Man on the Wire

TIME talks to Bulent Kilic, a bold young photographer whose compassion and integrity are as strong as his imagery.

South Sudan remains on the brink of an ethnic conflict. Italian photographer Fabio Bucciarelli is documenting the unrest

With much attention being drawn to the White House providing their own handout photographs amid concerns over access to photojournalists, TIME presents some of the most entertaining, educational, compelling and controversial photographs from the past year that governments, activists and private companies released to news organizations.

This year, we decided to play off the idea of déjà vu that we started last year — embarking on an anthropological dig through our collective visual memory to unearth images from the past year that awaken a familiar sense of recognition.

At-once authoritative and distinctive, Muheisen's photographs have become indispensable for news outlets the world over.

As we envision what the coming year might bring, Lightbox pauses to celebrate sightings of rainbows — those fleeting emblems of hope — photographed over the past year in unexpected, incongruous places.