As 2025 inches towards its end, National Geographic is celebrating the year by dropping its annual Pictures of the Year 2025, “highlighting the images that most inspired and defined the past year through the eyes of its photographers and editors.”
“Pictures of the Year is a project that is always inspiring and thought-provoking,” editor-in-chief of National Geographic, Nathan Lump, said in a statement. “Each year, our photographers and editors sift through thousands of images, searching for those rare moments that stop us in our tracks.”
Lump added: “Individually, these photographs speak to beauty, fragility, and wonder. Taken together, I see a collective sense of urgency — a call to preserve what’s in danger of being lost, as well as a reminder of the poetic beauty to be found in carrying on, in daring to dream of a better future.”
The magazine, in a news release, said this year’s collection “showcases 25 extraordinary images that span the breadth of National Geographic’s storytelling, from intimate wildlife portraits and sweeping composites of changing landscapes to groundbreaking scientific discoveries and compelling human narratives.”
Standout images from the collection include the first underwater photograph of a great white shark in Maine, the last Indigenous people of Europe, a female polar bear feasting atop a sperm whale in Svalbard and the exact moment an egg transforms into a chick, among others.
