The Year in Photos: Features

Every year, The Associated Press chooses a selection of photos that best documents the year’s top features stories as chronicled by photojournalists around the world. Today, this collection was distributed by the AP to its members and subscribers worldwide. 

This year’s set of compelling and newsworthy images was selected by Acting Director of Photography Denis Paquin.

Below is a gallery featuring this year’s features selection.

Germany Daily Life

The buildings of the banking district are seen through rain drops on a glass railing in central Frankfurt, Germany, on Jan. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

California Daily Life

A tower from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco rises over a blanket of fog on Jan. 13, 2017. Sunshine and fog returned to some areas of Northern California after a series of storms that caused flooding in various cities. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

China Daily Life

A woman is silhouetted by a sunlight as she walks past a building in Beijing, on May 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

California Daily Life

A man is dwarfed by The Broad museum as he walks in downtown Los Angeles on May 22, 2017. The contemporary art museum was founded by philanthropist Eli Broad in 2015. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Austria Weather

A man swims in an outdoor pool with steaming water on Jan. 5, 2017, after snow covered the landscape near Bischofshofen, Austria. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

New Arctic Icebergs Gallery

An iceberg floats past Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on July 24, 2017. Icebergs aren't sea ice, despite being best known for floating about the ocean. They are actually chunks of glaciers that have broken off at the water's edge. Since glaciers are made from freshwater and compacted over dozens if not hundreds of years, icebergs are naturally among the hardest types of ice a ship might encounter. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

New Arctic

A polar bear stands on a patch of ice in the Franklin Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on July 22, 2017. While some polar bears are expected to follow the retreating ice northward, others will head south, where they will come into greater contact with humans, encounters that are unlikely to end well for the bears. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Germany Weather

A block of ice encasing a drowned fox who broke through the thin ice of the Danube river four days earlier sits on the river's bank in Fridingen, southern Germany on Jan. 13, 2017. (Johannes Stehle/dpa via AP)

Portugal Daily Life

A child is silhouetted against water falling from a fountain outside the Lisbon Oceanarium in Lisbon, Portugal, on Jan. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Israel Eid al-Fitr

A Muslim boy cools off in a fountain in a park next to the Mediterranean Sea during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 26, 2017. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslims' holy fasting month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Romania Easter Photo Gallery

A child hugs an entertainer wearing a rabbit costume at an Easter fair in Bucharest, Romania, on April 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Canada Daily Life

Skaters are silhouetted in the early morning sunlight as they make their way along the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa on Jan. 15, 2017. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

Morocco Daily Life

A camel vendor walks near the shadows of tourists riding camels in Merzouga, Morocco, along what is called the route of a thousand kasbahs in the Atlas Mountains on March 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar)

Spain Holy Week

Penitents from 'Cristo de la Buena Muerte' or 'Good Dead Christ' brotherhood take part in a procession in Madrid, Spain, in the early hours of Tuesday, April 11, 2017. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

South Africa Cape Town Storm

A car is washed over by a huge wave that slammed into the promenade during heavy storms in the Sea Point neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, on June 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)

Australian Open Tennis

A spectator cools herself at a water spraying fan at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Argentina Zoo Crisis

Pupy, an African elephant, stands in the doorway of his enclosure at the former city zoo now known as Eco Parque in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 12, 2017. A year ago the 140-year old Buenos Aires zoo closed its doors and was transformed into a park. The first director decided that the animals should be housed in buildings that reflected their countries of origin. A replica of a Hindu temple was built for the Asian elephants. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Belmont Stakes Horse Racing

An exercise rider guides a race horse around the track during a workout on June 9, 2017, in Elmont, N.Y., the day before the 149th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

New Hampshire Daily Life

Quincy Andrews, left, and Josh Fournier, both of Meredith, N.H., arrive at dawn on Sept. 24, 2017, at the summit of Mount Washington, N.H., where a water fountain awaits visitors to New England's highest peak. The weather observatory on the summit recorded a record daily temperature high when the mercury hit 65 degrees that day. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

New York Daily Life

Two Staten Island Ferries catch the last rays of the setting sun while crossing paths as one departs from and the other arrives at the lower Manhattan terminal on March 3, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Germany Daily Life

A swan stands on the bank of the river Main in Frankfurt, Germany, on May 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Belarus Daily Life

Insects feed on chamomile nectar in a field on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, on July 21, 2017, during a sunny summer's day. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Germany Daily Life

A white wagtail holds an insect it caught on the terrace of a restaurant in Markkleeberg, Germany, on July 1, 2017. (Sebastian Willnow/dpa via AP)

Italy Daily Life

A lemur licks a block of ice containing fruit at Rome's Bioparco zoo on July 5, 2017. Zookeepers at the Bioparco often give animals ice blocks with either fruit or meat on hot summer days. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Israel

Four-year-old Macaque Niv holds a few weeks-old chick at the Ramat Gan Safari near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Aug. 24, 2017. Niv "adopted" the chicken as it wandered into their enclosure. Zoo officials say the unlikely pair have become inseparable. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Michigan Daily Life

People race down the dunes at Warren Dunes State Park in Bridgman, Mich., as a storm front approaches on July 12, 2017. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Maine Daily Life

A lobsterman's boat leaves a gentle wake as he motors out of a harbor on a foggy morning in Boothbay, Maine, on July 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Romania Heatwave

Two men jump in a lake in Silistea Snagovului, Romania, on Aug. 6, 2017, during a heatwave with extreme temperatures of up to 42 Celsius (107.6 F). (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Germany Daily Life

Cows graze on a pasture near the Bavarian town of Bernbeuren, Germany, at sunset on Aug. 6, 2017. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa via AP)

Texas Daily Life

A fisherman casts his net from a jetty in Port Aransas, Texas, at sunrise on Sept. 30, 2017. The costal bend area is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Harvey. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Germany Daily Life

A carp swims on the surface of a pond in the Palmengarten park in Frankfurt, Germany, on Aug. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Maine Daily Life

Fog rises from Moose Pond as Shawn Hooper of Rochester, N.H., left, and Joe Lane of Limerick, Maine, compete in a bass fishing tournament on Oct. 1, 2017, in Bridgeton, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

California Daily Life

Alan Larson takes a picture of the sunset from atop a picnic table on Mission Beach in San Diego on Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Spain Daily Life

A sparrow flies after cooling off in a public fountain in Madrid on Oct. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Kansas Daily Life

Birds vie for position on power lines in Kansas City, Kan., at dusk on Sept. 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Malaysia Daily Life

An Olive-backed Sunbird feeds an insect to its two chicks in their nest in Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, on Jan. 21, 2017. The small birds feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding their young. Sunbirds are found in tropical Africa, India, and the forests of Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Brazil Daily Life

Masks representing corrupt politicians are posted on the lawn outside the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Missouri Daily LIfe

People ride a roller coaster at dusk at Worlds of Fun amusement park in Kansas City, Mo., on July 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Switzerland Daily Life

A man takes a picture with his mobile phone in the longest light tunnel in Europe, 50 meters long, composed of 28,750 stars placed on 25 hoops and 1,150 garlands in Vevey, Switzerland, on Nov. 25, 2017. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

Holiday Travel

Traffic streaks across the Francis Scott Key Bridge linking Virginia and Washington at the start of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend on Nov. 22, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

Italy Daily Life

Electricity pylons and buildings are silhouetted against a fire-red sunset, as the autumn darkness falls over Milan, Italy, on Oct. 29, 2017. (Daniel Dal Zennaro/ANSA via AP)

Germany Daily Life Climate

Red warning lights glow from wind power plants and red lines from the taillights of a car driving by in the foreground are seen near Freimersheim, southern Germany, on Nov. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

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