Our favourite photography stories of 2020

Picks of the bunch — In a challenging year, visual storytellers are still finding exciting ways to document – be it through innovative new projects, or old archive series now seeing the light of day. Here are the best ones we covered this year.

This year, Huck has covered photography all over the world.

We’ve explored life in the Ozarks, family dynamics in Yokohama City, and revelled in the romance of Europe during the 1970s and ’80s.

We’ve published visual essays from some of photography’s biggest names, too: from Cengiz Yar’s reflection on the quiet moments between assignments during his time in Iraq, to Ying Ang’s stunning piece on motherhood.

Here are favourites from 2020.

The real Ozarks: a portrait of rural life in modern America

Terra Fondriest documents life in her region with an unmatched intimacy – a challenge in a place awash with stereotypes. But the mother, firefighter and ranch worker is no outsider. She’s simply capturing what she knows.

A humorous look at Japanese family life, in photos

For over a decade, photographer Motoyuki Daifu has been documenting the lives of his loved ones, seeking out quiet moments of magic among the mundane.

A visual history of the Lower East Side

Photographer Karen O’Sullivan remembers the neighbourhood’s gritty, pre-gentrification glory days.

A journey through the ever-shifting state of motherhood

Motherhood, of all the stories we possess, is perhaps the most well-known. But for photographer Ying Ang, no corner of culture – no books, films or art – captured the implosion that transformed her world. It demanded a new way of seeing.

Portraits that capture three decades of Black culture

Photographer Liz Johnson Artur – a self-described ‘product of migration’ – has been capturing the African diaspora since 1986.

Adventures across Europe in the 1970s and ’80s

Photographer Sergio Purtell spent years travelling the continent at length, capturing a romantic world of motels, cafes, beaches and bars.

Events that changed the course of history, in photos

What do real turning points look like? The world’s best photographers pick out the most powerful images from their archive.

Chris Killip’s timeless portrait of working class culture

For three decades, the seminal photographer’s shots of an old anarcho-punk club sat gathering dust in a box. However, in the cold light of day they’ve taken on new meaning.

A conflict photographer reflects on his time in Iraq

Photographer Cengiz Yar has seen things – from the rebels’ battle to oust Assad in Syria, to the human fallout of conflict in Iraq. But it was away from the frontlines that he truly came to value a universal right: having a patch to call one’s own.

Capturing the secrets of the New York City subway

For two decades, Patrick Cashin worked as the MTA’s official photographer, documenting the ins and outs of one of the world’s busiest transit systems.