“This is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen. It is also a nightmarish time. Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both”, Rebecca Solnit – writer, activist and all-round dream dinner party guest – wrote earlier this year. I couldn’t have put it better myself.
Whichever way you cut it, 2016 has been a seismic year. As the global migrant crisis has unfolded in unimaginable horror across the world, an ugly rise in hate crime and alt-right mentality has swelled in the wake of Brexit and Trump, and devastating new developments in climate change studies have emerged, you’d be right in thinking that this year has been a particularly terrible one.
If the events of this year (and history, in general) have taught us anything though, it’s that in times of uncertainty, action is key. Counteracting the darkness that has plagued this year have been great swathes of motivated and altruistic human responses to suffering – from small acts of solidarity like the #IllWalkWithYou hashtag trend that surfaced in August after two Muslim men were fatally shot in New York, to a number of remarkable, overwhelming human rights achievements. The Polish parliament rejected plans for an abortion ban after thousands took to the streets in a nationwide protest on October 3rd, and later in the year, permission to drill through sacred lands at Standing Rock for the Dakota Access Pipeline was denied in a huge victory for activists and Native Americans that had spent months fighting the cause.
“Your opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away”, Solnit advises us. “Together we are very powerful, and we have a seldom-told, seldom-remembered history of victories and transformations that can give us confidence that, yes, we can change the world, because we have many times before.”
In this album, Refinery29 looks back at some of the pictures that moved us, inspired us and stayed with us in 2016, and celebrates both the people that remind us that there is beauty in the world, and those that continue to make sure important stories are heard.
Photographed by Andrea Dicenzo
Dicenzo:
“This image is from the village of Shirqat, Iraq. This little girl was probably the most excited anyone has ever been getting her photo taken (certainly that I have photographed, anyway). Her village had been retaken from ISIS by the Iraqi forces the day prior. I joined a convoy from the Iraqi army 15th division with their General – General al-Jabouri – as they visited the newly retaken villages the day after fighting subsided. The village fell quickly and there wasn’t much damage. The family prepared a massive lunch for the Iraqi army. Jabouri spoke to us that day about the importance of winning the people's hearts, not just the battle. He says this is how wars are truly won. That’s what he was doing this day, sitting down and breaking bread with the village elders. This little girl loved her photo being taken. Her unbridled enthusiasm – actually screaming with laughter – had me beside myself in laughter. It was the best moment in a tense day.”
Photo: Courtesy of Andrea Dicenzo.
Photographed by Sohrab Hura
In this powerful portrait, Sohrab Hura portrays Dutee Chand, a sprinter who didn't qualify to compete as a woman in the Olympics due to the presence of natural testosterone.
Hura:
“What struck me the most was how all the other younger junior athletes around her, both girls and boys, looked up to Dutee Chand. It wasn’t just about her being a star athlete amongst them but more so the way she had carried herself through all the noise around her high-profile sex test that had made her a hero in their eyes.”
Photo: © Sohrab Hura/Magnum Photos.
Photographed by Daniel Shea
Shea:
“This photograph was taken during Pride NYC in 2016 which took place shortly after the Orlando nightclub tragedy. There was a walking memorial for the victims, with one marcher for each person lost. There was a palatable sense of not just the severity and cruelty of the act but also the scale of the tragedy, which felt abstract before experiencing this memorial in person.”
You can read the original story that Shea’s photographs accompanied here.
Photo: Courtesy of Daniel Shea.
Photographed by Harley Weir
Harley Weir visited the migrant and refugee camps of Calais between the 17th and 28th October of this year. While there, she spent time making a sensitive and moving set of images that offered a quieter, more human take on the Jungle; and the small, but personal spaces people had carved out for themselves – and for others – while there. The resulting photographs were printed in a book called Homes, published with Loose Joints. All proceeds from the book went to La Cimade, a French charity committed to protecting and defending the human rights of refugees and migrants.
Photo: Courtesy of Harley Weir.
Photographed by Amy Courtney
Courtney:
“This image was taken at the end of a two-week trip to Tanzania with The Eleanor Foundation – a Guernsey-based charity concerned with getting clean water and sanitation into rural parts of Tanzania. I saw some painful things when there – people were sick, and still, in 2016, are having to drink dirty, contaminated water as that’s all they have access to. But, I also met some of the most content and happy people I’ve ever come across. This was the third and final day of a wedding, after the most incredible celebrations. I was overcome with the love that was in the air – for each other, for the place they lived and for everyone there that was celebrating with them. It was truly beautiful.”
Photo: Courtesy of Amy Courtney.
Photographed by Laurence Rasti
Rasti:
“On September 24th 2007 at Columbia University, the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, 'In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country'. While today some Occidental countries accept gay and lesbian marriage, in Iran, homosexuality is still punishable by death. This sanction prohibits homosexuals to live their own sexuality. Their only options are to choose transsexuality (a practice tolerated by law but considered as pathological) or to flee. One of the main reasons to leave is to be able to love freely, and so most of the time people flee as couples. In Denizli, a small town in Turkey, hundreds of gay Iranian refugees wait: they put their lives on pause, waiting to one day join a host country where they can freely live their sexualities. In this context of uncertainty, where anonymity is the best protection, my photographic work with them this year questions the fragility of identity and gender concepts. Despite the political situation, and the difficult memories, I focused here on the current situation of couples that I met and the palpable sense of hope. There is the promise of being able to freely experience their sexual orientation and their love, beyond gender when they flee. We construct the images together lightly. In this picture you can see a couple dressed as they would to get married, which is their wish once they make it to Canada.”
Photo: Courtesy of Laurence Rasti.
Photographed by Poulomi Basu
Basu:
“I want to show you a moving portrait I took of Saliha Ben Ali, whose departed son left home to join ISIS from Molenbeek, Belgium. It is understood a mother is often the first to recognise behavioural changes in their children and perhaps better placed to counteract it. This photo is important to me perhaps because it is an emotionally layered portrait of a mother who is grieving the death of a son in a society that does not allow you to mourn. I am showing you this photograph because Saliha is no ordinary woman. She and some other mothers of foreign fighters have now galvanised into lobbying groups and much work is now taking place with the mothers as key partners in the fight against extremism. This photograph is a reminder of situations that are within our power to change if we listen and don't suppress voices.”
Photo: Courtesy of POULOMI BASU.
Photographed by Mico Toledo
Toledo:
“In 2016, an unprecedented number of North American tribes gathered at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to oppose the build of an oil pipeline crossing sacred Sioux lands and the Missouri river. The gathering that started with around 200 protesters snowballed to more than 5,000 people battling the harsh ND winter in the three camps surrounding the river. After more than 10 months of protests and violent clashes with the police, these water protectors and natives stood victorious when the Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement for the oil pipeline to cross the river. I shot this image way before the victory was announced, but regardless, this image for me represents the pinnacle moment of pride and rebirth of a culture and race. You can see the strength of all native American tribes sparkling in the eyes of this young kid. For many years native Americans were forgotten and ill-treated by the US government, deemed unworthy of the same rights as other Americans. They had their culture and language almost erased and confined to reservations. Finally, at Standing Rock they again felt pride and purpose, setting a precedent for other tribes around the US, with a message of 'We matter, our culture matters, our lands matter.'"
Photo: Courtesy of MICO TOLEDO.
Photographed by Ryan Shorosky
Shorosky:
"In October of 2016 I worked on a story for Vogue about women who compete in the rodeo in an event called barrel racing. The opportunity came about as I have spent the past six months in and around rodeos and the niche of western lifestyle that exists in areas like southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. The aura of rodeos and cowboys is something that is firmly rooted in American culture but what draws my attention to these cowgirls specifically, is their noticeable strength and determination towards living an honest and hardworking life. Many of them work full-time jobs during the week in order to be able to saddle up on the weekends and travel from show to show. And for me personally, they have become not only a source of that strength and determination, but continue to help remind me that the simplicities of life are the things that bind us all together."
Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Shorosky.
Photographed by Jerome Sessini
Magnum photographer Jerome Sessini took this shot, of a mother and daughter wearing the traditional Abaya, on May 15th, at the RAMF (Rassemblement Annuel des Musulmans de France or “Annual Meeting of French Muslims”) in Le Bourget. The picture was taken shortly after international outrage spread when a woman was told to take off her burkini on a beach in Nice.
Photo: © Jerome Sessini/Magnum Photos.
Photographed by Robert Zhao Renhui
Singapore-based Robert Zhao Renhui runs a project called the Institute of Critical Zoologists. Through his lens and his creative experimentation, we’ve learnt all sorts of things about the flora and fauna of the world. This year, he’s been spending time studying the ecology of Christmas Island.
Renhui:
“The nearly 150 years of human settlement have introduced a number of invasive species onto the island. Not only do these newcomers threaten some of the island’s most imperiled species, such as the Abbott’s Booby and Christmas Island Gecko, they have also caused the extinction of other species.” Sharing this particular picture, Renhui tells us, “The last stray dog on Christmas Island was seen on this spot in 2012, shortly after the beginning of the Cat Eradication Program. There are currently no dogs left on Christmas Island.”
Photo: Courtesy of ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI.
Photographed by Stefanie Moshammer
Moshammer:
“This diptych of images is from a wider project I have been working on called Land of Black Milk. With it, I set out to explore the people and circumstances in and around the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The portrait here shows Patricia. I met her on the beach, close to Vidigal, a favela located in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro (and that’s also where she lives). She looked so beautiful, I felt the urge to talk to her. She told me she always comes here after work to take a bath in the sea. She works in the Downtown area of Rio – the epicentre of the asphalted urban jungle. She’s lived in Vidigal all her life, she told me, together with her family. Since 2011, Vidigal is pacified by the PPU (police) and house prices are rising constantly. It’s one of the closest favelas to the beach, and the real estate market is trying to make use of that. The other photograph shows Favela Santo Amaro, pacified by Forca Nacional; but still occupied by Comando Vermelho (one of the main criminal organisations in Rio de Janeiro). The spray of gun shots in the wall happened just a few months ago.”
Photo: Courtesy of STEFANIE MOSHAMMER.
Photographed by Wiktor Dabkowski
Dabkowski:
“This picture shows Polish women holding the Black Protest (Czarny Protest) against a planned ban on abortion. About 500 Polish workers of the EU institutions gathered at the European quarter in Brussels, Belgium on 03.10.2016 to demonstrate against an effort to criminalise abortion in Poland. Women living abroad widely supported protests in their home country. Thousands of them in more than 60 cities refused to work and got out on the streets. After the wave of protests the controversial law was withdrawn from the parliament. The proposal of the almost total ban of the abortion came from the citizens' initiative, which gathered 450K signatures and was supported by the catholic church.”
Photo: Courtesy of WIKTOR DABKOWSKI.
Photographed by Yoshinori Mizutani
We turn to Japanese photographer Yoshinori Mizutani’s work when we want to find the magic in the everyday. For the past three years, he has been making our eyes pop with surreal and otherworldly images of birds in Tokyo.
Mizutani:
“This is from my third series of images about birds which are breeding in the city. The birds you see here circling in the sky are starlings, which have begun abnormally breeding in Setagaya, Tokyo. I became increasingly interested in this phenomenon after shooting the strange infestation of parrots in Tokyo a couple of years ago. Starlings have started to fly over to Tokyo and inhabit there as they lost their roost because of the development of the city.”
Photo: Courtesy of Yoshinori Mizutani.
Photographed by Matthew Connors
Connors:
“This picture was made in the shadow of Trump Tower days after this year’s presidential election. The dynamics of non-violent conflict are subtle and complex, but they need to be reinvented for every crisis. Any chance to influence the direction of politics now hinges on the emergence of new protest vocabularies and tactical repertoires. Good intentions will not be sufficient to safeguard progress.”
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