend much of their time knee-deep in contaminated water. Families have lost their cattle, livestock, and their crops, leaving fish as their only source of food.

South Sudanese boys arrange a fishing net in the village of Dhiam Dhiam. Families affected by floods have lost their cattle, livestock, and their crops, leaving fish as their only source of food and income.

Achan Akech, 30, and Rebecca Nyibol, 27, prepare fish porridge at dusk along a narrow strip of dry land in Panyagor, the county headquarters of Twic North County, Jonglei State, where some of the women and their families displaced by the floods have sought refuge. Access to clean water is extremely limited, as many water sources have been contaminated by sewage and mud; bore wells are submerged in dirty water.

Mading Akol, 11, swims in the flooded village of Pawel beneath dried fish, the only available food for most, in one of dozens of villages flooded across Jonglei state in South Sudan, October 23, 2021.

A father and his sons arrange a fishing net after removing their catch for the day in the village of Dhiam Dhiam, in Jonglei state, in South Sudan, October 26, 2021. Across Jonglei state, the only sustenance and source of income for men, women, and children is fish. The village of Dhiam Dhiam is a notorious fishing village, where fishermen preserve their daily catch in salt, and send large batches down the river to sell in the capital of Juba, and overseas in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Eyerus, 40, poses for a portrait in a safe space for victims of sexual assault in the Ayder Hospital in Mekele, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2021. A few months prior, Eyerus was captured by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in northern Tigray, and was chained to a tank and raped by roughly fifteen soldiers over the course of a week. When she was captured, she was separated from her children, and she doesn’t know where they are. "Why is this happening?" she asks. "This is doomsday for me.” Reports of atrocities are rampant—including mass rapes, executions, the intentional bombardment of civilians, and the flagrant looting of hospitals and health clinics. All sides, including the TPLF, have been accused of war crimes but Eritreans have been blamed for the worst abuses. In March, Abiy said that the Eritreans would soon leave; the United Nations reports they are still there. At Ayder Hospital, 430 women have been treated for rape. “But the numbers are not telling the reality in the ground,” says Mussie Tesfay Atsbaha, the hospital’s chief administrator. “If one person has come, another 20 are dead somewhere.”

Burnt out cars, military vehicles, and soiled, discarded uniforms of the Ethiopian military line Adichili village, about 15 km South West of Abbi Addi, in West Tigray, as soldiers with the Tigray Defense Forces, TDF, walk through the village and man checkpoints, in Ethiopia, May 16, 2021. Local civilians recount how the village was overrun with fighting toward the end of February, and when the Ethiopian and Eritrean military lost the battle with the TPLF, the solders returned in the following days, and executed most men in the village, killing dozens. Many are still buried in shallow graves by their respective homes, though some have been moved to the church grounds.

Genet Asmelash holds her 13-year-old daughter Kesanet while nurses treat the burns the girl received when long-range artillery hit her house. The paediatric ward at Ayder Hospital in Mekele is full of children who have been injured and maimed in their homes, their villages, and while on the run. Kesanet Gebremichael was inside her home in the village of Ahferom, near Aksum, when it was hit by long-range artillery. “My house was destroyed in the fire,” says her mother, Genet Asmelash. “My child was inside.” The girl suffered burns on more than 40 percent of her body.

Internally displaced Ethiopians live in makeshift conditions in the Maiweini Elementary School in Mekele, Tigray, Ethiopia, May 13, 2021. Most of the IDPs were displaced from South and West Tigray, and have sought shelter in Mekele. As civil war escalates, millions have been displaced, thousands killed, and reports of human rights violations and atrocities are rampant—including mass rapes, executions, the intentional bombardment of civilians, and the flagrant looting of hospitals and clinics. As Mussie Tesfay Atsbaha, the Ayder hospital’s chief administrator in Tigray's capital of Mekele, told us, “I never saw hell before but now I have.”

Orthodox Christian prayers at Saint Selassie (trinity) Church in Mekele, Tigray, Ethiopia May 15, 2021. “We are mourning what is happening all around us and we are here to pray and reflect on the deep sadness that has taken over our lives,” says Genet from Mekele, 41.

Food is stored in this warehouse in Agulae. Military forces have not allowed trucks with food to travel north, according to a local aid worker. Meanwhile, people are starving. “A total of 5.2 million people, a staggering 91 percent of Tigray’s population, need emergency food assistance,” says Peter Smerdon, the spokesperson the United Nations World Food Programme in Eastern Africa. Nearly a quarter of the children that agencies have been able to screen are malnourished, but Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers are blocking the distribution of humanitarian aid.

In Mekele, women bake bread in a school courtyard to feed people displaced by fighting in villages across Ethiopia's Tigray region, in May 2021. The Ethiopian government kicked out UN Aid workers trying to manage the grave humanitarian crisis in Tigray, and the United Nations secretary general in the United Nations Security Council pleaded with the Ethiopian government to allow much-needed aid into Tigray, where fighting continues. A political conflict between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), exploded into war late last year after the TPLF attacked a government military base. As many as two million people in the region have been displaced and thousands have been killed. Yet the full extent of the catastrophe is unknown because the Ethiopian government has shut down communications and limited access to Tigray.

Abeba Girmay, right, and Fetlework Amaha, left, sit on the grave of their loved ones at the Abune Aregawi church, in Abiy Addi in west Tigray. One of Fetlework's cousins is buried there and four of Abeba's nephews. The brothers were buried here after they were executed while farming on the outskirts of Abiy Addi in February. “I thought the boys were hiding somewhere” Abeba says, “When I arrived, and saw them dead, I was devastated.” The two women are comforted by nuns who heard their cries.

Farmer Kiros Tadros plows his land in Adi Kolakul village on the road between Mekele and Abbi Addi, in Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2021. Eritrean soldiers have tried to prevent him from farming but if he doesn't farm his seven children will have nothing to eat.
The war began during harvest season. Now it is time to plant. Kiros Tadros, a father of seven, was back in his fields. “Our land as well the mountains overlooking our houses were invaded by Eritrean soldiers,” he says. “They came to each household and demanded we provide them food, give them our livestock. They also demanded that we do not plough and give them information on the whereabouts of the militia.” He mulled over the past few years, already made difficult by the effects of climate change: “It’s like doomsday: first came the frozen rains, then the locusts, then the war.”

Ten-year-old Desnest Gebreabzgi was wounded when she and other children were playing with unexploded ordinance in her village of Denbela, Ethiopia, in May. In Ethiopia's Tigray region, a grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding. As civil war escalates, millions have been displaced, thousands killed, and reports of human rights violations and atrocities are rampant—including mass rapes, executions, the intentional bombardment of civilians, and the flagrant looting of hospitals and clinics. The United Nations has called for an investigation of war crimes, and the United States has cut economic and security aid to Ethiopia and banned travel to the U.S. by officials involved in the violence or in blocking humanitarian aid. 

Senayit weeps as she recounts how she was raped by Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers on two separate occasions—in her home in Edagahamus, and as she tried to flee to Mekele with her 12-year-old son in Tigray, Ethiopia, May 2021. (The names of the rape victims mentioned in this story are pseudonyms.) The second time, she was pulled from a minibus, drugged, and brought to a military base, where she was tied to a tree and sexually assaulted repeatedly over the course of 10 days. She fell in and out of consciousness from the pain, exhaustion, and trauma. At one point, she awoke to a horrifying sight: Her son, along with a woman and her new baby, were all dead at her feet. “I saw my son with blood from his neck,” she says. “I saw only his neck was bleeding. He was dead.” Senayit crumpled into her tears, her fists clenched against her face, and howled a visceral cry of pain and sadness, unable to stop weeping. “I never buried him,” she screamed, between sobs. “I never buried him.”