It’s been a year of visual firsts at The Local. For the first time in our publication’s history, The Local has a Visuals Editor, with long-time freelance photo contributor Chloë Ellingson joining our newsroom. This year also saw our first foray into wildlife photography, with a whole issue dedicated to capturing the elusive presence of wild animals in the city. Our contributors rode public transit, slept in cars, and travelled from the inner city to outer suburbs to bring you closer to the stories we told.

Here are a few of our favourite pictures from 2025.

For The Worm Hunters of Southern Ontario, Galit Rodan drove to West Perth, about two hours west of Toronto, to photograph the worm pickers at work after nightfall. Aside from some rest in her parked car, Galit photographed until sunrise. “It felt like watching a dance of sorts in outer space or something. Dark, quiet, peaceful. Just red light and movement,” Rodan said about the experience.

Brendan George Ko has a distinctive approach to human portraiture, and his photographs of animals in captivity at Jungle Cat World Wildlife Park in Orono, Ontario, for End Times at Ontario’s Roadside Zoos? proved just as nuanced, made with his defining use of flash.

This photo has become something of a meme inside our newsroom—a metaphor for the precarious state of public schools in Toronto in 2025. Taken by Chloë Ellingson, it shows TDSB trustee candidate Masood Alam standing precariously on top of a snowbank, buffeted by wind, staring into the distance with a world-weariness more reminiscent of a 17th century sea captain than a candidate for local office. His expression really captured the exhaustion of by-election after by-election.

Urban wildlife photographer Andrew Budziak captured the controversial presence of cormorants at Tommy Thompson Park and the Toronto Islands for The Cormorant Wars. “This is a story I’ve wanted to do for years,” said Budziak. To photograph the birds from the water, his friends took him out on their boat. “The birds did not care about our presence…It was as if being on the water transformed us into non-humans in the eyes of these birds. This allowed for some cool moments that didn’t disturb the birds but allowed me to see them closer than I ever had before.”

Christopher Katsarov Luna photographed an encampment staged by former international students to demand a pathway to permanent residency for After the International Student Gold Rush. Katsarov Luna’s photos convey a visceral sense of disappointment and exhaustion on the part of the demonstrators, who had taken significant risks to be here, only to have the rules shift, jeopardizing their futures.

Duane Cole rode one of the first LRTs to depart Finch West station for Can the Finch West LRT Keep Up With Its Promises? “[What stood out to me] was just seeing the change from having grown up in the area and the promised growth the LRT would bring from the 36 Finch bus,” Cole said. “I know it was only the first day and they want to implement changes to improve service, but it’s hard right now for me to see this being a long-term solution to a problem I was dealing with over 20 years ago. I just expected better considering what it cost to get here, and I’m not just talking about a dollar amount.”

Even if you’ve been to Woodbine Racetrack, chances are you’ve never visited the stables or the dorms on the backstretch, where hundreds of workers live year-round. For Breakdown at the Racetrack, Chloë Ellingson took us to places the horse racing industry doesn’t necessarily want people to see. What she produced was all at once beautiful and grim. “I went to the racetrack thinking of the commotion in My Fair Lady. The reality was that the biggest crowds were indoors, made up of people huddled in front of television screens under artificial lights, watching far away races and placing bets. I wanted to show the present reality of life at the track while also acknowledging, if only in tone, a bygone era.”