40 Of The Most Powerful Photos Of 2017

Here are the most influential, striking, and beautiful pictures from 2017.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump arrives on the West Front of the US Capitol on Jan. 20, in Washington, DC. At the ceremony, Trump became the 45th president of the United States.

Ricardo Arduengo / AFP / Getty Images

A man rides his bicycle through a damaged road in Toa Alta, west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 24, following the passage of Hurricane Maria.

David J. Phillip / AP

Houston Police SWAT officer Daryl Hudeck carries Catherine Pham and her 13-month-old son Aiden after rescuing them from their home surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey on Aug. 27, in Houston.

Susan Walsh / AP

President Barack Obama presents Vice President Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House on Jan. 12.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Medical workers and police treat a woman who has overdosed on heroin on July 14 in Warren, Ohio.

Michael Zagaris / Getty Images

The San Francisco 49ers kneel and stand together during the anthem prior to the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Oct. 8, in Indianapolis.

Harrison Mcclary / Reuters

Blanca Hernandez sews stars on a Confederate battle flag in the Alabama Flag & Banner shop in Huntsville, Alabama, on Aug. 24.

Brian Blanco / Getty Images

A man wearing a shirt with swastikas on it is punched in the face by an unidentified member of the crowd near the site of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida campus on Oct. 19 in Gainesville, Florida.

Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Thousands gather with candles to march along the path that white supremacists took the prior Friday with torches on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 16.

Daniel William Mcknight / REX / Shutterstock

Police move in to clear the Oceti Sakowin camp at the Standing Rock protest site in North Dakota on Feb. 23.

Stephanie Keith / Reuters

A sign saying "My family is detained at JFK" hangs in the window of a closed bodega during a Yemeni protest against President Donald Trump's travel ban in Brooklyn on Feb. 2.

Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images

President Trump pretends to drive as he gets in an 18-wheeler and meets with truckers and CEOs regarding health care at the White House on March 23.

Craig Ruttle / AP

Coanchors Hoda Kotb (left) and Savannah Guthrie (right) embrace on the set of the Today show on Nov. 29, in New York, after NBC News fired host Matt Lauer. NBC News announced that Lauer was fired for "inappropriate sexual behavior."

Eric Gay / AP

Protesters dressed as characters from The Handmaid's Tale chant in the Texas Capitol Rotunda under portraits of former Texas governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry in Austin on July 18. State lawmakers began a special legislative session to tackle conservative priorities that stalled previously; chief among them, a "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Protesters walk during the Women's March on Washington, with the US Capitol in the background, on Jan. 21 in Washington, DC. Large crowds attended the anti-Trump rally a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th US president.

Patrick Hertzog / AFP / Getty Images

Swedish MEP Linnéa Engström sits behind a placard placed on her desk that reads "Me too" during a debate about combating sexual harassment and abuse in the EU at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Oct. 25.

Rex / Shutterstock

As dawn breaks, flames continue to leap from every window as over 200 firefighters from across London fought to tackle a blaze at the Grenfell Tower on June 14.

Marcus Yam / Getty Images

Palm trees are shown ablaze as the Thomas Fire threatens homes in Ventura, California, on Dec. 5.

Juan Barreto / AFP / Getty Images

A demonstrator catches fire after the gas tank of a police motorbike exploded during clashes in a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on May 3.

Kcna Kcna / Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 16.

Andrea DiCenzo for BuzzFeed News

The city of Mosul, Iraq, is seen in ruins following an ongoing conflict to retake the city from ISIS, on July 14.

Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP / Getty Images

Two men carry the body of a victim following the explosion of a truck bomb in the center of Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 14.

Ammar Abdullah / Reuters

A man carries the body of a dead child after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, on April 4.

Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty Images

Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, 70, smokes his pipe as he sits in his destroyed bedroom listening to music on his vinyl player, in Aleppo's formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood on March 9.

Hannah Mckay / Reuters

An exhausted Rohingya refugee cries for help to other refugees as they make their way from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Nov. 2.

Ben Curtis / AP

South Sudanese refugee Betty Sakala, from Central Equatoria state, laughs after being shown a photo of her daughter Mary, 2 months, as she waits to have Mary examined at a mobile health clinic run by the International Rescue Committee, in Bidi Bidi, Uganda, on June 5.

Chris Mcgrath / Getty Images

A woman cries after losing her baby in the water as she sits in a rescue boat from the Migrant Offshore Aid Station Phoenix vessel on May 24, off Lampedusa, Italy. The Phoenix vessel rescued 603 people after one of three wooden boats partially capsized leaving more than 30 people dead.

David Becker / Getty Images

People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after a gunman opened fire on Oct. 1, in Las Vegas, leaving 59 people dead and injuring 546.

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images

Ariana Grande wipes away a tear as she performs on stage during the One Love Manchester Benefit Concert at Old Trafford on June 4, in Manchester, England, following a terrorist attack at her Manchester Arena performance that left 23 dead and injured 512.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

The First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was turned into a memorial to honor those who died on Nov. 12, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, when a gunman opened fire and killed 26 people. Each chair is placed at the location in the room where the victim died.

Narendra Shrestha / EPA

Dev Kumar Sada (left), uncle of 8-year-old flood victim Kamal Sada, guides the boy's dead body in the Koshi River at Kulari Village, Nepal, on Aug. 13. Kamal died due to sickness from continuous exposure to rainfall and flooding at his remote village. In the culture of the people who inhabit the region, when a boy dies the body is supposed to be buried. Since all the land in their village is flooded and waterlogged, the family members decided to leave Kamal's body in the Koshi River.

Evan Vucci / AP

President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit on July 7, in Hamburg, Germany.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Former FBI director James Comey is sworn in on June 8 while testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Comey said that President Donald Trump pressured him to drop the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and demanded Comey's loyalty during the one-on-one meetings he had with the president.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, checks her phone as President Donald Trump and leaders of historically black colleges and universities pose for a group photo in the Oval Office on Feb. 27.

Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

Sen. John McCain, recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, departs after returning to the Senate to vote on health care legislation on Capitol Hill, July 25.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (right) and his wife Louise Linton hold up a sheet of new $1 bills, the first currency notes bearing his and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza's signatures, at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, DC.

Eddy Chen / Getty Images

After accidentally being announced as the winner for Best Picture, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz holds up the actual winning card for Moonlight, alongside actor Warren Beatty and host Jimmy Kimmel at the 89th Annual Academy Awards on Feb. 26, in Hollywood.

Roger Kisby for BuzzFeed News

Residents and visitors of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, look on at the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

Eric Risberg / AP

Former World War II "comfort woman" Yongsoo Lee, 89, of South Korea, stands by a statue of Haksoon Kim after it was unveiled on Sept. 22, in San Francisco. The monument was dedicated to the young women victims of Japanese military sexual slavery from 1932 until the end of World War II in 1945.

Susana Vera / Reuters

Atila, a trained therapeutic greyhound used to treat patients with mental health issues and learning difficulties, falls asleep as it gets caressed by three patients at Benito Menni health facility in Elizondo, northern Spain, on March 16.

UPDATE

Dec. 18, 2017, at 23:27 PM

An image has been added to the original post.