Good photojournalism doesn’t belong to the photographer alone. This collection of favorite Monitor photos of 2022 honors partnerships forged between photographer, subject, and viewer.

An Andean plateau. A Ukrainian church. A Florida swamp. These are just a few places brought to life for readers by Monitor photographers in the past year. Our photographers hope that all their images make an impression on readers. But the team’s favorite photos of the year “left a mark on us in some memorable way,” says Director of Photography Alfredo Sosa. “They touched you, or surprised you.”

Many of the images that mean the most to the team are those in which they forged bonds with their subjects. “We feel we made a human connection,” Alfredo says, “because we try to understand, relate to, and share the experience of the subject. It’s a partnership.”

Other favorites reflect a certain level of difficulty or perseverance to get the shot. And some are relished for their unexpectedness, such as the otherworldly scene at the top of this page, captured by Alfredo during a trip to Chile for a June 6, 2022, cover story about lithium mining.

“Our hope is that we can be a vehicle for the reader to connect and understand what it’s like to be there, to be the person,” he says.