AP Photos Capture Asia’s Contrasts in 2025 — From Devotion to Defiance

A continent as vast as Asia rarely speaks with a single voice. In 2025, AP photographers captured the region’s many tones — devotion, spectacle, protest and resilience — in frames that ranged from quietly intimate to urgently chaotic.

A Year In Frames

From the Himalayas to the Java Sea, Associated Press images documented life across borders and conditions. Some scenes were hushed and heartbreaking: from above, the Rohingya refugee camps at Cox's Bazar form neat, calm rows — a quiet geometry that conceals the mournful reality of a people in exile. In Jakarta, a dove alights on a soldier’s hat during Independence Day ceremonies. In Mumbai, bright red powder drifts like a soft fog as a girl celebrates Holi.

Elsewhere, motion and spectacle cut through the stillness. Traditional dancers in West Java prepare to depart, a bright dragon head filling a doorway. Migratory birds swirl above the Yamuna River as people in a boat scatter feed at dawn. In Beijing, a humanoid robot pounds down a racetrack, one of several chrome-and-circuit competitors in a 1,500-meter event.

Politics, Ceremony and Protest

Politics brought moments of ceremony and upheaval. Lawmakers in Tokyo applauded Japan’s first female prime minister. In Seoul, a young woman waited through the night outside the Constitutional Court, anxious about whether a president would fall after martial law was declared. In Kathmandu, a protester roared against corruption, clutching a seized police shield as if trying to force change.

Disaster, Grief and Resilience

Stark reminders of disaster threaded through the year. In Bangkok, a damaged high-rise — one that collapsed after a major earthquake centered in Myanmar — loomed over rescuers moving in a thin line below. In Ahmedabad, a woman wailed at a funeral for victims of a plane crash, her grief steadied by those around her. In Hong Kong, two older men stood shoulder to shoulder, watching in horror as a high-rise burned against the night sky.

Daily life continued amid strain: laborers huddled under a police barricade in Delhi, sipping tea to shelter from the rain; a couple shared a wedding kiss inside a Filipino church inundated by floodwaters. Together, these moments showed how people pressed on — quietly mending what had been broken and stitching ordinary life back together, frame by frame.

Photo editing: Yirmiyan Arthur and Courtney Dittmar.