SALT LAKE CITY — Tears of joy and jubilation, sorrow and strength were common themes among the Deseret News’ top photographs of 2019.

Each year we select favorite images from both the photographers and editors in our annual retrospective on the past year in photographs.

And what a year it was for our photographers, who had the privilege of documenting life, both in and out of Utah.

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See the 2019 Deseret News sports photos of the year

From traveling the world with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ President Russell M. Nelson, to farmers driving sheep down rural roads in Box Elder County, to violent clashes between police and protesters, and the power of love and resilience within Utah families, these are just some of our favorite images of 2019.

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— Chuck Wing, Deseret News director of photography

President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speaks as the sun sets during a devotional in Nausori, Fiji, on May 22, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Salt Lake City police arrest Ayoola Adisa Ajayi, 31, at an apartment complex at 1028 S. West Temple by a SWAT team Friday, June 28, 2019. He was later booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a human body and obstruction of justice. Ajayi was arrested in connection with the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck.
Salt Lake City police arrest Ayoola Adisa Ajayi, 31, at an apartment complex at 1028 S. West Temple on Friday, June 28, 2019. He was later booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a human body and obstruction of justice. Ajayi was arrested in connection with the death of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Lane Jensen and son Cooper lead nearly 2,500 sheep from Mantua down state Route 89-91 to Brigham City toward Corinne, Box Elder County, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Utah Highway Patrol troopers remove a protester after he and several others disrupted a Utah Inland Port Authority board meeting at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Oswaldo Gutierrez, of West Valley City, and Gabriela Olivares, of Ogden, dance at the Jaripeo Baile/Rodeo at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City on Sunday, July 21, 2019. | Laura Seitz, Deserert News
President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints waves a handkerchief after a devotional at Estadio Cementos Progreso stadium in Guatemala City on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019. Sister Wendy Nelson, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife sister, Mary Cook, look at the choir. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
The sun breaks through the clouds as a ProClean Windows crew washes the windows on the Key Bank Building in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 22, 2019. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News
Franchesca Lopez, a Brigham Young University student who said she was sexually assaulted, urges for reform of the university’s honor code and how it is enforced during a rally at BYU in Provo on Friday, April 12, 2019. Lopez did not report the assault for fear that she would be punished by the Honor Code Office. BYU, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, requires its students to sign an honor code promising to be honest, live chaste lives, obey the law and campus policies, abstain from drinking alcohol and regularly participate in church services, among other things. Students allege the administration uses the honor code against victims, and some say they have been punished for reporting their own sexual assaults. | Laura Seitz, Deserert News
Herriman City Police Lt. Cody Stromberg hugs Chris Hathaway, who lost son Bryson Hathaway in a car crash last Valentine’s Day, after a press conference about safe driving at a Unified Fire Authority fire station in Riverton on Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Brandon Lesniak jumps his mountain bike at the I Street Bike Park in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 18, 2019. | Silas Walker, Deseret News
Simranvir Kaur cheers after opening her acceptance letter to Stanford University’s Obstetrics-Gynecoclogy residency program during Match Day at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 15, 2019. Fourth-year University of Utah medical school students, along with students across the nation, opened letters to find out where they will go to complete residency as new doctors. | Laura Seitz, Deserert News
Downtown buildings poke through the inversion in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Liver transplant recipient James Dillard receives a hug from his wife, Connie, after speaking about his second chance at life at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. Dillard received a new liver in December 2018. | Laura Seitz, Deserert News
A group of 33 rock doves are released to symbolize suicide losses over the years at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, Oct. 4, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Phil Larsen, a retired firefighter with the Round Hill Volunteer Fire Department near Washington, D.C., braves the rain at the 18th annual Healing Field in Sandy on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, as he pays his respects to the men and women who lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks. Larsen, a Sandy native, worked at the Pentagon in 2001 but was off on the day of the attacks. | Colter Peterson, Deseret News
Raaina Seidu, 2, plays with a balloon during Eid al-Fitr, a celebration to mark the end of the monthlong fast of Ramadan and beginning of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, in which Muslims socialize and strengthen community bonds, at Classic Fun Center in Sandy on Tuesday, June 4, 2019. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, right, holds hands with her wife, Betty Iverson, as she leaves her office to announce her withdrawal from the Salt Lake mayoral race, citing a “complex family situation.” Biskupski addressed the media outside her office at the City-County Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, March 18, 2019. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News
The sun sets at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in Sharon, Vt., on Oct. 18, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Crocker hugs his children Kaiden and Anabelle as Utah Army National Guard’s Echo Battery, 1st Battalion, 145th Field Artillery, “Big Red,” return from Middle East deployment in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 9, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Salt Lake police and Utah Highway Patrol troopers force protesters out of the Chamber of Commerce Building at 175 E. 400 South in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. The protest over the Utah Inland Port began at the City-County Building and moved to the Chamber of Commerce Building where the port authority meets. | Steve Griffin, Deseret News
Ashraf Kambere, Anifah Barobi, Habiba Kaviira, Zulufa Kabul and Azida Kahindo react to seeing their new house in Ogden as a bus from HGTV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” moves to reveal it on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Barobi, her daughter, Kambere and his siblings were reunited at a refugee camp in Uganda after fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo where Kambere’s parents were murdered. After years in the refugee camp they all came to Utah together. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Rabbi Avrohom “Avremi” Zippel walks away from a courtroom in the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, after his former nanny was found guilty on five counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and two counts of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
A truck motors along the Trans-Amazonian Highway, straddling protected indigenous land at right and unprotected land that has been clear-cut at left, in Pará State, Brazil, on Tuesday, June 11, 2019. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
McKenzie Fuchigami kneels beside the remains of her husband, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kirk T. Fuchigami, after they arrived at Ogden-Hinkley Airport in Ogden on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. Fuchigami and his co-pilot were killed Wednesday when their Apache helicopter crashed during an operation in Afghanistan. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
Phirun Manin greets Chad Furness, Asia Area Welfare and Self-Reliance director for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from her bed at the Mesa Prachan Health Center in Cambodia on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019. | Ravell Call, Deseret News
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