This has been another year filled with news stories and photos that can often be difficult or disturbing to view. I’ve made it an annual tradition, after rounding up the “news photos of the year,” to compose an essay of uplifting images from the past 12 months—an effort to seek out and recognize some of the abundant joy and kindness present in the world around us. The following are images from the past year of personal victories, families and friends at play, expressions of love and compassion, volunteers at work, assistance being given to those in need, or simply small and pleasant moments.
Hopeful Images From 2019
-
-
At the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships, Guinea-Bissau's Braima Suncar Dabo (right) helps Aruba's Jonathan Busby to the finish line during the Men's 5000m heats at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on September 27, 2019. The two athletes were later awarded the Fair Play Award during the IAAF World Athletics awards ceremony. #
Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP / Getty -
A koala named Paul from Lake Innes Nature Reserve is treated for burns at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital on November 29, 2019, in Port Macquarie, Australia. Volunteers from the Koala Hospital have been working alongside National Parks and Wildlife Service crews searching for koalas following weeks of devastating bushfires across New South Wales and Queensland. #
Nathan Edwards / Getty -
Veterans interact with Alaskan Malamute sled dogs during the Phoenix Winter Games in Catterick Garrison in Richmond, England, on March 4, 2019. Kennels from the Alaskan Malamute Working Association have been providing sporting fun and excitement to injured service personnel and veterans as part of the Phoenix Winter Games at the Phoenix House Personnel Recovery Center in Catterick. #
Ian Forsyth / Getty -
-
Joan Stiltner, a 6-year-old from Chicago, helps hold a ball for the Chicago White Sox left fielder Joel Booker to autograph before the team's spring-training baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers in Glendale, Arizona, on March 7, 2019. #
Sue Ogrocki / AP -
Huseyin Yurtseven, a dentist living in Istanbul, is seen covering a stray dog with a blanket in Istanbul, Turkey, on January 21, 2019. Yurtseven, accompanied by friends, travels around the surrounding neighborhoods and covers sleeping stray animals with blankets to keep them warm during freezing nights on the streets of Istanbul. #
Unal Gundogdu / Anadolu Agency / Getty -
-
Hailey Wright, 12, tests a 3D-printed prosthetic arm made from recycled hair-salon waste by Bernie Craven, founder of Waste Free Systems, during a yoga class at Kilkivan State School in Kilkivan, Australia, on July 26, 2019. Craven is creating prosthetic limbs from recycled plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles, currently testing designs with two young participants who were both born without part of their left forearm and hand. Craven is a semi-retired hairdresser with over 40 years of industry experience and estimates that Australian hair salons produce between 40,000 and 50,000 tons of waste per year. #
Lisa Maree Williams / Getty -
-
Mohamed Salah of Liverpool plays on the pitch with his daughter, Makka, after the Premier League match between Liverpool F.C. and Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. at Anfield in Liverpool, England, on May 12, 2019. #
Catherine Ivill / Getty -
In this January 8, 2019, photo, inmate Jonathan Ladson cuddles with a chocolate lab puppy at Merrimack County Jail in Boscawen, New Hampshire. The New Hampshire jail is the first in the state to partner prisoners with the "Hero Pups" program to foster and train puppies with the goal of placing them with military veterans and first responders in need of support dogs. #
Elise Amendola / AP -
-
This photo provided by the California Highway Patrol shows a baby sea lion sitting in the back of a patrol car after being rescued along Highway 101 in South San Francisco on April 30, 2019. The pup had wandered onto a busy highway, stopping vehicles and alarming motorists before officials whisked it away. #
California Highway Patrol via AP -
A competitor stands onstage during the annual charity fundraiser "Beard and Mustache Battle" at Resident, a bar in Los Angeles, California, on August 31, 2019. More than 100 competitors took part, competing in 10 different categories. #
Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty -
-
Gavin Drysdale of Great Britain celebrates winning the Men's 100m RR3 race during day nine of the IPC World Para Athletics Championships 2019 in Dubai on November 15, 2019. #
Bryn Lennon / Getty -
-
-
Attendees maneuver a cart shaped like Darth Vader's TIE fighter from Star Wars, at the 2019 Los Angeles Comic-Con at the Los Angeles Convention Center on October 12, 2019. #
Chelsea Guglielmino / Getty -
Zeba Masood, an animal-rights activist, sits amid a group of dogs after they were rescued from the streets at the Lucky Animal Protection Shelter, a nonprofit organization providing temporary shelter to stray and abandoned dogs in Peshawar, Pakistan, on October 9, 2019. #
Fayaz Aziz / Reuters -
A girl plants a tree as people gather for a massive forestation campaign—over 11 million saplings were to be planted simultaneously across Turkey under the coordination of the Turkish Agriculture and Forest Ministry, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on November 11, 2019. #
Bestami Bodruk / Anadolu Agency / Getty -
-
Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball he was presented by a member of the Circus of Cuba during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican on January 2, 2019. #
Andrew Medichini / AP -
The double-amputee dog Cora Rose balances on her hind legs to watch Zach Skow repair her cart on a street in Washington, D.C., on May 15, 2019. Cora Rose serves in a California prisoner-therapy program founded by Skow called Pawsitive Change. #
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters -
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.