By My Modern Met Team on December 1, 2021

Photo: Kristina Makeeva (Website | Instagram | Facebook)

Photographers have yet again managed to find the beauty in the world and make it memorable. Take a look at the best photos of 2021.

Photo: Paolo Pettigiani (Website | Instagram | Behance)

As the end of yet another year amidst a pandemic (that just won’t go away) quickly approaches, we’re all inclined to take pause and reflect on all that’s passed—good and bad. It’s been a tumultuous year full of highs and lows, but mainly a lot of gray area. In 2020, we were able to pinpoint the anomaly—the world was ravaged by a pandemic, a disastrous event unlike anything else in our lifetime. But 2021 posed a different set of challenges. We’re not quite out of the pandemic yet—now with another variant of the virus looming across the globe—yet we’ve been met with a glimmer of hope in the form of vaccines and their subsequent booster shots.

Photo: Albert Dros (Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube)
The world got a glimpse of the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” as shops, pubs, gyms, theaters, and more started slowly opening up again in 2021. The vaccines gave new hope to our global community, re-energizing the world. Many photographers, who had previously lost a lot of work due to travel restrictions and social distancing mandates, found new ways to document the world and continue to capture striking images. Despite the questionable state of the world in 2021, they have managed to photograph beauty, despair, and everything in between to great effect. […]

Photo: Nicky Bay (Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter)

More: Best of 2021: Top 50 Photographs From Around the World