As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of the most memorable events and images of 2018. Among the events covered in this essay (the last of a three-part photo summary of the year): midterm congressional elections in the United States, hurricanes and typhoons in Asia and North America, a contentious confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court, Brazil’s election of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro as its new president, a horrific attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and much more. See also: “Top 25 News Photos of 2018” and the 2018 in Photos: Part 1 and Part 2. The series comprises 120 images in all. Warning: Some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.

Addis Foto Fest, founded by photographer Aida Muluneh, aims to give photographers from Africa a platform to capture the cultural complexities and diverse histories of the countries they call home.

Another wonderful discovery in juroring the SlowExposures: Celebrating the Rural South Exhibition was the work of Rory Doyle. Rory attended the festival and I was able to see a broader edit of his photographs of the African-American cowboy community of the Mississippi Delta. The project not only shifts our vision of what we consider the traditional cowboy, but celebrates and explores the Delta culture. For the past two years, he has attended a myriad of Delta cowboy events, creating an expansive and modern look at a vibrant Mississippi community. The work has been well celebrated and he will be having a series of exhibitions starting in Cleveland, Mississippi in February 2019.  Rory states, “I wanted to have the first show in the Delta to allow the riders to attend by horseback, and allow them to have a voice at the gallery opening. We will also have a speaker discuss the significance of African-American cowboy history. The Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Humanities Council are supporting this endeavor, and I want to make sure they know how thankful I am for their support.”

In a series of manipulated images, photographer Robin Friend captures the British countryside in all of its surreal glory, depicting a national identity at odds with itself.

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of the most memorable events and images of 2018. Among the events covered in this essay (the second of a three-part photo summary of the year): Mexico elected a new president, World Cup fans cheered and cried, protests rocked Nicaragua, a new Ebola outbreak hit central Africa, lava destroyed neighborhoods in Hawaii, and much more. See also: “Top 25 News Photos of 2018” and 2018 in Photos: Part 1, and come back tomorrow for the last in this series, Part 3. The series will comprise 120 images in all. Warning: Some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.

My first journey back to Yugoslavia was as a “foreigner” and a tourist, but not a stranger. It was summer of 1990. I witnessed a country preparing to slide violently towards its death and still denied this ever being a possibility. For a long time after, and elsewhere, I did not have a reason to bother recalling the country of my birth. Then my mother passed away. My very entry into this world disappeared and I needed to relearn the world, relearn that I was from nowhere.The idea that we are from some place has an irresistible magnetism, but what happens when that place is gone? One realises all we are is a collection of fragmented images. I return to my home town frequently to look for traces of life I have left behind, but all I find is an unceremonious blur playing out in a parallel universe. The life I have had is forever gone. I languish in nostalgia. The more nostalgic I become, the less I remember. All I have is my fragments.

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at some of the most memorable events and images of 2018. Events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the March for Our Lives gun control rally, Mark Zuckerberg facing Congress, continued conflict in Syria and Yemen, the birth of a royal baby, and much more. See also “Top 25 News Photos of 2018,” and come back tomorrow and Thursday for the rest of this series, 2018 in Photos: Part 2 and Part 3. The series will comprise 120 images in all. Warning: Some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.

We near the end of another eventful year. Wildfires raged across California, the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy toward immigrants led to family separations, relations between North and South Korea eased a bit, a horrific school shooting in Florida touched off a nationwide gun-control protest and debate, France won the World Cup in Moscow, Britain’s Prince Harry wed Meghan Markle, the U.S. held a historic midterm election, and so much more. Here, we present the Top 25 News Photos of 2018. Be sure to come back soon for a more comprehensive series, beginning tomorrow—2018: The Year in Photos, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

I first wrote about Paris Visone’s compelling photographs in 2010, in particular, work from her series, Gender Roles and Appearance. She had spent six years documenting family and that focus has remained as part of her ever-expanding photography practice.  Happily, Peanut Press Books has just released a monograph of a broad range of her personal and professtional work, Paris Visone For Real.  Including a foreword by Cig Harvey, this debut book features photographs of family, friends and rock stars. “For Real presents intimate portraits of famous musicians and Visone’s own family, blurring the lines between private life, fame, and public persona. In her photographs, Visone portrays her family and friends as rock stars while presenting renowned rock musicians with the intimacy of friends and family. Which one of her subjects is a public figure and which is her sister, cousin, or mother? Visone makes it difficult to tell as she treats every subject equally with respect and love.”

Through self-portraits, Zanele Muholi reimagines black identity and challenges the oppressive standards of beauty that often ignore people of color.

Against the backdrop of a drug war, where fear and violence have become normalised, photographer Hannah Reyes Morales has been seeking out moments of tenderness amid the adversity… while learning to understand the place that’s shaped her.

An exclusive look at Alan Schaller’s latest photo series