Joy and wonder: Between the bumps of the world, exuberance shone through in 2024

She jumps, her eyes closed, and she grins — this little girl surrounded by gang violence in her own neighborhood in Haiti. The jump rope game she is playing brings out an exuberance in her that the conditions around her cannot squelch.

Around the planet, so many human beings — in so many circumstances — could use this kind of joy. But in a world that offered so much heartache and cataclysm in 2024, those kinds of feelings can be hard to find and recognize.

Life rushes by, leaving its marks. Moments of joy and wonder, it seems, sometimes must be extracted and pointed out before they disappear. This collection of images by AP photojournalists does exactly that.

For every disruptive news story in the world, perhaps there is an equal moment of joy or wonder. But because news is, by definition, things that are out of the ordinary, sometimes everyday moments get lost in the rush of events.

These photos, taken together, make a conscious choice to grab at that joy and wonder, and to distill it and recapture it in a concentrated burst — reminding us that even in dark days, it is still out there.

Some, like the little Haiti girl and the image of displaced Palestinian youths playing, demonstrate that even while traveling hard roads, people can find respite. Some, like the photo of a coca vendor at a legal market in Bolivia, demonstrate that smiles can burst forth at any part of the day.

Some, like the young people performing a street dance in a Rio de Janeiro favela, or slum, show that exuberance knows no boundaries and will inevitably poke through. And some show the literal joyful footprints of humanity — as with the footprints on a snow-covered rugby field in Chile that took pains to walk in the shape of a heart.

Patterns, blown kisses, celebrations of equality, ice skaters, the unself-conscious playing of children, a motorcycle riding against a dramatic sunrise, even a partier reveling in being immersed in a pool of squashed tomatoes — these images, gathered from all around the world, offer an antidote for much of the rest of 2024.

They tell us that happiness and exuberance are possible in multiple conditions, even some of the worst ones. And in doing so, they also hint that, at any moment, those good feelings might be possible for us, too.

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Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation at The Associated Press, writes frequently about photography. Follow him at http//x.com/anthonyted