Motherboard's Year in Photos

We've heard a lot about 2016 was a rough year stuffed with some unwelcome surprises, but it was also a year in which technology and society cozied up in increasingly surprising ways. We at Motherboard were there first-hand for a lot of it, and we've got the photos to prove it. The following are some of the best photos that were specifically taken for Motherboard articles either by our own staff or by contributors, and they run the gamut from lemurs bounding through billionaire bars or shops for Chinese sex robots. We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we have.

Photo: Aurélien Foucault/Motherboard

Over the course of three decades, Wu Yulu of Beijing has built 63 robot "children." Last November, Jamie Fullerton introduced us to some of them last November, including this one that bellows: "Hello everyone! Wu Yulu is my dad and I am taking my dad to the shops. Thank you!"

Photo: Ibrahim Centindemir/Motherboard

The Standing Rock protests still aren't over, but as G.S. Phillips showed us in November, the outlook once looked more dire than it does now. In this shot, Benji Buffalo from Browning, Montana stands beside his encampment as he prepares to dig in for the winter.

Photo: Daniel Oberhaus/Motherboard

Last summer Motherboard contributor Daniel Oberhaus ventured to Mount Everest to tell us the fascinating story of using the internet 5.5 miles above sea level. While there, he photographed this porter leaving the Everest base camp.

Photo: Emiko Jozuka/Motherboard

For over a Yukako Fukushima has been helping ex-yakuza rehabilitate from self-amputations performed as punishment for mistakes. In this shot, Motherboard contributor Emiko Jozuka catches her among multiple examples of her work.

Photo: Nikolaos Symeonidis/Motherboard

Last November, Sarah Souli told us about Tunisia's unexpected tree smuggling economy, in which olive and eucalyptus trees are illegally chopped down for wood and charcoal. In this photo, a small child stands near his family's charcoal operation.

Image: Jackie Dives/Motherboard

Motherboard editor Emanuel Maiberg had a chance to see the big-budget video game Gears of War 4 in the last week of development. In this shot, Max McNiven sneaking a look at an Overwatch match while he works.

Photo: Sarah Scoles/Motherboard

Motherboard contributor Sarah Scoles had a chance to visit Orbital ATK and witness a test of one of the boosters for NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which will eventually help send missions to Mars. Here, its power wreaks devastation on a mountainside.

Photo: Jamie Fullerton/Motherboard

Last April Motherboard contributor Jamie Fullerton visited a robot shop in Changsha, China, where some of the main attractions were robotic sex dolls. Here, owner "Xiao" straightens and one of the store's greeters.

Photo: Evonne Acevedo/Motherboard

During the height of the Pokémon Go craze last summer, Motherboard contributor Leif Johnson took to the wilds of South Texas to see what he could find. (It wasn't much.)

Photo: Lucy Edwards/Motherboard

At Beijing’s Huabeidong Community Service Centre, as Jamie Fullerton showed us, the young are teaching the old how to incorporate smartphones into their lives. Lucy Edwards' shot here neatly captures the resulting reversal of usual classroom roles.

Photo: Hannes Grassegger/Motherboard

Last March, Motherboard contributor wrote about his visit to billionaire Richard Branson's 74-acre Necker Island. Among the attractions are bar-hopping lemurs (above) he brought in to save from extinction.

Photo: Frederick Bernas/Motherboard

Motherboard contributor Frederick Bernas caught this image of a transgender woman named Gaby in Guayaquil, Ecuador while covering the effects of Ecuador's oil industry.

Photo: Trent Moorman/Motherboard

Motherboard contributor Trent Moorman gets shot by Miguel Caballero, the "Armored Armani" of Bogotá, Colombia who makes stylish bulletproof clothing.

Photo: Eliot Stein/Motherboard

One of Iceland's strangest attractions is a 1973 wreck of a US Navy C-117 on one of the island's many black sand beaches. For his coverage, Motherboard contributor Eliot Stein captured this image of a tourist from Argentina flying a drone over the wreckage.

Photo: Catherine Trautwein/Motherboard

Last June, Motherboard contributor Catherine Trautwein showed us how Myanmar's eased import laws have led to shocking traffic problems. Here, pedestrians rush to jump on a cramped bus in Yangon.

Photo: Aurélien Foucault/Motherboard

Ning Haiyao, a member of the all-female Chinese gaming team Twin Flower Girls, applies makeup before gaming practice. In April, Jamie Fullerton wrote about the team's heavy focus on appearance.

Photo: Evan Rodgers/Motherboard

Motherboard contributor Joshua Kopstein shows off a substitute fingerprint made for him by RISD student Mian Wei, which he used to create a more-or-less workable "false identity" for logging into his iPhone 6s and Nexus 5X for two weeks.

Photo: Daniel Oberhaus/Motherboard

Motherboard contributor Daniel Oberhaus went to the Last Vegas hacking convention Def Con as a self-described "paranoid n00b." In this photo, he catches one the the attendees attempting to defuse a mock bomb.

Photo: Evan Rodgers/Motherboard

In February, Jay Cassano wrote about the ways Uber makes money even when its drivers do not. In this accompanying photo, Uber drivers in New York protest the company's decision to lower prices.

Photo: Brian Castner/Motherboard

Brian Castner wrote seven articles for us this summer following a 1,200 mile canoe trip on Canada's Mackenzie River. In this shot, he captures the perpetual twilight near the route's end from his view on the boat.

from Motherboard's Year in Photos