2018: A year in photographs on The Verge

Last year, the introduction to 2017: A Year in Photographs began, “As 2017 finally draws to a close, we can all look back on a year that in many ways seems to have lasted 10.” If that statement was true of 2017, then it is doubly true of 2018. There has been so much news and information hitting us from all sides over this past year that, at times, it has seemed almost overwhelming. So much has occurred, it is hard to remember exactly what happened when.

Looking back over this past year, we were struck by how many photo shoots we thought we’d shot back in 2017 — and how many we’d completely forgotten about. We all remembered the big tent pole reviews like the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or Pixel 3, but had no recollection of the portraits of Dessa or Mr. Lui’s building full of old CRT screens. Remember the Apple HomePod? That was shot in January 2018, but it feels like a lifetime ago.

2018 was the year we consolidated our creative approach to our tech reviews, our gift guides, and our various series. We worked hard on pushing ourselves creatively and refining our style, but we also made sure we were as consistent as possible. We shot many of our camera reviews on the same black background and used an identical layout for all of the lead images for our two gift guides — only the products and background colors changed. We also developed a tight shot list for our series “What’s in Your Bag.”

But striving for consistency didn’t stop us from being experimental. For example, Amelia Holowaty Krales used very creative lighting for her portraits of the artist Serpentwithfeet; Michele Doying spent hours cutting ones and zeros out of paper for her Facebook stop-motion animations; and Vlad Savov ditched his camera altogether and shot all his photos at the Geneva Motor Show on his Pixel 2XL.

We have selected the following photographs, not necessarily because we think they are the best of the past year’s bunch, but because they mean something to us personally. There are many more photos of gadgets and weird tech that didn’t make the cut, but we had to draw the line somewhere. And remember, if we missed an image that you particularly like, it is not necessarily because we didn’t think it was good enough — we may simply have forgotten that we took it! So please feel free to remind us. And once you’re finished here, please check out our review of the best illustrations that have appeared on The Verge in 2018.

The photographs below are arranged chronologically by the date they were first published. —James Bareham

JANUARY

TECHNOGRAPHICA: DANNY ROZIN

It was really interesting to visit Danny Rozin’s studio and see his process. I have been following his work for a while, and The Verge has covered some of his mirrors in the past. It was exciting to see his new work, the biggest to date. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

APPLE AIRPODS

Every once in a while I’m able to schedule a “studio play day” to experiment with different concepts and gadgets without the pressure of having to get the work up on the site. On this day, I had spent most of my morning commute watching slow-motion videos of splashes, so I knew what shapes to cut the paper into in order to make them look as real as possible. In the studio, I wasn’t sure how the final animation would turn out, but watching the images come alive once I put the them together was the perfect way to start the year. —Michele Doying

FEBRUARY

CIRCUIT BREAKER LIVE

In February 2018, the Circuit Breaker live show moved from Twitter to YouTube. Over the course of the 11-episode season, the core team of (left to right) Dami Lee, Nilay Patel, Ashley Carman, Chaim Gartenberg, Paul Miller, and Jake Kastrenakes covered an eclectic range of weird and wonderful gadgets, and were regularly joined by special guests — including many members of The Verge staff. Paul Miller also developed a knack for making strangely surreal special reports that aired during the course of each show. The final episode of Circuit Breaker Live streamed on April 17th, 2018. —James Bareham

THE LAST SCAN

Chi-Tien Lui has owned his building in the New York City neighborhood of Tribeca — where property values are some of the highest on the planet — since the 1990s. Almost every room (at least every room I saw) seemed to be filled to the ceiling with CRT screens and vintage video components. The rows upon rows of video monitors, screens, circuit boards and switches are the raw ingredients Mr. Lui uses to repair the aging CRTs still being used in video walls and installations by his clients, which include the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney. There are few people left like Chi-Tien Lui, who have both years of experience working with CRTs and access to the spare parts. It is clear that CRTs are not just his business, they’re his passion, which is probably why he’s so good at fixing them. —James Bareham

GOOGLE CLIPS

The Google Clips camera was specifically designed with parents and parents of pets in mind. As I am the proud owner of Monty (left) and Georgie, two long-haired English cream dachshunds, our Clips review seemed an ideal opportunity to get them both back on camera for The Verge (their previous modeling assignment was for our Furbo video back in May of 2016). I hope Dan Seifert will take no offense at my opinion that they were the true stars of the Clips video. —James Bareham

APPLE HOMEPOD

The video team and I traveled to Nilay Patel’s house — which is chock-full of speakers and vintage audio equipment — to film our review of Apple’s HomePod. The HomePod is very Apple, by which I mean that it is beautifully made and works really well, but only if you are fully immersed in Apple’s ecosystem (which I am not). It sounds amazing, although I personally am never going to buy it. But the shortcomings of the HomePod aside, the winter light streaming into Nilay’s house made this one of the most beautiful product shoots of 2018. —James Bareham

NEBULA CAPSULE

For this shoot, Amelia Holowaty Krales used the pocket-sized Nebula Capsule to project images onto Paul Miller. The result were some seriously surreal portraits. —James Bareham

CHINA’S FEMINIST MOVEMENT BRAVES A CRACKDOWN

Box cutters (I am not a fan of X-Acto knives) were my go-to tool for carving these Mandarin characters out of paper. Although I printed a variety of sizes, due to time restraints I was only able to cut out the biggest set. Not wanting to make the growth of the characters a digital effect, I cut the smaller character sets into rectangles and removed the white paper in photoshop. After the shoot, The Verge’s design director William Joel used Adobe After Effects to apply a gray cast to the hands in order to give them a more sinister feel. I find it fascinating that we were able to use digital tools to maintain the integrity of the cutouts, while also enhancing them to bring this piece to the next level. —Michele Doying

TESLA MODEL 3

The Model 3 is widely regarded as Tesla’s make-or-break model. To say that a lot is riding on this car is probably one of the greatest understatements of 2018. We got to drive one around the streets of downtown Manhattan for a few hours, where it certainly attracted a lot of attention from passersby. I personally found the Model 3 a bit of a letdown, especially when compared to Tesla’s Model S. The Model 3 seemed a little austere and basic in comparison, especially as the particular car we tested came with a number of additional options that drove the price well over $50K. —James Bareham

KEY CHANGE

This shoot with the musician Dessa was one of my most experimental of the year. I photographed her in The Verge’s studio with a colorful lighting setup, and then used Photoshop to combine the portraits with a scan of her brain. —James Bareham

SUCTION CUP PHONE CASE

Ashley Carman and I were searching for a location to shoot pictures of her latest phone case — this particular model was by Marc Jacobs and covered in black suction cups. We met in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo and happened to walk by illustrator Yuko Shimizu’s double murals from 2013, which depict long octopus tentacles spelling out “yes.” It was a perfect spot. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

FIRST-GENERATION IPOD

I recently found my first iPod, the first-generation 5GB model with the moveable click wheel. After much trial and error, I finally managed to recharge it, and found a rather bizarre collection of music from 2002 as a result. Though some of my music choices were rather dubious and very dated, I found the actual experience of clicking through the tracks and playlists to be as fresh in 2018 as it was when I first used the iPod 16 years ago. Great design truly doesn’t age. —James Bareham

MARCH

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ALGORITHM CUTS YOUR HEALTH CARE

When Arkansas implemented an algorithm to calculate the hours allotted to residents requiring home health care aid, Tammy Dobbs was among those whose hours were cut — in her case significantly. Verge senior reporter Colin Lecher and I went to Arkansas to interview and photograph Arkansas Legal Aid attorney Kevin De Liban and a few of the families affected by the new algorithm. This was definitely one of the most important stories I photographed in 2018. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW

This year’s Geneva Motor Show was a big and, dare I say it, bold experiment for me. It’s the first professional assignment I’ve gone to without a dedicated camera of some sort — just myself and Google’s Pixel 2 XL. Admittedly, it wasn’t a huge risk to take when I knew my subjects would be innately photogenic cars sitting atop perfectly lit rotating platforms. But the adventure certainly demonstrated the incredible capability of modern mobile photography. —Vlad Savov

BASEBALL TRIVIA AND FART JOKES

No offense to my colleagues, but I love Benicio Quinones’ tech reviews the best. I worked very closely with Tamara Warren, Benicio’s mom and The Verge‘s former transportation editor, but I particularly enjoyed shooting pictures for her son’s posts. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF KNOW YOUR MEME

I photographed Brad Kim, editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme, in the company’s Brooklyn offices. The photos were taken to accompany Kaitlyn Tiffany’s profile of the organization on its 10th anniversary (Kaitlin is a former Verge staffer who is now with The Goods). Toward the end of our visit, I followed Kim outside while he walked his dogs. The resulting environmental portrait became one of my favorites from the entire shoot. It didn’t make it into the finished piece, so it’s nice to able to show it here. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

THE NINTENDO SWITCH TURNS ONE

Michele Doying’s stop-motion animation, created to mark the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Nintendo Switch, is arguably one of the best she produced this year. It is such a simple concept and so well executed, I find myself watching it over and over. —James Bareham

TECHNOGRAPHICA: MOREHSHIN ALLAHYARI

I was already a fan of Morehshin Allahyari’s work when I contacted her to see if she’d be willing to be featured in our series Technographica. The timing was perfect — she was starting a new project. I was able to capture some of the stages of design and production, along with the final exhibition of Allahyari’s She Who Sees the Unknown series. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

OREGON TRAIL

Now this was a fun day! Mariya Abdulkaf, our social media guru, reached out to see if I could shoot a stop-motion around the Oregon Trail game. After playing the first part to brainstorm ideas, I decided to create a tableau of scenes on a paper background while the screen showed our progress on the trail. Mariya helped me by cutting out the paper trees and water, while I focused my efforts on finishing the game as quickly as possible. I am glad my team refused to die until after encountering Chimney Rock, a mountain range, and a lightning storm (my favorite part). Those moments were all unexpected and required a lot of additional cutout work that left the photo studio floor strewn with paper scraps. But all these elements undoubtedly enhanced the final stop-motion. For those of you who are wondering how our determined team finally died in the game, they all expired in typical Oregon Trail fashion: measles, dysentery, and, in the case of Gunther, our fearless wagon leader, a fever. —Michele Doying

APRIL

THE GRILLES OF THE NEW YORK AUTO SHOW

Car grilles and lots of them! The New York International Auto show was host to cars of all shapes and sizes, but I decided to focus on just the grilles for this photo essay. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

TECHNOGRAPHICA: WEARABLE MEDIA

I joined writer Lizzie Plaugic and Verge video directors Alix Diaconis and Becca Farsace on a visit to the women behind Wearable Media at New Inc. The New Museum’s incubator space is located right next door to the museum on Bowery, a street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The atmospheric former factory space was undoubtedly one of my favorite locations to shoot during this past year. Lizzie is photographed here wearing Wearable Media’s celestial sensing jumpsuit, Ceres. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

NINTENDO LABO

I am going to come right out and say it: I love Nintendo Labo. It is one of my favorite pieces of tech from 2018 and is also one of the primary reasons I chose to buy a Switch. The fusion of folding cardboard and coding seems like such an odd idea until you actually start to play with it. Nintendo has made the process of building these cardboard games so seamless, straightforward, and fun it’s positively infectious. After all, how else are you going to play a meowing cat organ? And if you need further proof, watch Dami Lee use Labo to play “Rainbow Connection,” which also happens to be my favorite Verge video of 2018. —James Bareham

FACEBOOK

Facebook has rarely been out of the news this year, and most of that news has been very bad for the company. Casey Newton’s extensive coverage of Facebook on The Verge means that we need a lot of lead imagery made in advance, which is why Michele Doying created a number of stop-motion animations around the Facebook logo. This one is my personal favorite, not only because it’s so simple and effective, but because Michele put in so much work cutting out all of those paper ones and zeros by hand. —James Bareham

OLPC’S LAPTOP WAS GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD

I think that this OLCP “$100 laptop” (widely referred to as the “green machine”) is the most futuristic yet old-fashioned-looking piece of tech I photographed this year. The green and white color scheme makes it look like it was built for Buzz Lightyear. —James Bareham

MAY

ANKER’S SOUNDCORE HEADPHONES

We shoot lots of photos of people wearing headphones every year. This shot of Verge reporter Shannon Liao wearing a pair of Anker Soundcore headphones was taken by Amelia Holowaty Krales in downtown New York City and has such a timeless quality to it that I think we’re going to be using this shot for years. —James Bareham

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG, THE KNOCKS?

In 2018, we shot a lot of artists and creatives for our series “What’s in Your Bag,” and we have more planned for 2019. This shoot with The Knocks in their Chinatown studio in lower Manhattan was my first for the series. WIYB shoots are always fun, but most of the artists I photograph come to our studio. This shoot with The Knocks was especially interesting because this space meant so much to them — it was where much of their music has been recorded. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

GOOGLE ASSISTANT

2018 was arguably the year when voice assistants went truly mainstream. Michele Doying used colorful Play-Doh to create this stop-motion representation of the Google Assistant. —James Bareham

UBER CEO: OUR FUTURE WON’T JUST BE CARS

The future success of Uber is currently in the hands of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. In early May, Khosrowshahi sat down for an exclusive interview with Verge transportation reporter Andrew Hawkins at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles during the 2018 Elevate Summit. Los Angeles based photographer Philip Cheung joined Andy to shoot this wonderfully epic series of portraits. —James Bareham

JUNE

IF SERPENTWITHFEET IS THE FUTURE OF MUSIC, MAYBE HUMANITY WILL WIN AFTER ALL

I took many test shots in preparation for this portrait session with the amazing musician Serpentwithfeet. But my favorites were the experimental photographs I took toward the end of the session, the ones using slower shutter speeds and with fewer fill lights. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG, LAKEITH STANFIELD?

The scope of the shoots for our “What’s in Your Bag” series has grown over the course of the year and now regularly include stop-motion animation. Michele Doying’s shoot with Lakeith Stanfield shows how movement can add so much to a portrait. —James Bareham

INSIDE DETROIT’S CRUMBLING TRAIN STATION THAT FORD PLANS TO TURN INTO A MOBILITY LAB

In June, Ford announced that it bought the iconic (and long abandoned) Michigan Central Station in Detroit and had plans to turn this neglected building into a hub for Ford’s future development of autonomous vehicles. Michigan-based photographer Fabrizio Costantini shot an astonishing photo essay of the building, but perhaps the most impressive photos were those taken using a drone. —James Bareham

CALIFORNIA’S LARGEST LAKE IS DRYING UP

Photographer Alex Welsh shot these eerily beautiful photographs of the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, for our long-form feature. Today, the lake, which once attracted more visitors than Yosemite, is drying up and threatens local communities with clouds of toxic dust. —James Bareham

THE BORING COMPANY’s NOT-A-FLAMETHROWER

Verge deputy editor Liz Lopatto is the proud owner of one of The Boring Company’s “Not a Flamethrower.” The “flamethrower” (which I insist is really a glorified bunsen burner) has little practical use, so Liz decided to use it for cooking. Verge video director and photographer Vjeran Pavic documented her experiments in extreme cooking from a safe distance. —James Bareham

JULY

RADIO FLYER’S STAR WARS LANDSPEEDER

Bram has been driving Radio Flyer’s Star Wars Landspeeder around all summer, and I knew I wanted to shoot some pictures of him driving in it. The afternoon doing this was a ton of fun, and I particularly like the profile image (and the gif!). —Andrew Liptak

CAMERA REVIEWS

As I mentioned in my introduction, striving for consistency in our photographs has been a big goal in 2018. Perhaps nothing demonstrates how a consistent approach can benefit a subject better than our camera reviews. Where possible, we used the same black background and matched both the lighting and composition on each camera review, making them look distinctly Verge. Amelia Holowaty Krales shot the four examples above. —James Bareham

AUGUST

CONTRAPOINTS: THE OSCAR WILDE OF YOUTUBE

One of the highlights of 2018 was this portrait shoot with Natalie Wynn, which I shot to accompany Katherine Cross’ story on the YouTube star. It was such a treat to spend the afternoon with her, and she was such a pro, completing four (!) different costume changes. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

HOW NUCLEAR WASTE ENDED UP ON A CALIFORNIA BEACH

The launch of the Verge Science YouTube channel is one of the undoubted highlights of 2018. In a few short months, the channel has amassed over 600,000 followers and produced videos with millions of views. Verge Science producer William Poor shot this photograph of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on San Onofre State Beach about 60 miles north of San Diego. —James Bareham

HOME OF THE FUTURE

The Verge and Curbed got together this year to build a real life Home of the Future in Austin, Texas. Along with the video crew and host Grant Imahara, I endured days of record-hot summer temperatures to shoot this ground-breaking (literally) series. —James Bareham

CUTEST ROBOT AWARD

No additional comment needed. This awesome photo of the Anki Vector robot by Vjeran Pavic speaks for itself. —James Bareham

DJI MAVIC 2 PRO AND ZOOM

This first photograph was taken over Croatia. During the flight, I was mostly focused on recording video. But when this blue kayak started rowing through my frame I had to quickly switch to photo mode. Easily one of my favorite photos that I have taken with a drone to date.

The biggest challenge that comes from bringing a drone to Iceland is resisting the urge to fly it all the time. One reason is to save batteries; the other one is to appreciate the nature around you. I think this one was worth draining the batteries and it also gives me the perspective I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. So, win win? —Vjeran Pavic

SEPTEMBER

A.HUMAN: FASHION ABOUT CHANGING YOUR BODY INSTEAD OF YOUR CLOTHES

A. Human was an exhibit during New York Fashion Week showcasing possibilities in single-use, decorative prosthetic-like appliques that adhere to the wearer’s skin. It was a bizarre exhibition. The dimly lit space had theatrically lit pedestals where live models were displaying the decorative pieces alongside mannequins. The foot-skin boot was especially strange. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

GOPRO’S HERO 7

Sometimes in the city of New York you just have to look up. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

ANKER SOUNDCORE LIBERTY LITE EARBUDS

This shot of Michele Doying wearing the Anker Soundcore Liberty Lite wireless earbuds was my favorite in the shoot. It didn’t make it into the final review, so it’s a great excuse to drop it in here. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG, TYLER ALVAREZ?

Tyler Alvarez was photographed in The Verge’s studio for “What’s in Your Bag.” Stop-motion animation by Michele Doying. —James Bareham

DOMESTICATED FOXES

Verge Science motion graphics director Alex Parkin shot this behind-the-scenes photograph of Verge Science producer William Poor holding one of the domesticated foxes featured in the video. The video is one of Verge Science’s most successful, wracking up over 5,264,073 views to date. —James Bareham

APPLE WATCH SERIES 4

The Apple Watch Series 4 is widely regarded as the smartwatch Apple finally got right. Vjeran Pavic got suitably technical with his photography for Dieter Bohn’s review. Vjeran used a light modifier as a background and plexiglass to create mirrored reflections and graphic shapes. Definitely one of our most impressive product shoots of the year —James Bareham

OCTOBER

GOOGLE PIXEL 3 AND 3 XL

When it came to creating a lead image for our review of the very impressive Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL, we went back to a technique we first used for our review of the Galaxy S8 in 2017. The only difference was that instead of shooting the phone laying on an iMac screen as I had with the S8, the Pixel 3 was shot standing on the screen of a 4K TV. Verge design director William Joel once again created a stunning wallpaper design for the Pixel screen (you can find all of The Verge’s wallpapers here) and Vjeran Pavic brought the plexiglass he used on his Apple Watch Series 4 shoot over from San Francisco. This lead image was the result of a real team effort. —James Bareham

PARIS MOTOR SHOW

As with Geneva, I shot the Paris auto exhibition entirely with the Pixel 2 XL, which boasts a camera that could only possibly be replaced by the Pixel 3 XL’s. The sheer convenience of having such a powerful camera built into my phone meant I probably shot a whole lot more cars in Paris than I would have done if I needed to reach into my backpack for a DSLR or mirrorless shooter. —Vlad Savov

FITBIT CHARGE 3

On our way back from shooting some shots of Chaim Gartenberg wearing the new Fitbit Charge 3, we got caught in the rain and took shelter under cover of The Verge’s office building in downtown Manhattan. In a covered area on one side of the building are a bunch of these amazing bright red Herman Miller-designed chairs. I plopped the watch down into the middle of one of them and it created a very abstract background. A very unexpected win! —Amelia Holowaty Krales

iPHONE XR

I have described Amelia Holowaty Krales’ review photos of the iPhone XR as having an almost Instagram style. I think this photo of The Verge social video producer Mariya Abdulkaf taking a selfie in a Brooklyn bar makes it clear why. —James Bareham

ANDROID’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY

All of the Android flavors over the years in one delicious stop-motion animation by Michele Doying. —James Bareham

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG, JESS GLYNNE?

As a fan of Jess Glynne, this was definitely a highlight of 2018 for me. Jess has an amazing voice, a recent new album, and a few awesome things in her bag. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

WHAT’S IN YOUR BAG, R3HAB

Fadil El Ghoul, aka R3HAB, is a boundless ball of energy and a delight to interview and photograph. He also carries an astonishing number of nutritional supplements in his bag. —James Bareham

PIXEL SLATE

Inspired, no doubt, by the success of his Apple Watch Series 4 photos, Vjeran Pavic once again turned to minimal reflections for his shoot of Google’s new Pixel Slate. —James Bareham

THE RED HYDROGEN ONE PHONE

RED’s Hydrogen One phone holds the dubious record of being the lowest rated Verge review. Ever. However, I do appreciate how Red’s designers went outside the box a bit and included industrial elements not seen in other phones. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

NOVEMBER

AMAZON KINDLE PAPERWHITE

Chaim Gartenberg and I took advantage of an unseasonably warm November day to stick our hands in a water fountain not far from The Verge’s office in lower Manhattan. Look, ma, it’s waterproof! —Amelia Holowaty Krales

THE PALM IS BACK

I don’t really think that I need a phone for my phone, but this itty bitty new Palm phone is really cute. —Amelia Holowaty Krales

UNAGI SCOOTER

The Unagi is a high-end scooter designed for the discerning aficionado who doesn’t ever feel the need to stop suddenly. For an electric scooter that can cost up to $1,190, the brakes are shockingly bad. Transportation reporter Andrew Hawkins had the dubious task of putting the scooter through its paces. —James Bareham

DECEMBER

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDES

The Verge photo team shot two different gift guides this year: the Back to School Gift Guide and our Holiday Gift Guide. We used exactly the same approach to photography for both. We worked with Michael Moore, The Verge’s reviews coordinator, to lay out the principle items from the guide in an isomorphic arrangement which would then be photographed by Amelia Holowaty Krales. She would then hand the set over to Michele Doying, who created stop-motion animations based on the lead image and other ideas for use on social media. This process worked so well we’re going to carry it into 2019 — we just have to pick some different background colors. —James Bareham

TESLA GIGAFACTORY

Our final selection of images from 2018 comes from The Verge’s visit to Tesla’s Gigafactory just east of Reno, Nevada, and its factory in Fremont, California. Reporter Sean O’Kane shot so many good photographs inside and around both facilities that we seriously considered running a second photo essay alongside the main feature. Verge video director Becca Farsace captured some incredible aerial footage of the Gigafactory nestled in the hills of the Nevada desert. This final feature and video were a fittingly epic way of closing out a very busy, and very intense, 2018.