The photos that helped us tell the stories of 2023

WBUR's photographers captured several big storylines this year.

To name just a few, they covered the historic inauguration of a new governor; the installation of a much-awaited monument to Martin Luther King, Jr.; worries about problems created by so-called "forever chemicals"; a state family shelter system in crisis; and the impacts global conflicts had on local residents here. They also crisscrossed the city, snapping photos for weird and wonderful stories in our Field Guide to Boston collection.

Here's a look back at the photographs that best helped us tell the stories of 2023.

Jan. 5 | Maura Healey waits to be escorted by the sergeant-at-arms into the House Chamber to take the oath of office to become governor of Massachusetts. Along with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, she became one of the first lesbian governors in U.S. history.

Jan. 13 | A permanent monument, called "The Embrace," to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, who met in Boston, opened on Boston Common.

Jan. 18 | Boats off Covell's Beach in Barnstable lay cables for the Vineyard Wind project, a 62-turbine, 800-megawatt offshore wind farm near Martha's Vineyard.

Jan. 22 | Wendy Thomas' house in the woods, near Wildcat Falls in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Thomas has to use bottled water for cooking and drinking, because her well water is contaminated with high levels of PFAS — a class of thousands of chemicals that have been linked to numerous health risks.

Jan. 27 | Protesters march down Tremont Street in Boston to demand accountability following the release of video of the fatal police beating of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

Jan. 31 | Guests place the first sports bets at kiosks inside the WynnBET room at Encore Boston. Legal sports betting in Massachusetts began Jan. 31.

Feb. 4 | A car plowed into a concrete barrier and into the Alewife parking garage, sending debris crashing down into the T station concourse. The incident added to the list of repairs and maintenance the MBTA had to handle this year.

Feb. 6 | Mayor Michelle Wu smiles during her ride in the first electric school bus added to the Boston Public Schools’ fleet.

March 13 | People wait in line outside the Silicon Valley Bank in Wellesley. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized the assets of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, marking the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Federal officials were able to fully protect all deposits at the bank.

March 21 | Sawdust flies as protesters chop up a giant credit card with a solar-powered chainsaw in front of the Bank of America in downtown Boston as part of a climate protest.

March 27 | Protesters outside Plymouth Town Hall object to the proposed dumping of radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay as part of the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. The disposal of the approximately 1 million gallons of radioactive water continues to be a flashpoint in the community. In July, the state denied a modified discharge permit to Holtec, the company in charge of decommissioning Pilgrim. Holtec is now allowing water to slowly evaporate from the plant, potentially exposing people to radioactive tritium.

March 28 | Horticulture Director Erika Rumbley carefully lowers nasturtiums out of a window into the courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The display of foliage is an annual tradition that began in 1904 in celebration of Gardner's birthday.

March 29 | Five-year-old Eleanor Laird and her grandmother, Amy Clarkson, gaze at “The Great Wave built by Jumpei Mitsui with Lego Blocks” at the "Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence" show at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

March 30 | A sign in Boston's Kenmore Square reminds visitors that they can follow Route 20 west for 3,365 miles, all the way to Newport, Oregon.

April 11 | Pallbearers carry the casket of Mel King out the doors of Union United Methodist Church after the conclusion of the funeral service. King, who was 94, was perhaps the most prominent activist and Black politician of Boston's 20th century.

April 12 | Channa Sath and Cheymony "Nicky" Fennell perform the traditional Cambodian dance, Sovann Maccha, during a performance by the Angkor Dance Troupe performance at the UMass Lowell. Thanks to grant funding, the dance company found a way to survive and thrive during the pandemic.

April 14 | Outside the federal courthouse in Boston, news media surround family members of Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira after his arraignment. Teixeira is accused of leaking secret government intelligence documents.

April 15 | A bagpiper leads Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu along Boylston Street at a remembrance with families who lost loved ones during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

April 17 | Runners cross the starting line of the 127th Boston Marathon.

May 24 | Flags planted by Massachusetts Fallen Heroes volunteers on the Boston Common for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, part of an annual tradition.

May 26 | A young fan in the audience rocks out while the Dropkick Murphys play a set at Boston Calling. This was the music festival's 10th year.

June 2 | Roberta Biscan watches as her son Connor begins to bait a fishing hook on the pier at Silver Lake in Wilmington. Biscan is one of hundreds of thousands of poor, disabled children across the country struggling to get federal benefits.

June 15 | The manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue and his wife were indicted on federal charges in June. The pair are accused of stealing and selling human body parts from cadavers donated to the school. Many of those who donate their bodies to university medical morgues in the state are buried at the Pine Hill Cemetery in Tewksbury. The morgues appear to face no oversight in Massachusetts.

July 1 | Signs near the Sumner Tunnel entrance warn drivers of tunnel closures this summer. The tunnel was closed for two months for much-needed restoration work, snarling traffic and worsening commutes.

July 3 | Alina Gomes, originally from Cape Verde, claps while holding an American flag during a naturalization ceremony at Faneuil Hall.

July 26 | Richard Malkasian sits and relaxes in his garden, 36 years in the making, at the Fenway Garden. He and many other residents were featured in WBUR's guides to Boston neighborhoods as part of the Field Guide to Boston project.

Aug. 16 | Singer Danny Rivera and organist Gavin Rushing perform at the Holy Tabernacle Church in Dorchester. Rivera was selected to join this year's Makers cohort, highlighting 10 creatives of color shaking up the Greater Boston arts scene.

Sept. 7 | A student looks out the window of a school bus on Malcolm X Boulevard in Roxbury. Despite long commutes and a particularly warm start to the school year, Boston Public Schools students and staffers remained in good spirits.

Sept. 7 | Drummers join Little Amal as she walks along Atlantic Avenue in Boston. The large puppet visited Boston as part of a countrywide tour. Little Amal was created as a symbol for displaced refugee populations around the world.

Sept. 13 | Egyptian fruit bats roosting in a dark corner of the bat cage at the Peabody Essex Museum’s “Bats!” exhibition.

Sept. 26 | Enormous wind turbine parts for Vineyard Wind are partially assembled at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal before getting placed on a boat to be fully assembled at sea.

Oct. 16 | A young protester shouts during a pro-Palestinian rally attended by hundreds in front of the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. A week earlier, dozens of people, including Gov. Maura Healey, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, gathered in support of Israel on Boston Common in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 deadly attack on Israeli citizens.

Oct. 19 | Rower Maria Prodan sets out onto the Charles River to practice for the Head of the Charles. The Ukrainian 14-year-old competed at the annual regatta.

Oct. 23 | Evicted from her apartment in Worcester, Deb Libby loads her belongings into her pickup truck. She is one of the many on the long waitlist for state-funded public housing. Despite the demand, a WBUR investigation found that Massachusetts had nearly 2,300 units vacant at the end of July. Libby, who has cancer, put off surgery to treat it because she was unable to find an apartment she could afford after her eviction.

Nov. 1 | Two volunteers from the Newmarket Business Improvement District remove a tent from Atkinson Street as they pass a telephone pole with the words, “God bless Mass and Cass” inscribed on it. The city of Boston cleared a tent encampment in the area known as "Mass. and Cass," widely viewed as the epicenter of the state's opioid addiction, mental health and homelessness crisis.

Nov. 7 | Jeff Rapsis plays music to accompany "The Gold Rush" starring Charlie Chaplin, at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, Rhode Island.

Nov. 9 | A protester tapes a paper "wanted poster" with Kamala Harris' appearance on it across the street from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Boston during a pro-Palestinian rally. The vice president was speaking at the hotel for a fundraiser for President Biden.

Nov. 16 | A child catches a few moments of sleep at the Immigrant Family Services Institute in Mattapan. The family shelter system in the state became full in mid-November, and for the first time, the state placed eligible families on a waitlist.

Nov. 27 | Rebecca Shoer, education and engagement program manager at Stone Living Lab, talks to students during a king tide at Long Wharf. The latest National Climate Assessment, released in November, found that extreme precipitation dramatically increased in the Northeast, more than any other part of the country.

Dec. 1 | Three young museumgoers toss crates with the emblem of the East India Company overboard into the Fort Point Channel from the merchant vessel Eleanor during a visit to the Boston Tea Party Museum. The Boston Tea Party Museum celebrated the event's 250th anniversary this year.

Want to learn more about these stories and how our photographers approach their work? Join us at WBUR's CitySpace on Jan. 31 at 6:30 p.m. for a members-only event featuring Jesse Costa and Robin Lubbock in a conversation moderated by All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins with special appearances from WBUR reporters Simón Rios, Barbara Moran and Andrea Shea. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to access tickets to this event.