The photos that helped us tell the stories of 2022

In 2022, WBUR covered everything from the ups and downs of the MBTA and the election of a new governor to the impact that overturning Roe and immigration at the nation's southern border is having on Massachusetts.

Take a look back at the photographs that helped us tell the year's stories:

Jan. 5 | The lanterns are lit in Old North Church in a call for action to protect democracy one year after the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Jan. 7 | Wally leaps into the air to catch snow thrown by his owner Abby Kemp at the Boston Public Garden during the first major snowstorm of 2022.

Jan. 11 | MassWildlife Deer & Moose Biologist Martin Feehan prepares to insert a cotton swab into the nose of a dead 140-pound deer buck, found in Needham, to test it for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Deer across the country have been found to carry the SARS-CoV-2 virus. State wildlife researchers are assisting with a federal project to better understand the impact of the virus on the deer population.

Jan. 12 | Eluz Torres has plenty of space to run at lunchtime at Healthworks on Stuart Street in Boston. In early 2022, the city of Boston mandated that people had to be vaccinated in order to use gyms. The rule was lifted later in the year.

Jan. 12 | Workers begin to clean up Atkinson Street after tents and large pieces of debris were removed under an initiative from the city of Boston to clear away the space at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard used by some city residents who are unhoused.

Jan. 14 | Alyse Minter, a descendent of folk artist Harriet Powers, contemplates Powers' Bible quilt on display in the MFA's exhibit "Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories."

Jan. 21 | A patient receives LASIK corrective eye surgery at Boston Vision. Foggy glasses due to mask wearing drove an increase in demand for laser eye surgery, doctors say.

Jan. 26 | A group of swans cross the Charles River by the Watertown Dam. There are over 3,000 dams in Massachusetts. Most no longer serve their original purpose, and many pose a risk to communities. Now, a growing movement of environmentalists, fishermen and community groups are pushing to remove them in order to restore the health of the rivers they block.

Jan. 28 | Sanjar, 5, does a cartwheel in the hallway of the basement at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Newburyport. He and his family escaped their home in Afghanistan during the American evacuation and Taliban takeover in late August and are among the 2,000 evacuees resettling in Massachusetts.

Jan. 28 | Stephen Zedros walks through Brattle Square Florist, setting up the store for the day. The century-old shop that sells fresh cut irises, roses and daffodils was set to shut its doors for good at the end of January, but Zedros was able to work out a deal to keep the shop open.

Jan. 29 | Members of the Northeastern swim team walk past City Hall as they show new recruits around Boston during a late January blizzard.

Feb. 4 | Pigeons swarm around Boston Parks and Recreation workers spreading out sand and salt on the sidewalk on the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Street in Copley Square, hoping they are putting out food for them. That day's weather was a trifecta of rain, sleet and ice.

Feb. 22 | Ada Schenck works on building her fifth violin in the Violin Making and Repair program at North Bennet Street School in Boston. The "Great Resignation" brought a surge of interest in trade schools like this one.

Feb. 23 | An MBTA train rides on the tracks beneath McGrath Highway in Somerville during test runs of the Green Line Extension. The Union Square stop opened in February after about four years of construction, stretching the E branch past Lechmere.

Feb. 23 | Yulia Pankratova chants with demonstrators outside the Massachusetts State House. She traveled from Maine to Boston to join a rally in support of Ukraine battling against invading Russian forces.

March 4 | A pig looks out of one of the pens at Round the Bend Farm in Dartmouth.

March 21 | Boston has long seen a racial gap among homeowners. Since homeownership is the main way most Americans build wealth, some local organizations are working to make Boston’s real estate market more equitable. One of those organizations is the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, which owns the lot at 7 Half Moon St. in Roxbury, pictured above. This photograph was taken during reporting for a a series on Boston's home loan gap.

March 21 | Ronald Kay checks the evaporator in the maple sugar shack at Maynard Maple to process maple sap he’s collected around the Maynard area to make locally sourced maple syrup. This photo was taken while reporting for our newsletter course "Cooked," which takes a look at how to eat locally, and sustainably.

April 21 | Appleton Farms Farm manager Andrew Lawson adjusts the Minuet lettuce plantings performed by the mechanical transplanter. Although it’s a huge time saver, the work of the mechanical transplanter is not always foolproof.

April 27 | Boston has historically lacked the tools to save artists threatened with displacement. Now, an infusion of funding offers hope — but the clock is ticking. In this photograph taken for a series on Boston's disappearing cultural spaces, artist Cary Rapaport demonstrates one of glass and light artist Wayne Strattman's creations that produces colored lightning when you touch it.

May 3 | Samantha Mahoney wears a clothes hanger around her neck and marches with thousands of others down Tremont Street in Boston during the Defend Abortion Rights rally at the Massachusetts State House. The march came after a draft of a Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the media.

May 4 | A firefighter walks out from the old Edison Building in South Boston where three workers were injured during a collapse.

May 14 | A protester holds up a "Keep Abortion Legal" sign at the Bans Off Our Bodies rally on Boston Common.

May 24 | Most rapid brain development happens in the first five years of life, and evidence suggests back-and-forth interactions between children and their caregivers play a pivotal role. Here, teacher Deneen Coren plays with a child pouring rice from one cup to another. This is photograph was part of our series on the cost of child care in Massachusetts.

May 25 | Some of the 37,000 flags, planted in memory of fallen Massachusetts service members, flutter in the breeze on Boston Common.

May 26 | Ameya Okamoto places flowers into one of the 19 backpacks representing the students killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in a memorial created in Copley Square by the Artists Initiative for Revolution.

May 28 | Eric Burton walks down to greet the crowd during Black Pumas performance at the Boston Calling Music Festival, back for the first time since 2019.

May 31 | A parishioner at the Universal Missionary Church in Brockton sings with Will Newton during a service.

May 31 | Brockton Neighborhood Community Health Center Reentry Coordinator Kelly Celata examines a broken crack pipe Michelle has brought to the mobile addiction outreach unit to be exchanged for a new one. The mobile outreach unit was part of a study aiming to reduce overdose deaths.

June 1 | The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment stands at attention during the rededication of the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial at the Boston Common.

June 4 | Scientists estimate North America has gradually lost about 30% of its bird life in the last half century. Pictured here is the sunset over Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and the Sudbury River. Experts say the migration of birds at the refuge has dropped significantly in the past few decades.

June 8 | On a lift high in the air, Rob “ProblaK” Gibbs paints a mural he calls “Breathe Life Together” on the façade of the Dewey Square Tunnel Air Intake Structure on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston.

June 23 | Volunteers work to restore native plants on the sandplain grasslands in Katama, on Martha's Vineyard.

June 24 | A protester holds up a sign saying, "My body, my choice," at a gathering on the steps of the Massachusetts State House to protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

June 29 | In front of a new mural of Rita Hester in Allston, sister Kim Hester and nephew Taufiq Chowdhury embrace. The mural, called "Rita's Spotlight," was painted by artist Rixy. Hester's murder in 1998 spurred the creation of Transgender Day of Remembrance.

July 12 | Gabriel Cira holds a rope towing an Emerald Tutu module along Chelsea Creek. The "tutu" is a system of floating wetlands designed to reduce coastal flooding.

July 13 | A Super Buck Moon rises behind the Zakim Bridge.

July 17 | Don Pedro, Claudio and others pay their respects to Hero, who they believe has died, in a scene from the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's "Much Ado About Nothing" on Boston Common.

July 19 | A young boy plays at the Rings Fountain at the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston on a very hot day.

July 20 | JD Cohen prepares to be completely covered in plastic packaging at a performance of "Death by Plastic" in front of South Station.

Aug. 18 | Motorcycle designer J. Shia cuts a metal bar in her studio in Boston. Shia is one of this year's "Makers," a group of local artists making their mark in a variety of mediums.

Aug. 22 | Olivia Moon, also one of the "Makers," trains and teaches at Boston Pole Fitness.

Sept. 15 | A young couple embraces on the porch of St. Andrew’s Parish House in Edgartown. They were part of a group of migrants, mostly from Venezuela, sent unexpectedly and without warning to Martha's Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis under what they said was a false pretense.

Sept. 21 | Extinction Rebellion protesters, environmentalists focused on preventing the worst effects of climate change, march along Seaport Boulevard.

Oct. 3 | Ecologist Annalee Tweitmann walks across the marsh at Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Rowley where she has collected around 50 ribbed mussels to transplant into the degraded marsh at Joppa Flats. This kind of transplant could help restore local salt marshes.

Oct. 14 | Immigrants prepare to board a charter bus bound for Chicago at the Immigration Welcome Center in El Paso. The conditions and immigration rules at the U.S./Mexico border change often, making life difficult and confusing for migrants coming to the country.

Oct. 15 | A Venezuelan immigrant speaks on his phone as he sits on railroad tracks along the Mexican border in Ciudad Juarez.

Oct. 19 | Pastor Valerie Copeland and Rev. Dr. Kevin Peterson lock arms during their protest at the entrance of Faneuil Hall, demanding the name of the hall be changed due to its historical ties to the transatlantic slave trade.

Nov. 4 | Daishuan Red Deer Garate, a cultural apprentice of the Nipmuc Tribe, places wood into a fire during the burning of a traditional mishoon, or canoe, in Charlestown.

Nov. 8 | Voters line up to cast their ballots at the Charlestown Boys and Girls Club.

Nov. 8 | Maura Healey greets supporters on Election Day evening at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Healey made history as the state's first elected female and first openly gay governor.

Nov. 8 | Healey supporters listen to her victory speech at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.

Nov. 19 | Illuminated by a flashlight, 3-year-old Adalay Ramos and her family wait silently to surprise Isabel Rodriguez's mother with a birthday celebration in Worcester.

Dec. 12 | Riders document the first Green Line train at the Medford/Tufts station. After years of delays, the MBTA completed the Green Line Extension project.