Some weeks produce a concentration of defining images that demand careful attention. The world press photos from late January 2025 form exactly that kind of collection — eighteen frames spanning continents, cultures, and crises, each one a precise document of a moment that mattered. From the jubilant streets of Manila to a quiet flower resting on stone in Berlin, this set covers the breadth of the human story.
Lunar New Year of the Snake: A Continent Celebrates
On January 29, 2025, hundreds of millions of people across Asia bid farewell to the Year of the Dragon and welcomed the Year of the Snake. The scale of the festivities produced some of the week’s most visually striking imagery.
In Manila’s Chinatown, photographer Ted Aljibe captured dragon dancers weaving through packed streets, their costumes a blur of colour and motion against the urban backdrop.
Hong Kong marked the occasion with street parades on January 29, photographed by Peter Parks, and two days later, on January 30, fireworks transformed Victoria Harbour into a cascading wall of light — captured from two different vantage points by Man Hei Leung for Anadolu/Getty Images and by Lam Yik for Reuters.
In Bangkok, Lillian Suwanrumpha photographed a woman posing at a candlelit shrine on the first day of the new year — a quieter, more intimate expression of the same celebration.
Singapore offered its own moment of devotion. Caroline Chia’s Reuters image shows worshippers racing to plant the first joss stick of the new year at Leong Nam temple at the stroke of midnight on January 28.
By January 31, celebrations had moved to Beijing’s temple fairs, where Greg Baker photographed crowds gathering to watch lion dancers perform, marking the third day of the Lunar New Year.
For more defining images from this period, see our collection of best world press photos from early January 2025.
Maha Kumbh Mela: Faith and Tragedy at Prayagraj
The world’s largest religious gathering, the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj, India, produced one of the week’s most haunting images — and one of its gravest news events. Arun Sankar photographed Naga Sadhus, Hindu holy men, immersing themselves in the Sangam, the sacred confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers, on the auspicious occasion of Mauni Amavasya on January 29.
That same day, a pre-dawn stampede at the festival killed at least 30 people after a surging crowd broke through a police cordon and trampled bystanders.
Conflict and Protest: From Syria to Tennessee
Grief in Northeastern Syria
Bernat Armangue’s AP Photo from the village of Daoudiya in Hassakeh province documents a deeply personal moment of loss. On January 29, a man mourned at the funeral of four Syrian Democratic Forces fighters, among them Ibrahim al-Hamad, who had been killed by a Turkish-backed militia. The image is a stark reminder of the ongoing human cost of the conflict in northeastern Syria.
Immigration Debate in Nashville
In Nashville, Tennessee, on January 29, George Walker IV photographed Ashley Warbington being physically removed from a House committee meeting on immigration by state troopers. She was holding a sign reading “keep families together.” According to the Associated Press, at least three women were ejected from the meeting that day.
Ultra-Orthodox Protest in Tel Aviv
On January 28 in Tel Aviv, Mostafa Alkharouf photographed Haredi, or Ultra-Orthodox Jewish, demonstrators protesting against military conscription. Dressed in their traditional black suits, white shirts, and fedora hats, the protesters blocked a city street and staged a sit-in. The demonstration turned confrontational when Israeli police intervened.
Environmental Protest in Mexico City
Environmentalists and activists opposed to a gas project in the Gulf of California — which they argue poses a serious threat to whale populations — marched to Mexico City’s Zócalo main square on January 29. Henry Romero photographed their arrival for Reuters.
Paris Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2025
Paris hosted its Haute Couture shows during the final days of January, and three major houses produced images that entered the week’s broader visual record.
On January 27, designer Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her Spring/Summer 2025 collection for Christian Dior, photographed by Benoit Tessier for Reuters.
On January 28, Giorgio Armani Privé unveiled its Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2025 collection. Lewis Joly’s image for AP shows a model in one of the collection’s signature looks.
Jean Paul Gaultier followed on January 29, with another Lewis Joly photograph documenting the house’s bold Haute Couture offering for the same season.
Heritage, Memory, and Innovation
Up Helly Aa in the Shetland Isles
On January 28, Lerwick on the Shetland Isles hosted the annual Up Helly Aa festival, celebrating the islands’ Norse heritage. Jane Barlow photographed Guizer Jarl Calum Grains and the Jarl Squad standing with their Viking galley by the harbour. The festival, which dates to the 1880s, sees more than 1,000 torches lit on the last Tuesday of January, with two processions — one in the morning and one in the evening — marking the occasion.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
On January 27, 2025 — the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp — a single flower resting on a concrete slab at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin served as the subject for Markus Schreiber’s AP Photo. The simplicity of the image carries considerable weight on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Robotics at Digital Almaty 2025
On January 31 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Pavel Mikheyev captured an unexpected juxtaposition for Reuters: a staff member cleaning the floor directly beside a row of robots at the Digital Almaty 2025 technology forum — a quietly ironic image from the frontier of automation.
This set sits within a broader body of exceptional photojournalism from the opening month of the year. Explore the best press photos of January 2025 in Set 10 for further coverage of this remarkable period.
A Week Framed in Eighteen Photographs
Taken together, these images from late January 2025 demonstrate what photojournalism does best: compress vast, complex events — wars, festivals, protests, rituals, runways — into single, legible frames. Each photograph here was made by a working journalist under real conditions, and each one holds its ground as a document of a world in motion.
