--- description: From the tunnels deep underneath Moscow to the storm-ravaged aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, the halls of the White House and the chaos in the Central African Republic, TIME photographers captured some of the year's most compelling news images. title: TIME’s Best Photojournalism of 2013 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd28d833b3ae91819/6987a6c5e20a877c1ba87ee7/koy3787-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # TIME's Best Photojournalism of 2013 by [TIME Photo Department](/author/time-photo-department/) ## TIME Photo Department Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 12, 2013 9:01 AM CUT  Feb. 3, 2013\. Svetlana Zakharova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, comes out for a curtain call with principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who bows in the background, after a performance of Swan Lake on the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. From "Yuri Kozyrev: From the Battefield to the Ballet." Feb. 3, 2013\. Svetlana Zakharova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, comes out for a curtain call with principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who bows in the background, after a performance of Swan Lake on the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. From "Yuri Kozyrev: From the Battefield to the Ballet."Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME by [TIME Photo Department](/author/time-photo-department/) ## TIME Photo Department Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 12, 2013 9:01 AM CUT In 2013, TIME sent photographers on assignment to dozens of countries all over the world — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Russia, The Philippines, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Pakistan, Myanmar, Central African Republic, Egypt, Dagestan, India — to name a few. From the tunnels deep underneath Moscow to the storm-ravaged aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, the halls of the White House and the chaos in the Central African Republic, TIME photographers captured some of the year’s most compelling images. No one knows what news 2014 will bring — for better or for worse — but TIME continues to stand behind our commitment to bring our readers the strongest visual reporting through the magazine, TIME.com, LightBox and social media. See Also: * [TIME’s Best Portraits of 2013](http://wp.me/p1d6cx-ks3 "undefined") * [ TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2013](http://lightbox.time.com/2013/12/02/time-picks-the-top-10-photos-of-2013/ "undefined") * [TIME Picks the Most Surprising Photos of 2013](lightbox.time.com/2013/12/09/most-surprising-photos-of-2013/ "undefined") * [2013: A Year in 365 Pictures](http://lightbox.time.com/2013/12/03/2013-the-year-in-365-pictures/ "undefined") ---  Jan. 21, 2013\. U.S. President Barack Obama places his hand on two bibles as held by first lady Michelle Obama as his recites the oath of office during swearing-in ceremonies on the West front of the U.S Capitol in Washington. The first is the Bible used by former President Abraham Lincoln, when he took the oath of office in 1861\. The second Bible is the so-called "traveling Bible," used by slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. From "Pictures of the Week: January 18 - January 25." Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME  Jan. 8, 2013\. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey fixes his tie in his office before delivering his State Of The State address at the Statehouse in Trenton. From "The Boss." Edward Keating—Contact Press Images for TIME  Feb. 3, 2013\. Svetlana Zakharova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, comes out for a curtain call with principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who bows in the background, after a performance of Swan Lake on the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. From "Yuri Kozyrev: From the Battefield to the Ballet." Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME  March 2, 2013\. Fatima Hazazi stands in front of boxes of medicine she requires monthly to treat her kidney problem at home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Like many families across Saudi Arabia who are barely scraping above the poverty line each month, Fatima and her family rely on the hope of the charity of others to survive. From "Rich Nation, Poor People: Saudi Arabia by Lynsey Addario." Lynsey Addario—VII for TIME  March 4, 2013\. Saudi Special Emergency Forces under the Ministry of Interior train at the Counter-terrorism Training School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has been fighting terrorism within the Kingdom for decades, and has roughly 3,000 SEF in Riyadh, alone. From "Rich Nation, Poor People: Saudi Arabia by Lynsey Addario." Lynsey Addario—VII for TIME  March 7, 2013\. An old American car, long a staple of Cuban roads, sits along Guanabo Beach, near Havana, Cuba. From "Cuban Evolution: Photographs by Joakim Eskildsen." Joakim Eskildsen for TIME  April 14, 2013\. Hours before races begin, handlers and warm-up riders prepare the horses for the jockey's arrival at Keeneland. From "The End of Horse Racing: Photographs by Jehad Nga." Jehad Nga for TIME  April 24, 2013\. Drug users and those who violate the unwritten rules imposed by the inmates who control Vista Hermosa, the most dangerous prison in Venezuela, are confined to one area known as "La Guerrilla," Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela. From "On the Inside: Venezuela's Most Dangerous Prison." Sebastian Liste—Reportage by Getty Images for TIME  May 12, 2013\. Members of Afghan special forces during a training exercise on the outskirts of Kabul. Afghanistan's army is training female special forces to take part in night raids against insurgents despite cultural taboos as foreign combat troops take the backseat ahead of their eventual departure at the end of 2014\. In a country where women traditionally are expected to stay home, their participation in the special forces is breaking new ground in ultraconservative Afghanistan. Afghan women have been part of their nation's security forces for years, but they didn't start being recruited for the special forces until 2011\. From "Treasure Land: The Mines of Afghanistan by Yuri Kozyrev." Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME  May 16, 2013\. U.S. President Barack Obama checks to see if he still needs the umbrella held by a U.S. Marine to protect him from the rain during a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. From "Pictures of the Week: May 10 - May 7." Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME  May 16, 2013\. The restraining chair and forced feeding apparatus on display in an empty room of the detainee hospital in Guantánamo Bay. From "Inside Guantanamo Bay: Photographs by Eugene Richards." Eugene Richards for TIME  May 23, 2013\. Burned trees and damaged buildings are seen through the window of a destroyed house in the Mingalar Zayyone Muslim quarter of Meikhtila, Myanmar (Burma) that was razed by Buddhists in ethnic violence in March. From "When Buddhists Go Bad: Photographs by Adam Dean." Adam Dean for TIME  June 1, 2013\. A mother weeps over the loss of her daughter who died in the rubble of Rana Plaza, the 8-story building containing a garment factory that collapsed on April 24, 2013, killing over 1000 workers in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. From "Portraits of Pain." Taslima Akhter for TIME  June 10, 2013\. Yasaman Karimi, 23, a young supporter of Dr. Aref who is one of two reformists out of the eight candidates in the Iranian election, gathers near Hejab stadium in the center of Tehran. From "A Nation Eager to Be Heard: Photographs of Iran by Newsha Tavakolian." Newsha Tavakolian—Polaris for TIME  June 12, 2013\. Bobby Henline, 41, a veteran of four tours to Iraq and sole survivor of an IED blast that killed the other four soldiers in his humvee in Iraq in 2007, swims at a Motel 6 in Humble, TX after visiting the father of Rodney McCandless. Rodney was killed in the IED explosion that injured Bobby. For years McCandless's family didn't know that anyone had survived the attack until Bobby was able to reach them by Facebook. It was their first meeting and Bobby wanted to pay his respects. From "From the Battlefield to the Comedy Stage: Healing Bobby Henline." Peter van Agtmael—Magnum for TIME  July 5, 2013\. Backers of ousted President Mohamed Morsi help an injured man near the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. From "Continuing Chaos in Tahrir Square: Photographs by Yuri Kozyrev." Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME  July 15, 2013\. Vadim Mikhailov, founder of the movement of subterranean explorers known in Russia as "Diggers," inspects the tunnels that carry the Neglinka river beneath the historic center of Moscow. The Neglinka tunnels were built in the 18th century under Empress Catherine the Great, who ordered the river moved underground. It is a Digger tradition to use torches as well as electric lamps to light their way, evoking the pre-industrial era of the tunnels they explore. From "Moscow Underground." Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME  July 30, 2013\. Female supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi are sprayed with water to cool themselves down as they continue their sit-in in Cairo while fasting. From "Pictures of the Week: July 26 - August 2." Mosa'ab Elshamy for TIME  Sept. 30, 2013\. Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, on his way to a procedural vote on the House floor, at the Capitol in Washington. The Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate are at an impasse as Congress continues to struggle over how to prevent a possible shutdown of the federal government when it runs out of money. From "It's Only Going to Get Worse in Washington." Brooks Kraft—Corbis for TIME  Nov. 16, 2013\. People play by a fire in a neighbourhood destroyed by the Haiyan Typhoon in Tacloban, The Philippines. From "Seven Days of Tragedy: Photographer Recounts Covering Typhoon Haiyan for TIME." Adam Dean—Panos for TIME  Nov. 14, 2013\. A young girl whose family member Fleuri Doumana, 21, was killed 2 days before by a grenade launched by a member of the Seleka. The rebel group, which took power in March 2013, carries out numerous exactions such as murders, kidnapping, and torture. From "The Crisis in the Central African Republic by William Daniels." William Daniels—Panos for TIME  Nov. 6, 2013\. Andrey, 43 years old, injects Zhanna, 34 years old, with krokodil in his apartment in the Uralmash district. From "Krokodil Tears." Emanuele Satolli for TIME  Dec. 8, 2013\. Christians pray on a hilltop overlooking Johannesburg CBD as South Africans observe a national day of prayer for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. From "Mourning Madiba: South Africans Say Goodbye to Nelson Mandela." Jonathan Torgovnik—Reportage by Getty Images for TIME  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3805678/times-best-photojournalism-of-2013/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3805678/times-best-photojournalism-of-2013/"},"headline":"TIME's Best Photojournalism of 2013","datePublished":"2013-12-12T09:01:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:35.049Z","description":"From the tunnels deep underneath Moscow to the storm-ravaged aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, the halls of the White House and the chaos in the Central African Republic, TIME photographers captured some of the year's most compelling news images.","url":"https://time.com/3805678/times-best-photojournalism-of-2013/","keywords":["LightBox","Christopher Morris","Photojournalism","James Nachtwey","Dominic Nahr","Yuri Kozyrev","photo essay","Lynsey Addario","Adam Dean","Peter van Agtmael","Newsha Tavakolian"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd28d833b3ae91819/6987a6c5e20a877c1ba87ee7/koy3787-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo Department","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo-department/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd28d833b3ae91819/6987a6c5e20a877c1ba87ee7/koy3787-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"_KOY3787-1","caption":"Moscow Russia February 03 2013 Svetlana Zakharova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, comes out for a curtain call with principal dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who bows in the background, after a performance of Swan Lake on the historical stage of the","creditText":"Yuri Kozyrev—NOOR for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3805678/times-best-photojournalism-of-2013/","name":"TIME's Best Photojournalism of 2013"}}]}] ```