The Guardian receives millions of images each year from news agencies. Here are some of the photographers whose body of work over the course of the year has stood out to the picture desk.
John Wessels
Wessels has been based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, since April 2017 for Agence France-Presse. He has covered the Ebola outbreak extensively along with the political turmoil in the country.
A girl stands during a church service in Mangina, near Beni, in North Kivu province, on 19 August.
Supporters of Félix Tshisekedi, an opposition candidate for president, and his running mate, Vital Kamerhe, in Kinshasa on 27 November.
Internally displaced people push out a boat in Tchomia before setting off across Lake Albert to Uganda on 5 March.
Silvia Izquierdo
Silvia is the Associated Press chief photographer for Brazil, and has been working as a photographer in Rio de Janeiro since 2004, and has documented a dramatic year for Brazil including the election of Jair Bolsonaro, and continuted violence in the city.
A woman holds a fan that reads ‘No is no’ during carnival celebrations in Rio in February.
Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the frontrunner in the presidential election, sing the national anthem outside his residence in Rio on 28 October.
A protest in June against police operations in the favelas in Rio after the killing of children during shootouts between police and gangs.
Mustafa Hassona
His photograph of a man protesting in Gaza went viral in October, but Hassona has been documenting the protests in the Gaza Strip for several months for Anadolu Agency.
A girl cleans a classroom at a pre-school damaged in Israeli airstrikes in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City on 14 November.
Orthodox Christians attend the Palm Sunday procession in Gaza City on 1 April.
Farmers pack strawberries after harvesting in Beit Lahia, and right; volunteers clean up Port of Gaza, in December.
Hannah McKay
UK-based McKay has covered politics, the royal family, the NHS at 70, and travelled to Russia for the World Cup and Mexico to document the migrant caravan, amongst her her assignments for Reuters.
Stormzy performs at the Brit awards at the O2 Arena in London on 21 February.
A man flies a kite in Greenwich Park, London, on 25 July.
Theresa May and her husband, Philip, stand with Donald Trump his wife, Melania, at the entrance to Blenheim Palace near Oxford on 12 July. Right: A surgical team prepare a patient before an operation at Milton Keynes university hospital on 23 May.
John Moore
Moore has been covering the migration issue in the US and Mexico for many years and is a Getty Images senior staff photographer and special correspondent. His photograph of a young asylum seeker crying at the feet of a Texas border guard in June became emblematic of the contentious practice of separating children from their parents.
A two-year-old Honduran girl cries as her mother is searched and detained in McAllen, Texas, near the US-Mexico border, on 12 June.
A US Customs and Border Protection agent searches for undocumented immigrants during a helicopter patrol over the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico on 6 November. Right: Pro-immigration activists in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington DC on 7 February.
Leah Millis
Born in Denver, Millis is a senior photographer based in Washington DC covering the political beat for Reuters, following Donald Trump on presidential business and catching the media storm around Mark Zuckerberg as he testified on Capitol Hill, above.
Dancers perform during a midterm election night party for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams in Atlanta on 6 November.
Theresa May, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron and Shinzo Abe wait for Donald Trump to join them for a photo at the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Québec, Canada, on 8 June.
Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Morristown airport in New Jersey on 4 August. Right: The White House communications director, Hope Hicks, leaves the US Capitol after attending an intelligence committee meeting on 27 February.
Noel Celis
An Agence France-Presse photographer based in Manila, Celis has been covering everything from Typhoon Mangkhut to the overcrowded prison system, and we used his photos in a feature on the trolley boys.
People at the start line for the Underpants Run, the first of its kind in Manila, on 8 April.
Inmates play basketball in the Quezon City jail in suburban Manila on 25 September. Right: Children use a raft to cross a flooded alley in Calumpit, Bulacan, on 16 September after Typhoon Mangkhut.
A trolley boy pushing a homemade cart carrying passengers on a train track in Manila on 19 October.
Clodagh Kilcoyne
In addition to covering stories in Ireland such as the pope’s visit, summer in Galway and the Irish border issue in relation to Brexit, Kilcoyne has also travelled to document the Rohinghya refugee crisis in Bangladesh.
A Rohingya refugee girl named Romzida, eight, wearing thanaka paste, poses for a photo at Shamlapur camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, on 30 March.
People attend the World Meeting of Families closing mass in Phoenix Park, Dublin, August. Right: Theresa May and the DUP’s Arlene Foster visit Belleek pottery factory on the northern side of the Irish border on 19 July.
A man uses a torch to walk through a park during cold fog at night in Athboy, Ireland, October.
Owen Humphreys
Chances are if you have been reading UK weather stories over 2018 you have been looking at Humphreys’ pictures, such is his mastery of scenic and landscape work. He has also covered a wide variety of events from the World Cup to the autumn equinox for Press Assocation.
People walk along Tynemouth beach in north-east England on 19 September.
Jeremy Corbyn speaking at an event at Newcastle University on 17 March.
Penella Bee marks the autumn equinox at Druridge Bay in Northumberland before the annual North East Skinny Dip on 23 September.
Fans in the stands during a World Cup group match in St Petersburg on 19 June.
Nariman El-Mofty
A photojournalist based in Cairo for Associated Press, El-Mofty has covered the conflict in Yemen, domestic news in Egypt and the lifting of the driving ban in Saudi Arabia.
Hessah al-Ajaji drives along Tahlia Street in Riyadh after midnight on 24 June after restrictions on female drivers were lifted.
Umm Mizrah, 25, holds her son Mizrah on a scale at al-Sadaqa hospital in Aden, Yemen, on 13 February. Right: Gawad Awad, four months old and severely malnourished, lies in the lap of his mother, Heba Ahmed, at the same hospital.
Girls pose for a photo at a school turned into a camp for displaced people in Khanfar, Yemen, on 9 February.