a young woman in a dress holding flowers looking out a window
sergeants looking down at the removed donor face.
young mother and her baby boy in the ceremonial herbal bath.
a Flint, Michigan high school senior at her prom
an African American man standing by a car at night his two sons sit in the backseat
two young black men painting a sign that depicts crossing out the n-word
four letters of the genetic code projected on the face of a Ugandan man
young black girl with green sunglasses jumping in a bounce house with other children
men standing in a checkpoint, some climb the walls to cut the line
dozens of children being shoved against each other as they struggle to receive food
children sleeping on a bridge between the U.S. and Mexico
a woman and her son immersed in a landscape of plastic white sheets
hands sorting various colorful butterflies on a floral cloth
a young girl with a feeding tube wearing a kitten shirt sleeping on a floral pillow
a husband and wife standing in front of their home in Michigan
three men on yaks, one in fancy sunglasses.
a mother sitting on a bed caressing her son as he lays in her lap
byrd murder
a man with a scar on his neck, his hands crossed on his chest and eyes closed.
a father and his son at a hospital in Hajjah, Yemen
pilgrims circumnavigating one of the volcanoes.
a woman holding yellow flowers, weeping, as she is held by people beside her.
dead hummingbirds
a Maasai girl bouncing on the carcass of elephant with bloody wounds from removed tusks.
grey reef sharks hunting as a pack in deep blue water at night
a scalped gray-headed albatross chick with dried red blood on a green lush island
a young girl holding a rifle in yellow mountains on a sunny day
a South Sudanese woman sitting on a green chair in front of a peach bed sheet outside
1 of 30
Before Katie Stubblefield had a face transplant, she posed for this portrait. It shows her severely injured face—but photographer Maggie Steber also wanted to capture “her inner beauty and her pride and determination.” From "The Story of a Face," September 2018
Photograph by MAGGIE STEBER

See our most compelling photographs of 2018

A mother bathes with her baby and sharks hunt at night in the 30 most moving pictures of the year from National Geographic.

ByCatherine Zuckerman
December 10, 2018

A girl, her profile bathed in soft light, looks proudly into the distance, despite the terrible injury to her face. Two young children sleep in their clothes, while a hand—their father’s?—reaches from outside the frame to touch them.

These are scenes from two of our 30 most emotionally compelling photographs of the year. The collection represents moments both tragic and triumphant, peaceful and painful, each image offering the viewer a different reason to take a second look.

For National Geographic Director of Photography Sarah Leen, one of the most powerful photographs is from our September feature, The Story of a Face. “The image by photographer Lynn Johnson shows the surgical team crowded around a tray that holds the face of the donor before the transplant surgery. I feel the awe, the serious yet tender contemplation of the moment.”

All of the images in this gallery have the potential to elicit an emotional response, says Leen. “The best photographs don't let you off the hook for a minute. They stop you, they make you look, they make you feel.”

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