ON THE COVER

T

he 2021 “Year in Pictures”

issue, our second, feels

very different from the

first. Many people have

called 2020 their most

challenging year ever:

a pandemic worldwide,

racial and political strife

in the United States. Yet

well into 2021, problems

of all kinds persisted;

the political rancor and climate

crisis did not abate. On the other

hand, vaccines and other medical

advances, along with behavioral

shifts, began to rein in the virus and

raise spirits. You’ll see that glint of

optimism reflected in many of the

photographs we chose to represent

this whipsaw year.

Yet as we looked through the

more than 1.9 million images added

to National Geographic’s archives

in 2021, we couldn’t settle on one

photo that captured the year. So we

created four covers, each reflecting

a major theme: COVID, climate, con-

flict, and—because we’re National

Geographic—conservation.

The four images (right) embody

2021’s turbulence: destructive

droughts and wildfires ... aid for

threatened animals ... a woman

traumatized in conflict ... and a

health-care worker, Nazir Ahmed,

delivering vaccinations. However

hard Ahmed’s life was in 2021, he

kept going, helping others. In an

issue full of memorable photos,

that one feels especially hopeful.

Thank you for reading National

Geographic.

Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief

National Geographic

The Caldor fire, which

menaced Lake Tahoe, was

one of many blazes charring

the American West in 2021.

Climate change creates hotter

weather, drier vegetation,

and other wildfire risk factors.

A gray seal surfaces

in waters off New England.

Depleted since the late 1800s

by hunting, seal populations

rebounded after the enact-

ment of the U.S. Marine Mam-

mal Protection Act in 1972.

PHOTOGRAPH BY

LYNSEY ADDARIO

PHOTOGRAPH BY

BRIAN SKERRY

01.

SPECIAL ISSUE

species are rebounding, such as gray seals in Some vulnerable

the Gulf of Maine.

01.

drier vegetation fueled destructive wHotter weather and ildfires

in western states.

SPECIAL ISSUE

The war in Afghanistan

drove Hafiza, 70, from her

village and turned her sons

into enemies as they joined

opposing sides. U.S. troops

left in August; rebel and Tali-

ban forces continued fighting.

PHOTOGRAPH BY

KIANA HAYERI

01.

Hafiza has taken refuge near Faizabad, Afghanistan,

since the Taliban seized her home village in 2019.

SPECIAL ISSUE

Health-care worker Nazir

Ahmed traveled seven hours

in a day, on foot and by car,

to take COVID-19 vaccinations

to shepherds and nomadic

herders in the Indian territory

of Jammu and Kashmir.

PHOTOGRAPH BY

DAR YASIN

01.

lengths to vaccinate rural A health-care wIndia goes to extremorker in e

populations.

SPECIAL ISSUE

YEAR IN PICTURES

AP PHOTO (TOP LEFT)

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