The Photos that Defined 2024

By Carolyn RyanI’m a managing editor at The Times.When shots were fired at a campaign rally for Donald Trump on a July evening in Butler, Pa., the veteran New York Times photographer Doug Mills was just a few feet from him.The Secret Service rushed toward Trump.

Doug’s heart pounded when he realized what was happening.Then instinct took over.Doug kept taking pictures, at a shutter speed of one eight-thousandth of a second, capturing an image that illustrates the magnitude of that moment: Trump, his face streaked with blood, his fist raised in defiance.This year was made up of such extraordinary moments.

And Times photographers captured them in extraordinary images.“The Year in Pictures” brings you the most powerful, evocative and history-making of those images — and allows you to see the biggest stories of 2024 through our photographers’ eyes.The presidential campaign — full of twists and turns — provided some of our most memorable photos.

Kenny Holston captured a shaky President Biden struggling to find his footing in what turned out to be his only debate of the 2024 election.Todd Heisler brought home the excitement of an 8-year-old girl in pigtails, Kamala Harris’s great-niece, who watched with pride as Harris accepted her party’s nomination for president....