At 76, Malutai Magdum continues working in the fields of Jambhali, India, even as factories loom in the background and worsening air pollution takes a toll on her hearing. (Sanket Jain for The Xylom)
This year, our journalists and photojournalists worked across 12 countries, four U.S. states, and two disputed regions, bringing readers a visual documentation of the issues we covered.
Much of this was made possible by our Editor-at-Large, KC Cheng, who took extreme personal risks to file dispatches from conflict-ridden regions such as Ukraine and South Sudan. Behind these sombre photographs lie deeper stories of hunger, displacement, and environmental injustice.
Our reporters from across the world captured some of the most compelling images directly from the field. These images, many from difficult-to-access places, hold a myriad of emotions — the quiet joy of a child about to eat a snack, the determination etched into an elderly woman working the fields, and the resilience of women adapting and switching livelihoods to survive.
Here are some of our best photos published in 2025:
Investigations
At 76, Malutai Magdum continues working in the fields of Jambhali, India, even as factories loom in the background and worsening air pollution takes a toll on her hearing. (Sanket Jain for The Xylom)
A Maasai man from Kayapus village in Ngorongoro crater, who are at threat of eviction along with hundreds of thousands of other Maasai in the region. (Kang-Chun Cheng/The Xylom)
Looking from Ingleside on the Bay, Texas’s easternmost boundary, crude oil is loaded into Cap Port Arthur, a Suezmax oil tanker currently sailing under the flag of Greece, at the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center. McGloin’s Bluff, a site containing various Indigenous artifacts, is in the foreground. (Alex Ip/The Xylom)
A view of fishing boats at sunset along the polluted Mumbai coast. (KC Cheng/The Xylom)
Two Texas Coastal Bend residents put their hands on their heads in distress during a TCEQ Notice and Comment Hearing involving the renewal of Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center’s Federal Operating Permit in Portland, Texas. (Alex Ip/The Xylom)
Dispatches
A protester holds up a large “PLEASE DON’T KILL US” sign at the “Sound Science Saves Lives” rally in Atlanta, August 16th, 2025. (Alex Ip/The Xylom)
Turkana women and their children waiting to be seen at Kokuro health clinic. (KC Cheng/The Xylom)
In front of the ruins of the Nepal Ministry of Home Affairs office are the remains of a torched car. (Barsha Shah for The Xylom)
Fishermen have put up nets in flooded regions of South Sudan's Baidit Payam subcounty since 2020. A tilapia has been caught in what was once a path to school. (KC Cheng/The Xylom)
Sudanese children enjoying a meal prepared from sweet potatoes. (Median Hassouna for The Xylom)
Dr. Ivan Ryk enters a surgery room to perform a procedure on a burn victim at Saint Luke’s Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine. (KC Cheng/The Xylom)
Solutions
Afroza Bano has transitioned to stitching and handmade embroidery, as climate change collapsed food supplies at Kashmir's Dal Lake. She says that she found it liberating to learn new skills that became a source of her income. (Aliya Bashir for The Xylom)
Sammy Shum (left) and Tsang Chi Yeung (right) at Aberdeen Technical School. (Alice Chuck for The Xylom)
Puji Lestari, a 59-year-old woman, had fish farming and planted bok choy, spinach, and melons at Green Puspa. Together with ten other housemothers, she harvests spinach every 21 days and sells it in a WhatsApp group. (Andi Aisyah Lamboge for The Xylom)
S. Valarmathi could sustain her family after her husband’s death through her dried fish business, thanks to low-cost solar dryers that promise a safer, more hygienic, and more efficient process. (T. Singaravelou for The Xylom)
Saura community members relocated to Nua Barghar gather to discuss their grievances. (Dimple Behal for The Xylom)
