Whether experiencing a terrorist attack in Paris or fleeing war or political violence in Syria and Myanmar, 2015 was a tragic year for millions of people around the world.
Photojournalists work ceaselessly to capture these events and their effects on individuals, and photographers for Reuters were always on the scene, taking some of the year's most newsworthy and captivating photos.
But most of the time, we don't get the full story behind the photo; how it came to be and what the photographer had to do to capture that moment.
Here, a number of Reuters photographers reveal the stories behind some of 2015's most important pictures.
A note of warning: some of these photos feature scenes of injury or death.
Quotes edited for clarity.
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A migrant carrying a child falls after being tripped by TV camerawoman Petra Laszlo while trying to escape from a collection point in Roszke village, Hungary, September 8th, 2015.
"The camerawoman tripped the migrants on purpose. It came as quite a shock when I realized that. Police collected the migrants from the border with Serbia and then the migrants would wait for buses to take them to registration camps. The nearby camp had been full for days so buses didn’t arrive. After waiting more than 24 hours, migrants started demanding to leave. There were no more than 50 Hungarian police officers compared with about 1,000 migrants. A small group from Syria told me that in 15 minutes the migrants planned to run away and they needed journalists around, afraid the police would start beating them. Reuters colleagues and I watched and waited. After 15 minutes, on the command 'Yalla shabab!' ('Let’s go!') from someone the migrants ran in all directions. Caught by surprise, the police couldn’t stop them. I grabbed my 24-70mm lens, put it on wide open and ran. I saw a man carrying a child running away from a policeman. After about 15 meters the policeman grabbed him by his jacket; the man started shouting and the kid was crying. After a couple of seconds the young policeman let him go. The man started running again. Suddenly, not more than 5 metres away, he fell over the child he was carrying. Thankfully they were unhurt.
When I edited my pictures, I saw a camerawoman in the frame when he fell. I remember sitting with my phone in a hotel in Szeged soon afterwards watching a low-quality news video of the same thing from a different angle. I realized I had the whole tripping sequence on my laptop. It became a huge story that lasted for days, with pictures published everywhere. Reuters was the only one that had still images of that moment." - Marko Djurica
Migrants collect rainwater at a temporary refugee camp near Kanyin Chaung jetty, in Myanmar, on June 4th, 2015.
"This group of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants were rescued from a boat carrying 734 people off Myanmar's southern coast. Those on board had been at sea for more than two months — at the end with little food or water. The men in this photo were part of a group of 400 crammed into a warehouse by Myanmar police. They had arrived the day before, but while the women, children, and some men had already been moved, these men were left behind. There was no sign of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR or foreign aid agencies. Just moments before this shot, the sky opened and the monsoon rains started coming down. The men were jostling with each other for space to catch water in their bottles and plates. The authorities were hesitant to grant us access at first, but as the morning wore on and the rains started, we were able to enter and start photographing and speaking to migrants. Just after taking this photo, the men were loaded into buses and trucks and driven to a camp where international aid agencies were waiting. I have worked on long and difficult assignments where I have gone days without a proper shower. But for these people it had been months without enough water. Everyone was dirty and had likely washed little while at sea. I could see just how meaningful it was for them to suddenly have a chance to drink and clean themselves with whatever small amount of water they could capture." - Soe Zeya Tun
Syrian migrants cross under a fence into Hungary at the border with Serbia, near Roszke, August 27th, 2015.
"Rail tracks, unguarded, line the border with Serbia. Most refugees used the tracks, a few miles long, as a highway into Hungary. I arrived at the border every day at 6am. The crossing was the only spot still not blocked. A triple coil of razor wire was up everywhere else as Hungary prepared to fence off the border. The rail crossing was easy enough but many migrants chose to jump the fence to avoid the police waiting a few hundred meters inside. The razors were not too sharp to handle with heavy gloves. Dozens of other photographers and I paced the fence, some way from the rail tracks. Among the shrubs we could make out the contours of migrants waiting for the right moment. Everyone watched everyone else. We watched the refugees, who watched the police, who watched us. It was like an elaborate board game. It was more than just waiting. The people on the other side of the fence filled the atmosphere with strange, unspeakable tension. This family decided they had waited enough. They started for the fence. Aware of the stakes, they lifted the razor wire, looked around, then went for it. Once across they vanished in the woods. I never saw them again. Photographing the migrants was the ultimate test of staying out of the story: observe keenly, wait, shoot. Don't cut the wire, don’t invite the refugees in, don't alert the police. There was little human contact with the thousands of refugees scaling the fence. You learnt nothing about them. They came and went. But those who walked along the tracks stopped and talked. They accepted water or the odd chocolate bar. They even shared stories — stories that will haunt me forever. There is no way to shake the emotional impact. Once I put the camera down and had time to reflect it all came back. You have to let the story wash through you to remain human." - Bernadette Szabo
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