The Right to Play by Raquel Natalicchio
This photo was taken on a hot summer day in New York City. Children and adults alike spent the day, cooling off, and playing in park fountains. The codification of the human right to play into international human rights law was no mistake. Play is fundamental to the human experience. It is an irreplaceable means of expression that promotes dignity, health, education and maximized human potential.
Love Survives by Carol Guzy
Resiliency in the Haitian spirit is evident as a couple tenderly hold hands as they walk past burning debris and bodies during the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 18, 2010. Desperate residents took goods from destroyed stores in the rubble of the marketplace. (Jan. 18, 2010: Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Untitled by Colin Finlay
After the cease fire, children close to the front lines play jump rope with an old piece of telephone wire. Resilience and the ability to overcome their circumstances leads to fleeting moments of pure joy. (1996: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Holding Hands by Vicky Markolefa
Girls attend an empowerment workshop against Female Genital Mutilation in Tamale, Kenya, 2013. In this shot, girls sing to give each other hope and courage to endure societal pressure and stigma. It is estimated that over 1 million girls annually are in danger because of FGM. (2013: Tamale, Kenya)
While Waiting for Resilience by Sabrina Pantano
Turin, former abandoned Olympic village and now occupied by immigrants. In this shot there is the common expectation. Resilence towards a new future. (Turin, Italy)
"Handstand" by Carl Juste
The athletic Wilfred Macena does a handstand after working out with a soccer ball practicing using his new prosthetic leg. Macena, 25, a welder, mechanic, and part-time soccer coach, is a quick learner and started walking with his prosthetic leg within an hour after being fitted. Three months after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, some Haitian amputees are part of a handful of quake survivors who are learning how to walk again. (April, 6, 2020: Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
HURRIYA by Ambra Pompei
The children come from refugee camps in the Western Sahara desert, located in the province of Tindouf, Algeria. Every year, groups of children of the Saharawi people are welcomed by various associations to spend the summer here. I don't know how they are, what they do, how much they have grown but I know the history of this people, who have been fighting for freedom for too many years now.
If I think of the word Hope, those children and their deep looks always come to mind. Their happy smiles come to mind when they spent their days with us swimming in the river and having family dinners, but the biggest smile I saw when they were leaving for the desert, a place where there is practically nothing, refugee camps without light or running water, but for them there is everything. It's home. "I am happy to go home, I miss mum." I believed all summer that I could give them something, and instead it was they who gave it to me. (2011: Manziana, Italy)
Untitled by Tariq Zaidi
A woman stands at the windows of the abandoned Ministry of Finance building (an occupied building/squat at the time this image was made) in the ‘Favela’ Mangueira community, North Zone, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the unique social formations in such insecure communities, which are driven by dignity, pride, and fundamentally by the human spirit, where hope for the future lies. It is in moments of crisis that the greatest solidarity can be found. Hope is the only possible existence, it is all we have in the face of disaster. (April 25, 2017: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Looking Back by C.W. Griffin
A visitor to the Wynwood walls area of Miami, strikes a pose that now conjures up a different set of emotions than it would’ve proir to the lost and social distancing associated with Covid-19. (Sept. 26, 2016: Miami, Florida)
"Safe Passage" by Joshua Prezant
Four‐year‐old Joseph Fuchs, right, returns to the area near his home in the H2 section of Hebron, Israel, after a short trip on his tricycle to the Arab area just outside of the checkpoint. In the H2 part, where more than 500 Jewish families and students live among 30,000 Palestinians, movement by Palestinians is restricted due to the threat of terrorist attacks, according to the Israeli government. (2000: Hebron, Israel)
Untitled by Kirsten Lewis
When Ava Benach's daughter Paloma expressed an interest in playing baseball, she scoured the city in attempts to find a team for her to join. When Ava realized there wasn't a program dedicated to girl's baseball in the Nation's capital she decided to build one. Pictured here, Paloma Benach and Brittany Apgar, the team's one-handed pitching phenom, celebrate their win during the Baseball For All Championships in Rockford, Illinois in August of 2018, clinching the national title for their team the DC Force. (August 2018: Rockford, Illinois)
Reaching by Chantal Lawrie
Image captured during COVID-19 times. Freedom has a new meaning. Animals roam free while humans stay inside. These images were made as a collection for postcards to my family. Hoping to remember all the lessons these pandemic has taught us already. And hoping to change our mistakes once this is over. (2020: Miami, Florida)
Hoping to work in the fields by Richard Street
An old bracero, Pedro Martinez, 54, waits in the Customs House near the US-Mexico border in Calexico, CA after meeting the requirements to be admitted under a special agricultural workers program. (May 12, 1988. Calexico, Calif.)
“Redemption” by Maria Daniel Balcazar
(2015: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Antique Showdown by Erica Robinson
A friendly show-down between a young visitor and Don Robertson, the owner of Jerome Arizona’s Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. Robertson was a passionate collector of all things antique, from trucks to signage to dentistry tools. He built the tourist attraction on a hill a mile above neighboring Jerome, Arizona. My first visit was back in 2010 when I briefly met Robertson. The boy had grabbed an old tricycle from a barn and was riding up the dirt path, when Robertson rode up next to him. The young boy stared at him in such genuine awe. while I know there was nothing but pure joy in the moment for Don. Don spent nearly every day in his masterpiece town and hoped to share it with anyone who had mutual love for American history. I can see his hopes of sharing his town with future generations being fulfilled. Don Robertson passed away on October 17, 2016. (March 29, 2010: Jerome, Arizona)
The Quiet World of Aging- Charles, 90 by Melinda Reyes
Charles has lived an extraordinary life, never allowing obstacles to hinder him. With age and various health issues, he lost his ability to walk and slowly became bedridden. His bed became his new home and he works beautifully within its confines and parameters. However, this was not an easy process. He felt his body betrayed him, and he became isolated from a world he was not ready to leave. He had to reconcile with a new version of life and through doing so found happiness again. (2019: Boston, Massachusetts.)
"Embraced in hope" by Maria Daniel Balcazar
A young boy looks up to the sky embraced by “Nosso senhor do Bonfim” (Our Lord of Good Endings) ribbons. There are 12 colors which represent different African Gods, standing for hope in our different needs.(2017: Bahia, Brazil)
Proud Chef by Kirth Bobb
A proud Haitian woman in her kitchen in the middle of Port of Prince Haiti.
Untitled by Maria Daniel Balcazar
Guarayo women spinning cotton yarn. This handcraft and weaving are transmitted through generations, as strength is maintained through togetherness and joy in family since before colonial times in the Bolivian Amazon Region. (2018: Ascencion de Guarayos, Bolivia)
Untitled by Kirsten Lewis
Amir and Morgan Razi had tried for five years to get pregnant and on their second attempt at IVF, they succeeded. At about 13 weeks into the pregnancy, they went in for a routine ultrasound and the tech could not detect a heartbeat. A week later they went back to the doctor’s office to have the miscarried fetus removed. But minutes before the procedure, the devastated Razis demanded a final ultrasound to confirm the loss of their daughter. Doctors and techs were shocked to discover, not only a healthy heartbeat, but a very active and healthy baby. Because of her parents' hope, love and intuition Farrah's life was saved moments before a fatal procedure and is healthy and thriving today. (Oct. 23, 2019: Denver, Colorado)
"Sign of Hope" by Jeffery A. Salter
A small sprout breaks through the dry dirt where a program to fight deforestation has been implemented in the Northern Frontier area of Haiti. Deforestation caused by trees were cut for charcoal. Some used to build boats for shipping cargo and for transporting Haitians to American shores. (1992 - Northern Frontier, Haiti)
Untitled by Laura Oliverio
My brother bites his nails, a nervous habit I also did when I was 13. Once the anxiety passes, he’ll grow out of it too. (2019: Mount Kisco, New York)
For this series of images I focused on hope through the lens of childhood. Although there are a lot of ups and downs during this time, it is the one phase of life where truly anything feels possible.
Bare Essentials by Carol Guzy
Two Nomad women embrace as they carry a baby from their tent in the harsh desert sands of Mali, West Africa in 1997. Desert wanderers, the Nomadic Tuareg people of Africa live isolated from society with a resilience of spirit and survival. Their life is one of tradition, spent roaming the Sahara by camel with their meager belongings. They have no television, no toilets, no telephone. Most have never seen a photograph. It is a life of simplicity spent in the brutal heat of an unforgiving land. A life handed down from generation to generation over the centuries. As one young Nomad boy said, “I enjoy my life,” he says. “I like taking care of the camels. I don’t know the world. The world is where I am”. (1997: Mali, West Africa)
Still Smiling by Claire Thomas
In a displacement camp in northern Iraq, internally displaced children are delighted by visiting clowns. The entertainers are Danish and Swedish, and form a humanitarian collective called Clowns 4 Care, which travels to crisis areas around the world with the goal of creating positive experiences and happy memories for children. (Iraq)
Tamo Junto, Amiga by Ellis Rua
A child helps another float in the waters of Piscinão de Ramos, an artificial beach in Maré, a favela in Rio de Janeiro's north zone Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. Although the beach is poorly maintained by authorities, to many visitors, who are mostly black and from the city's marginalized communities, the Piscinão is a blessing in a region where summer temperatures often hover in the high 90's. Rather than spending hours stuck on public transportation en route to Rio’s world-famous beaches like Ipanema and Copacabana, beachgoers can cool down in what is essentially their backyard. Additionally, the Piscinão provides a safe haven for Brazilians from Rio's favelas, who are often discriminated against and targeted by police at tourist magnet beaches located in upper-middle class and wealthy neighborhoods. (Feb. 3, 2019: Rio de Janiero, Brazil)
Untitled by Swarat Ghosh
A boy who is working in his makeshift shop selling idols getting rained on. But he is fighting out as if he is praying to Lord Ganesha in the background that "Oh! lord, please give me the power and patience to fight me out of this calamity". He is not battling out only for himself but also for his family. (August 2015: Hyderabad, India)
RickyRenuncia by Erik Kruthoff
Peaceful protestors take to the streets of Old San Juan, demanding Puerto Rico's Governor, Ricardo Rosello, to resign after a series of political disasters in the Summer of 2019. He eventually resigned and no deaths or major injuries were reported. (2019: San Juan, Puerto Rico)
Pride by Chantal Lawrie
Pride parade in Miami. Celebrating people's right to choose who to love with no judgment from others. (2019: Miami, Florida)
Before and After by Ken Cedeno
A BEFORE and AFTER photo of Maria Francis Aleman Guardado, 11, who underwent plastic surgery for her cleft lip and cleft palate from Central American Medical Outreach volunteer plastic surgeon Dr. Lester Mohler and his team at Occidente Hospital. (Feb. 20, 2017: Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras)
Freedom by Carol Guzy
“Permission will be given at short notice [for] private journeys [to the West].” -Guenter Schabowski, Communist propaganda official.
In November, 1989 East German leaders made one of the most momentous political decisions in recent memory. The opening of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Cold War. With the fall of the Berlin Wall came unbridled exultation and the reunification of families and friends long held apart by this hated symbol of communism, division and repression. The first part of the wall removed was at Potsdamer Platz as the crowd bears witness to one of the most important historical events of our time. East Germans poured into West Berlin, many for the first time in their lives tasting freedom and renewed hope for the future. (November 1989: Berlin, East Germany)
Untitled by Aggelos Barai
A girl from Afghanistan swings outside the Moria refugee camp on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, on October 2019.
The photographs I present are part of the immigration and refugee issue in Greece, one of the long-term issues I am working on in the last years. I am dealing with these issues through my own personal history of immigration, as my family and I came from Albania to Greece in 1998. Coming here, I faced both the dark side of the immigrant situation such as racism and misery and the beautiful feelings of freedom, hope and solidarity wherever I show you in the photos I present to you. This led to my curiosity to research to record the daily lives of refugees and immigrants in Greece. (October 2019: Lesbos, Greece)
I Am a Man by Carl Juste
Elmore Nickelberry stands defiant and proud much like he did forty years ago during the Memphis' Sanitation Workers Strike in protest of the death and treatment of fellow workers.
Bearing a sign that declares equal treatment forty years ago His son, Terrence Nickelberry carries on his father's legacy. Both Nickelberrys are still working for the Memphis Sanitation Department.
The boy who kept running by Chantal Lawrie
In a world sometimes troubled and chaotic. This image reminds me the innocence and perseverance of childhood. Teaching them that obstacles might be in their path, but that should not stop them. (2019: Buenos Aires, Argentina)
A New Horizon by Sabrina Pantano
Two months before the Turkish invasion of Syria. A mother, with her two little girls, pauses to greet the horizon at the salt lake (Tuz Gölü). (August 2019, Ankara, Turkey)
Sisters take a bath in the river by GIllmar villamil
Arhuaco Indians in the Sierra Nevada de Santamarta are the guardians of this mountain, it is a free territory where children play and have fun at their pleasure, always with something present.
The following are just a few images of hope evoked by certain situations in a country that has been hit by 50 years of war. hope is there, we just have to follow it, adapting to change, internalizing ourselves a new way of living in peace and in harmony with others and with our own homeland. (July 21, 2016: Atanquez, Sierra de Santamarta, Colombia)
Untitled by Colin Finlay
Polar Bears gather once a year in November as they collectively wait for Hudson Bay to freeze over, so they can venture out onto the ice to hunt for seals. The bears wrestle and play with one another as they patiently wait for their winter to officially begin. (2007: South of the Arctic Circle in Northern Hudson Bay, Manitoba, Canada)
"Here Come the Brides" by Nuri Vallbona
Despite the U.S. government's ban on same sex marriage ban, Gwen Sand, left, and Kathy Cabble don vintage wedding gowns and sneakers for their backyard wedding.The couple had been together 12 years and weathered Cabble's many cancer surgeries and treatment before tying the knot. In 2015, they were able to wed legally and more recently they celebrated their 16th anniversary. (Oct. 30, 2004: St. Petersburg, Florida)
USA. Norfolk, Va. 1966 by David Alan Harvey
David Liggins on his homemade skateboard fashioned out of plywood and roller skate wheels. David is one of 9 members of the Liggins family I photographed for my book "Tell It Like It Is" (1966: Norfolk, Virginia)
Untitled by David Alan Harvey
A boy practices his soccer skills along a street in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Untitled by Swarat Ghosh
This is a portrait of my wife who is getting emotional and evocative seeing the beauty of nature (reflected in the glass) while in our first family trip to Kashmir, the paradise in earth. Seeing this photograph, one of my friends, Nimesh Mohanty, said: "In the stillness of her eyes, I found the moving bird." it seems that hope is always around us - we just need to accept it and hug it in our lives all the time. (December 2018: Kashmir, India)
The Musician by Bikram Sarkar
In any crisis situation, you can find your own song to stay calm.It gives hope to fight back.
In this tough time this small things gives us Hope to fight back.
Untitled by C.W. Griffin
Marjorie Conklin cools off in a tub of water filled with a hose, surrounded by what's left of her South Dade home several days after Hurricane Andrew struck. (Aug. 24, 1992: Miami)
Untitled by Colin Finlay
Children are able to play now in a recently cleared field that was once littered with land mines. Building a future of hope for the children of the world to inherit is our responsibility and the Cambodian government is doing so one field at a time. (2007: Battambang, Cambodia)
Untitled by Maggie Steber
Katie Stubblefield lost her face at 18, when she attempted to take her own life, shooting herself in the face with a rifle. At 21, she received a transplant at the Cleveland Clinic, making her the youngest person in the U.S. to receive a face transplant. Her story, “The Story of a Face,” is was a National Geographic cover story. She is pictured here with her parents, 8 months, 23 days after Katie’s transplant Determined to help Katie live a life as normal and valuable as possible, Robb and Alesia put their own lives on hold for more than four years. Pushing through exhaustion, relying on their faith in God, they accompany their daughter to endless appointments and therapy sessions. They’re already looking into ways to improve Katie’s vision, including the possibility of eye transplants. They expect to remain in Cleveland near the clinic and Katie’s doctors for the near future. (2017: Cleveland, Ohio)
"Smile" by Carl Juste
Many of the children living in the small villages surrounding Jalapa, Guatemala suffer from some type of malnutrition. Due to the lack of sufficient nutrition children are short for their age, have skin ailments, and on certain instances die. Carla Gonzalez, 5, suffers from chronic malnutrition and the government is attempting to reduce its impact on the nation's youngest population. (Sept. 26, 2008: Jalapa, Guatemala)
Hope in the Rubble by Carol Guzy
The resiliency in the human spirit is evident in a tender kiss as a rainbow appears over the destroyed home of Jackie Cohen, Tommy George and their new-born baby after Hurricane Andrew sowed destruction in Florida in 1992. The mobile home park where the family lived was flattened and their daughter Kaitlynn spent the first weeks of her life amidst piles of rubble, yet residents persevered to rebuild shattered ives.(August 1992: Florida)
Monochromatic Peace by Antonio Alfonso Locuratolo
I was in Senegal. It was a journey of discovery and hope. An experience lived in the eyes of every meeting. (2012: Senegal)
Little shepherds by Lucia Covi
These two little children were walking alone far from any village, probably after retrieving a little lamb. The boy was perfectly at ease in his role of shepherd and proud. (2014: Tigray Region, Ethiopia)
Untitled by Ranita Roy
Girls are running towards school for a bright future. (Nov. 6, 2019: Indore, India)
Untitled by Colin Finlay
A woman receives aid and comfort in a Doctors Without Borders refugee camp during during the genocide that was taking place, led by the Janjaweed. She is dignity and she is hope in spite of her circumstances, but at least she is safe and being cared for. (1998: Darfur, Sudan)
