The Year in Pictures: Witnessing the world, from Alaska to Iraq

December 29, 2014 5:30PM ET

As 2014 comes to a close, a look at the best photographic projects commissioned by Al Jazeera America

Topics:
U.S.
International
2014 in Review
In August, as thousands of refugees sat trapped on Mt. Sinjar in Kurdistan, AJAM assigned photographer Ayman Oghanna to chronicle the unfolding tragedy.
Other projects by Ayman Oghanna:
Photographer Andrew Burton traveled to three states for a multi-part series looking at the states (and families) affected by the Keystone pipeline.
Less than three months after the killing of Michael Brown, photographer Matt Eich returned to Ferguson to produce medium-format audio portraits of local residents.
In Indonesia, photographer Monique Jaques photographed an Islamic answer to beauty pageants.
Other projects by Monique Jaques:
In April, William Daniels documented the plight of some 23,000 Christians and Muslims trapped by the ongoing conflict in Central African Republic.
Other projects by William Daniels:
Katie Orlinsky traveled to a small Alaskan village to document big changes happening as ice slowly vanishes.
Other projects by Katie Orlinsky:
Tangier Island -- just 3 miles long and 1 mile wide -- is a step back in time, but with a very hazy future. Ian Bates traveled to the island numerous times to document the island's language and way of life.
Other projects by Ian Bates:
Tomo photographed how Native Americans are using an old-fashioned technology that keeps languages -- and communities across the US -- alive.
Other projects by Tomo:
Fabio Bucciarelli documented the world's newest country as it struggles with food shortages and ongoing violence.
Melissa Golden spent two days in a century-old decommissioned West Virginia Prison turned competition and trade show.
Sebastian Liste spent time with Brazil's pacification police in Rio's Mare Favela in the weeks before the World Cup.
Other projects by Sebastian Liste:
Johnny Milano embedded with a paramilitary veterans group patrolling the US-Mexico borderlands.
On the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal lethal gas disaster, Alex Masi documented the victims' continued fight for justice.
Sara Naomi Lewkowicz spent time with Jamie, a 22-year-old young man with an insatiable intellectual curiosity about the world.
Carlos Javier Ortiz continued his work on Chicago's growing gun violence in a three-part AJAM series on violence in the city.
As part of AJAM's ongoing series on the Native American Veteran, Nicole Tung documented the funeral of the last Seminole code talker.
Other projects by Nicole Tung: