Looking Back at 2024’s Best Photographs

Early on this year at Something Curated, we introduced the ‘my best photograph’ series, where we ask a photographer or visual artist we love to share an image that means a lot to them – and to tell the audience the story behind the image.

We’ll continue this into 2025, inviting some of the industry’s most gifted visual storytellers to share the meaning and process behind some of their favourite work.

Here’s a look back at the works we showcased during 2024, part of Something Curated 2024 Retrospective.

Sam Rogers by Cole Wilson

Sam made their first vintage in 2022, the year before Julie died. At the time this photo was taken, Sam planned to proudly take their wine to Beaujolais, a return to the place and person who had influenced their philosophy of the very thing they set out to create. 

Read the piece here.

Michaël Protin’s comical four at a Lisbon bus stop

This photo was taken at a bus stop. I was about to cross and saw these four people standing on the other side, waiting for the bus. We read a lot of comics in Belgium and I immediately thought about the Dalton brothers, the fictional characters in the Lucky Luke Western comics series, so I aimed and shot.

Read the piece here.

Yvonne Maxwell’s family portrait

I made this image following an in-depth, and at times, very tense conversation with my mum. In that moment I felt vulnerable, frustrated and emotionally stretched; and I wanted to capture that moment. 

Read the piece here.

Hark1karan’s Zimmers of Southall.

For me, capturing this photo encapsulated my process and practice as a community photographer: I had gained the trust of the family, who’d allowed me into their personal space on that special day. The entire occasion felt familiar and comfortable. I trusted my instincts to show up, and I was able to capture this precise moment on 35mm film, amid the noise, smoke, and the stress of composing the perfect photo.

Read the piece here.

Sara Costa’s wild, rugged edges of the Costa Brava

I was meeting the Mediterranean sea once again after the lockdown. Just the car, the camping gas, and the camera – I really needed it.

Read the piece here.

Aura Hope’s beautiful unsaid

We didn’t speak the same language but we didn’t need to. He played record after record, sat in his chair smoking cigarettes, flicking his hand and tapping his foot to the beat.

Read the piece here.

Neil Bedford’s Kobe Bryant

He was, of course, one of the most famous athletes on the planet, but it wasn’t his face or the way he looked that made him that, it was his craft. With that thought I turned my attention to his hands, the tools of his trade.

Read the piece here.

Caitlin Isola’s green plums trapped in plastic

 If you stare at it for a while, new details seem to reveal themselves and it becomes almost abstract. 

Read the piece here.

Haydon Perrior’s boys in the rain

Taken in the summer of 2016, before I truly understood photography, it remains a foundational image in my portfolio nearly a decade later. For me, it captures the essence of my work: moments that are joyful, spontaneous, and authentic.

Read the piece here.

Benjamin McMahon’s butterfly in Vienna

I was waiting for someone to turn up to have their picture taken and wandered off distracted and saw this butterfly. I always thought the picture was equal parts pretty, romantic, and sad.

Read the piece here.

Header image by Michaël Protin.