The 24 best photos of the year by Boston Globe photographers

2. FEBRUARY 9, BOSTON — Alexandria Onuoha is a PhD student at Suffolk University, and the director of political advocacy at Black Boston 2020, an organization, founded last spring by Black college-aged women that advocates for policy change. The snow adds so much, like the frosting on her jacket. For the story, I think that her natural expression worked best. I just see a great deal of pride in this photo. — Craig F. Walker

3. AUGUST 10, ROCKLAND, MAINE — Virginia Oliver is 101 and still goes out to haul lobster with her 78-year-old son, Max, three mornings a week. Banding lobster is hard, tedious, repetitive work. It’s no joke. But Virginia makes it look easy. She started when she was 8, before the Great Depression, took time off to raise four children before heading back out. This photo of Virginia “yeeting” a lobster became a meme; she went viral. Someone turned her into Darth Vader and gave the lobster a lightsaber. Mark Hamill commented, “The Force is strong with this lobsterwoman.” I’m sure Luke Skywalker has no idea he made my year. — Jessica Rinaldi

4. NOVEMBER 2, ROSLINDALE — Everything surrounding the mayoral campaign was exciting to cover. We were all aware that no matter which of the final two candidates won, we were covering history in the making: The first female elected as mayor of Boston. This is the day Michelle Wu voted for herself, accompanied by her husband and two kids. After, she came out and thanked her supporters. I remember feeling pressure, not just because my second camera body was out at the repair shop, but because I kept thinking, These pictures are important — they’re going to be published in many places. In the end, I was happy with the results. — Suzanne Kreiter

5. SEPTEMBER 26, UPTON — I had gone out to Fivefork Farms in Upton on a perfect late September day to photograph Grace Lam and her family’s operation. Grace had given me a tour of the fields where they grow their stunning dahlias. As we were walking back, a mother and her young daughter, Charlotte, were coming up the driveway towing bouquets of flowers they had just bought from the farm stand. Charlotte’s outfit was such a lovely compilation of fall colors that complemented the tones of those dahlias perfectly, the gray of the gravel made them pop. — Jessica Rinaldi

6. JANUARY 26, BOSTON — I was wandering through the Arnold Arboretum and looked down and saw a tiny little stream frozen over in places. There were still some leaves blowing around and it just made a nice abstract pattern. It didn’t do all that much for me but pictures are like that: The photographer doesn’t think anything of them and somebody else thinks they’re great, or I think it’s fabulous and everyone else looks at it and shrugs. — Lane Turner

7. MARCH 2, BOSTON — I love street photography, and Chinatown is my favorite place to shoot because those narrow streets and tall buildings make these dark canyons that get penetrated by shafts of light. It’s really dramatic. Also, it’s a walking neighborhood and you never have to wait long for someone to make your picture. In this case, there’s this beam of light hitting one small spot and I just waited there for someone to walk by. The red coat just pops out of this dismal scene. — Lane Turner

8. JULY 31, REVERE — This was a drive-through testing site in Revere. The numbers were starting to go up a little bit so more people were starting to get tested again. This family was about to go on vacation and they had three little girls in the car. People liked the layers in the photo — you’ve got the nurse reflected in the window, and half of the face of one little girl, and then you can look through the car and see the grandmother and then a medical professional on the other side. This captures the hesitancy that people were still feeling about getting tested. — Erin Clark

9. NOVEMBER 5, READING — The governor had just approved the COVID vaccine for kids 5 to 11. This was a vaccine clinic at A.W. Coolidge Middle School in Reading. No one was really excited about getting a shot, but this little 7-year-old girl had support from her brother. He was only 3, so he wasn’t going to get the shot, but I just love that sibling show of caring, holding her hand. It reminded me of me and my sister. — Craig F. Walker

10. JANUARY 13, BOSTON — It was 10 months into the pandemic and I had been determined to actually spend some time on a COVID ward. Finally, the West Roxbury VA Medical Center said yes. A reporter and I spent that first day talking to patients; it felt like not a lot of people were really sick. We went back maybe a week later and discovered one woman was back in the ICU, and then started hearing that another probably was not going to make it. We were there when he passed away; one of the nurses cried. Even after almost a year, it was still hard to lose another patient. It was just so sobering, we saw firsthand how quickly things could change. — Erin Clark

11. MAY 8, BOSTON — This is the Northeastern University class of 2021 commencement at Fenway Park. I shot this from the Green Monster deck. Some students were sitting in the stands and some were out on the baseball field all spaced out, with this white cloth covering it. It made for this incredibly cool pictorial in their black gowns wearing their little black caps. I think they were only allowed to bring one person with them, because I remember thinking how sad that would have been, to have to pick one parent or the other to attend the ceremony. — Erin Clark

12. JULY 1, BOSTON — I had just finished an assignment, and the police scanner mentioned an incident happening by Pleasure Bay in South Boston. Two brothers had gone off to swim. When I got there, I saw a young man on a paddleboard being rescued by lifeguards, he was in tears, crying. More firefighters and EMTs helped him to the beach — he was distraught and weak-kneed. There was a second brother who had drowned; they didn’t find him until several hours later. It’s very tragic, there had already been dozens of drownings that summer. As a photographer, you have to be extremely considerate in an event like that, you use a long lens and stay away. — David L. Ryan

13. APRIL 10, BOSTON — This was a rally by the Asian Coalition MA. They started at Peters Park in the South End and then marched to the Chinatown Gate. They had these offerings set down and it was just so beautiful. The point was to reflect on what had happened the past year and to hold space for victims of violence. One of the organizers, Fiona Phie, sat there reflecting, and I squeezed down and was able to capture a photo of her. What you can’t see is the truck parked right behind so I was basically on the ground shooting from underneath. It was quite a challenge. — Erin Clark

14. SEPTEMBER 29, BOSTON — We spent 12 hours on the part of Massachusetts Avenue known as “Methadone Mile” to get a sense of what life is like. If anything, it’s gotten much worse than a year ago. After I shot this picture, I asked the guy to her left if she was all right. He went over and nudged her. She got up and she was like, “Yeah, I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine but she jumped up and disappeared into the darkness. At least she was alive. People might find it disturbing, but it’s got to be seen if anything’s going to change. — Craig F. Walker

15. OCTOBER 11, BOSTON — I’ve never been more exhausted during a sporting event in my entire Globe career. I covered the Boston Marathon that morning, and then went to the stadium to cover that night’s Red Sox playoff game. This was a team that wasn’t favored to win. Kiké Hernández was just on fire that series, and so it was poetic justice he got the game-winner. I was in the third-base box and everything lined up, so I had a clean image of his excitement. It seemed like a peak moment of ultimate joy; as an athlete, it really doesn’t get any better than that. — Matthew J. Lee

16. JULY 3, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA — The goal of Banana Ball is simply to make baseball fun, so they make all these crazy rules, and it’s just a blast. Even purist baseball fans thought it was fun. The creator, Jesse Cole, was a pitcher for Scituate High. The Savannah Bananas play in Grayson Stadium, an old, historic park. The assistant coach, 8-year-old Riley Wooten, is a dynamo. He’s out there, after the game, doing the Conga line with fans and pretending to play trumpet in the band. The picture happened in a flash; he raced up into the stands, ripped off his shirt, and started working it like Mick Jagger. — Stan Grossfeld

17. SEPTEMBER 21, BOSTON — It’s kind of a funny picture. This was an interleague game against the Mets. Rafael Devers flied out to left to end the inning, so when he saw the ball was caught, he bent over, took his helmet off, and slammed it into the ground. I’m pretty much ground level, shooting from the first-base line. The Red Sox were wearing those special blue and yellow “City Connect” uniforms reminiscent of the Boston Marathon. I think the color really makes it pop. They had a winning streak with those uniforms, so they kept wearing them. — Jim Davis

18. MARCH 24, BOSTON — This is the swearing-in ceremony at Boston City Hall for Kim Janey, who became the first Black and first female mayor of Boston. Historically, it was a huge event. US Representative Ayanna Pressley spoke that day with very moving words introducing Janey, talking about finally having a Black person representing the city of Boston, and how incredibly proud she was, so Janey became emotional. I think in that moment, it hit her. I shot it tight to show the climax of emotion. I wanted the emphasis to be on her face, her eyes, and hands. — John Tlumacki

19. SEPTEMBER 9, STONEHAM — Jacqui Webb and Paul Norden were both spectators injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. Ella is their first child, something good that came after a tragic event. The nurse who had helped Webb recover, Nichole Casper, later moved to Tufts Children’s Hospital, where she cared for the new family after the baby was born. I intended to photograph the three adults and baby together, but Norden did not want to be shown. Camera shy, I guess. So I mentioned his elaborately inked arms, and wondered if that would be OK. He agreed. — Pat Greenhouse

20. AUGUST 29, BOSTON — This was the dedication of Boston’s Middle Passage Port Marker, which acknowledges the city’s history of slavery and honors the Africans forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade on voyages known as the Middle Passage. Members of the Girlz of Imani dance troupe walked up to that chain and tossed flowers over it. The symbolism of that act was powerful: Those flowers represented the people brought here in bondage. I want the viewer to feel the weight of that chain and the fragility of those flowers and the strength of the next generation who live in the wake of that pain. — Jessica Rinaldi

21. SEPTEMBER 25, CAMBRIDGE — Civil rights activist Robert Parris Moses was a Freedom Rider, a MacArthur Fellow, Harvard-educated — just a brilliant guy. He had died two months earlier, this was a memorial for him at St. Mary of the Annunciation Parish in Cambridge, where he had lived. This captures the grace of his wife in a moment of sadness, but then you have this sort of jaunty, upbeat, New Orleans jazz procession, the members of the Black Men of Labor coming down the steps in syncopation. It’s joyous and sad at the same time. — Jonathan Wiggs

22. AUGUST 24, MARSHFIELD — It was the 153rd Marshfield Fair. I used to go every year with my kids but I haven’t been in probably 10 years, so it was neat to go back and see if anything had changed — actually, it had not changed at all. I was walking past this bungee attraction and this little girl, Chloe, just had this great expression on her face. She was like, Look at me, I’m flying! She was going probably the highest. It was a fun day at the fair; it could have been taken any year. — Barry Chin

23. JUNE 12, WARWICK, R.I. — Gaspee Days is a very popular celebration in Rhode Island marking a little-known piece of resistance history. I’m walking along the parade route and start hearing cannons going off. These guys dressed up in reenactment outfits were on this bridge shooting into the creek. The cannons were actually made by Paul Revere in the 1790s, so they were very proud of them, as they should be. They fired it off when I happened to be standing five feet away. It was so loud and jarring, I jumped. I don’t even think I got that shot. — Erin Clark

24. OCTOBER 11, CASTLETON, VERMONT — This photograph was part of a four-month-long photo essay on the spectacular season of fall as seen through my lens. It’s such a dynamic season that goes from swimming on hot days to snow falling. I always heard Lake Bomoseen was spectacular, so I traveled there and found a motel steps from the water. Early in the morning, it was just pea soup fog. I wasn’t that interested at first, but when the fog lifted, there was this incredible pink hue. It was just one of those moments you’re glad you photographed. — John Tlumacki

Interviews have been edited and condensed. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.

This file has been updated to include the correct photo of Northeastern’s graduation ceremony at Fenway Park.