Floating doves to sunken ships: 18 of the most striking images of 2025

Warning: This article contains imagery that some may find distressing.

1. Skydiver, Arizona

A remarkable image captured by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy of his friend skydiving – silhouetted against an intensely textured snap of the morning Sun in Arizona on 8 November – caught the world’s imagination. There was no room for error, as every aspect of the carefully calibrated stunt had to go precisely as planned – a synchronicity of solar elevation, timing and plunging acrobatics. Quickly christened “The Fall of Icarus”, after the Greek mythological story of the boy whose wings melted when he flew too close to the Sun, the photograph vividly recharges a long tradition in art history, from Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the 16th Century to Henri Matisse in the 20th, of depicting the overreaching youth’s tragic descent.

2. Mountaineer, Nepal

A photo of a French mountaineer in October, winding his difficult way towards the summit of Jannu East, an especially challenging 7,468m (24,501ft) Himalayan peak in Nepal, was widely shared online. Increasingly, avid climbers have found themselves scouring Nepal’s mountains looking for as-yet-uncharted paths to their alluring peaks. Dwarfed by the timeless pleats of ice and rock that starkly sculpt the mountain, the mountaineer’s imposing surroundings are as menacing as they are sublime.

3. Destroyed pagoda, Myanmar

7. Monks praying, Thailand

A photo of monks praying beneath the vast golden dome of Wat Phra Dhammakaya during the yearly ceremony of Makha Bucha in February is breathtaking in its ethereal glow. Tens of thousands of monks and devotees, many holding lanterns, assemble to commemorate the Buddha’s first great teaching.