snow and ice float in a sea of turquoise, a natural pool is formed by the melting snow

Best photos of 2018

National Geographic's 100 best images of the year—curated from 107 photographers, 119 stories, and more than two million photographs.

Photograph by BRIAN SKERRY

Sarah Leen has a job most people in the world would envy. She looks at photographs for a living. And not just any photographs — National Geographic photographs. As our Director of Photography, Leen estimates she has looked at as many images “as there are stars in the sky,” so it’s hard to narrow down her favorites. But she does that every year — here are her favorite 100 of the over two million submitted to us this year, in no particular order.

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