Health

Our top global photo stories from 2025: Fearless women, solo polar bear, healing soups

By Marc Silver, Ben de la Cruz

Published December 27, 2025 at 7:32 AM PST

In a world where video reigns supreme (hello TikTok and Instagram reels!), the still photograph still wields a special power. It freezes a moment in time and lets people take in that big picture but also gives them a chance to appreciate tiny details that might not be noticed at first.

For Goats and Soda, photography is an important part of our coverage of the daily life, of the joys and strife, of the Global South. Here are our top photo-driven stories of 2025.

Polar bear, Dalian Forest Zoo, China. The typical zoo enclosure for a polar bear is one-millionth the size of its range in the wild, which can reach 31,000 square miles. The zoo contains over 3,000 animals.

Mother Nature must be really annoyed at our fakery
A polar bear in a zoo, a hotel balcony overlooking elephants, a tree mural shrouded by haze: They're images from the new book The Anthropocene Illusion, about the way humans are remaking Earth.

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The photo exhibit Sahy Rano, on display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York, this summer, draws its title from a Malagasay phrase translated in a wall label as "someone who is not afraid to dive into the water, even if there is a strong current." The photographer wants to bring attention to female genital schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by a waterborne parasitic infection, whose symptoms can be stigmatizing because they resemble symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. From left to right: former patients Rahama Abdallah, Sylvia Razanaparana and Suzanie Yolandrie. They were photographed in September 2024 in the district of Ambanja in Northern Madagascar. — The photo exhibit *Sahy Rano*, on display at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, New York, this summer, draws its title from a Malagasay phrase translated in a wall label as "someone who is not afraid to dive into the water, even if there is a strong current." The photographer wants to bring attention to female genital schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by a waterborne parasitic infection, whose symptoms can be stigmatizing because they resemble symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases. From left to right: former patients Rahama Abdallah, Sylvia Razanaparana and Suzanie Yolandrie. They were photographed in September 2024 in the district of Ambanja in Northern Madagascar.

Why it took courage for these women to pose for the camera
Wearing traditional cosmetic face masks from their homeland of Madagascar, they agreed to be photographed to take a stand. They posed for photographer Miora Rajaonary for a project to raise awareness of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), a disease transmitted by parasitic worms that, according to the World Health Organization, afflicts an estimated 56 million women and girls, mainly in Africa — and that is often mistaken for a sexually-transmitted disease.

Artisanal coal miner Emmanuel Siyabonga hauls a sack of coal to a client's car at the abandoned Golfview coal mine in Ermelo, South Africa. The work is grueling and hazardous but is one of the few viable means of making a living in a town with widespread poverty and high rates of unemployment.

The perilous lives of men who salvage coal from abandoned mines
It's a grueling and risky life for these miners, known as zama zamas, an isiZulu phrase translating loosely as "those who take a chance." Says one: "Bit by bit it's killing something inside me."

Angela Farre Palacin, 87, adds thyme to the boiling water for sopa de farigola, a traditional soup in Catalonia, Spain. — Angela Farre Palacin, 87, adds thyme to the boiling water for *sopa de farigola*, a traditional soup in Catalonia, Spain.

Thyme for some healing soup recipes from around the world
Every culture has its own special soup. The belief is that a bowl will make you feel better if you're feeling under the weather, hung over or just in need of a pick-me-up.

Catherine Mwaloe, 16, who contracted HIV from her mother at birth, did not know where to get her HIV medications after her U.S-funded clinic shut down in late January. After Zambian government officials met with her family, she was able to get the medication she needed to keep the virus at bay. But the food aid she once received has not resumed.

Portraits: A 10-year-old, a house painter and a mom who are running out of HIV pills
HIV medications were supposed to be exempt from U.S. aid cuts. In Zambia, for example, those on the ground say otherwise.

Children gather inside a traditional tent, known as an ortz, in the Siberian taiga of northern Mongolia, watching a documentary about a Norwegian reindeer herder. Despite their remote location deep in the forest — accessible only by horseback or reindeer — the families stay connected with the outside world through such modern technology as solar panels and the occasional wifi connection.

Prize-winning pictures: Images from this photo contest show tech changing the world
The website Rest of World got entries from 45 countries for a photo contest focusing on technology. Here are their top picks — from facial scans for migrants to kids in a Mongolian tent transfixed by a film.

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Portraits of women who 'shine a light': from an 'analog' astronaut to a watermelon farmer
The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, has a new photo exhibit in honor of International Women's Day: "Iconic Women: From Everyday Life to Global Heroes."

Awinash Kulkarni, 56, became a paraplegic at the age of 21, when he fell 50 feet from the wall of the Bhushi Dam in Lonavala. In this photo from his work, he shows a young person entertaining folks with a high-wire act. Kulkarni says he fears for the safety of this young daredevil.

Here are 8 photography winners with disabilities who show the world their perspective
A little boy balancing precariously on a rope, a colorful bird perched on a tree, and fishermen at twilight all have one thing in common: They caught the attention of a photographer with a disability.

Our top global photo stories from 2025: Fearless women, solo polar bear, healing soups

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