Our favourite photography stories of 2020
- Text by HUCK HQ
- Photography by Terra Fondriest
This year, Huck has covered photography all over the world.
We’ve explored life in the Ozarks, family dynamics in Yokohama City, and revelled in the romance of Europe during the 1970s and ’80s.
We’ve published visual essays from some of photography’s biggest names, too: from Cengiz Yar’s reflection on the quiet moments between assignments during his time in Iraq, to Ying Ang’s stunning piece on motherhood.
Here are favourites from 2020.
The real Ozarks: a portrait of rural life in modern America
Terra Fondriest documents life in her region with an unmatched intimacy – a challenge in a place awash with stereotypes. But the mother, firefighter and ranch worker is no outsider. She’s simply capturing what she knows.

© Terra Fondriest
A humorous look at Japanese family life, in photos
For over a decade, photographer Motoyuki Daifu has been documenting the lives of his loved ones, seeking out quiet moments of magic among the mundane.

© Motoyuki Daifu
A visual history of the Lower East Side
Photographer Karen O’Sullivan remembers the neighbourhood’s gritty, pre-gentrification glory days.

© Karen O’Sullivan
A journey through the ever-shifting state of motherhood
Motherhood, of all the stories we possess, is perhaps the most well-known. But for photographer Ying Ang, no corner of culture – no books, films or art – captured the implosion that transformed her world. It demanded a new way of seeing.

© Ying Ang
Portraits that capture three decades of Black culture
Photographer Liz Johnson Artur – a self-described ‘product of migration’ – has been capturing the African diaspora since 1986.

© Liz Johnson Artur
Adventures across Europe in the 1970s and ’80s
Photographer Sergio Purtell spent years travelling the continent at length, capturing a romantic world of motels, cafes, beaches and bars.

© Sergio Purtell
Events that changed the course of history, in photos
What do real turning points look like? The world’s best photographers pick out the most powerful images from their archive.

© Magnum Photos / Thomas Hoepker
Chris Killip’s timeless portrait of working class culture
For three decades, the seminal photographer’s shots of an old anarcho-punk club sat gathering dust in a box. However, in the cold light of day they’ve taken on new meaning.

© Chris Killip
A conflict photographer reflects on his time in Iraq
Photographer Cengiz Yar has seen things – from the rebels’ battle to oust Assad in Syria, to the human fallout of conflict in Iraq. But it was away from the frontlines that he truly came to value a universal right: having a patch to call one’s own.

© Cengiz Yar
Capturing the secrets of the New York City subway
For two decades, Patrick Cashin worked as the MTA’s official photographer, documenting the ins and outs of one of the world’s busiest transit systems.

© Patrick Cashin
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Youthful joy & end-of-era poignancy at a London school prom
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Inside Lower Duck Pond, the nicest town on the internet
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A major Nan Goldin exhibition is coming to London
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Tender portraits of women serving life sentences in America
Looking Inside — While working as a public defender attorney in New York State, Sara Bennett found dilapidated prisons and forgotten people. Her new photobook harnesses the power of images and shines a humanising light on those imprisoned for serious crimes and their reintegration into society, while asking questions of the USA’s incarceration system.
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