She was, decided Time magazine, the Person of the Year. 

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, aged just 16, came to embody the world movement against global heating. The Swedish schoolgirl was photographed again and again in the course of 2019.

Yet the most iconic image was always Greta clutching the hand-written “school strike for climate” which made her famous.

The climate crisis has been one of the great issues to be documented by press photographers around the world this year.

One of the most devastating pictures was taken of Enia Joaquin Luis, 11, waking up beside her sister Luisa, six, under plastic sheets.

The Herald: Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFPPhoto by Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP

They had been caught by a tropical cyclone in Mozambique in March.

Hundreds died in the storm, one of many to hit poor countries in the worst season on record.

Yet global heating has – at times – had to make way for other stories.

Trouble in Chile, for example, meant the world conference on keeping temperature rises down had to be moved to Spain. 

Photographers caught the moment demonstrators took to Plaza Italia in Santiago in October after five straight days of street violence following the announcement of a hike in metro ticket prices.

The Herald: Photo by Pedro Ugarte / AFPPhoto by Pedro Ugarte / AFP

Demonstrations got heated in Paris too. In January, France’s “yellow vest” protesters were back on the streets again as a government spokesman denounced them as hard-liners.

The Herald: Photo by Abdulmonam Eassa / AFPPhoto by Abdulmonam Eassa / AFP

That same month, protesters clashed with riot police near the Greek Parliament in Athens. They were angry at recognition of North Macedonia.

The Herald: Photo by Aris Messinis / AFPPhoto by Aris Messinis / AFP

Yet, perhaps, nowhere saw sustained demonstration over the year in the way they did in Hong Kong.

In August, thousands put up brollies to protest against an extradition law that has since morphed into a wider call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city. 

The Herald: Photo by Philip Fong / AFPPhoto by Philip Fong / AFP

There was non-political drama too. A photographer in Thailand recorded a devotee of a Chinese shrine with multiple skewers pierced through his cheeks.

The Herald: Photo by Mladen Antonov / AFPPhoto by Mladen Antonov / AFP

In Turkey an image was captured of a baby girl in colourful costume diving underwater. Her parents believe that swimming contributes to children’s intelligence, perceptual and balance skills, and co-ordination.

The Herald: Photo by Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu AgencyPhoto by Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency

Elsewhere in the near east strife continued. One image showed Palestinian families break their fast next to a building destroyed during recent confrontations between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip 

The Herald: Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFPPhoto by Mahmud Hams / AFP

But even in war, there were moments of hope. In Afghanistan, Ahmad Sayed Rahman, a five-year-old boy who lost his right leg when he was hit by a bullet in the crossfire of a battle, was pictured dancing with his prosthetic limb.

The Herald: Photo by Wakil Kohsar / AFPPhoto by Wakil Kohsar / AFP

In Syria, a photographer pictured a man suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group walking past members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Herald: Photo by Bulent Kilic / AFPPhoto by Bulent Kilic / AFP

US President Donald Trump was rarely out of the papers this year, not least for attacking Greta. 

However, there were times Mr Trump was less than photogenic, as illustrated when he met Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in September.

The Herald: Photo by Saul Loeb / AFPPhoto by Saul Loeb / AFP