An ICE agent stare-down, Mikie Sherrill celebrating her big win, and a classic diner at twilight are among our best photos of the year.
2025 was a big year for New Jersey. We elected a new governor, became a battleground in the Trump administration’s push to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, saw a brief strike that shut down NJ Transit trains, and emptied our wallets paying for electricity.
Our photographers were there to capture all of it. Here are their best shots of 2025:
Amanda Brown snapped a gleeful Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill taking a selfie with supporters after she won the governor’s race on Nov. 4, 2025.
Anne-Marie Caruso captured the other side, a mournful Jack Ciattarelli conceding the gubernatorial race to Sherrill.
Hal Brown found Ciattarelli in a much more victorious mood on June 10, when Ciattarelli won the GOP primary for governor.
Anne-Marie Caruso was in Newark on Nov. 19 for an ICE raid and managed to get a photo of a federal agent looking her dead in the eye.
Ed Murray was in Jersey City on Oct. 14 to watch the city’s mayoral candidates debate, and he found former Gov. Jim McGreevey preparing in a sea of empty chairs. McGreevey went on to lose the race by a wide margin, ending his bid for political resurrection.
There were a lot of serious speeches at the Oct. 18 “No Kings” protests — and a lot of silliness, evident in this photo from Princeton by Mary Iuvone.
Gov. Phil Murphy spent a lot of 2025 awarding pardons and commuting prison sentences, and Dana DiFilippo on Nov. 10 captured this shot of Jamal Muhammad thanking Murphy for commuting his sentence.
Hal Brown found two guys just sharing a laugh in Camden on Jan. 28 — except here it’s Murphy and South Jersey power broker George Norcross, who at the time was still facing an indictment brought by Murphy’s attorney general (the indictment was tossed by a judge one month later).
Dana DiFilippo caught a lot of Trenton pols with her camera this year, including this one of powerful Bergen County Democrat Sen. Paul Sarlo on June 30, the day the Legislature passed the state budget.
Dana also snapped this one of harm reduction advocates staging a die-in at the Statehouse on June 30, after lawmakers opted to divert $45 million in national opioid funds to four of the state’s largest hospitals.
Reena Rose Sibayan snapped a classic “welp, I lost” photo of Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop on June 10 moments after he learned he would not win the Dem nomination for governor.
Amanda Brown captured a much happier Sherrill with Lt. Gov.-elect Dale Caldwell on election night.
Here’s a frame-worthy shot of a New Jersey institution, the Arlington Diner, from Anne-Marie Caruso.
Dana DiFilippo captured a tender moment between LaShawn Fitch and his mother, Barbara Robinson, after Fitch was released from South Woods State Prison on Dec. 4. Murphy commuted Fitch’s prison sentence after 17 years behind bars.
Anne-Marie Caruso snapped some tense moments at a Dec. 1 legislative hearing at the Statehouse where state Sen. James Beach, right, sparred with U.S. Sen Andy Kim over a bill to water down the powers of the state comptroller.
Dana DiFilippo went to “Not My Presidents Day” on Feb. 17, a protest against President Donald Trump’s new administration that attracted hundreds to rally in Trenton, including this very vocal woman.
Reena Rose Sibayan snapped a photo of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka posing at a get-out-the-vote rally in Newark on Nov. 1.
Dana DiFilippo talked to Carmella Bowers earlier this year for a story about the push to exonerate her son, Darren Boykins, who was convicted for a 1981 murder they say he did not commit.
