2025 in photos: How St. Louis was shaken — and shaped — by turmoil, resistance and community97%
By Brian Munoz73% Lylee Gibbs0% Cristina Fletes‑Mach0% Kyle Pyatt0%
12/19/2025, 3:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Appeal to Emotion, and Halo Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 47.1% saturation with 350 hits. Analysis detected 1,295 faulty-reasoning hits from 743 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 92.2% and a BS Rank of 97% (1,017 of 28,143 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 96.40% of the article peer group.
There are moments in life that test your resilience — 2025 had plenty.
Parents mourned the loss of a child while others remained on their quest to keep their late loved ones’ legacies alive.
A devastating tornado tore through the city, displacing thousands and reshaping entire neighborhoods mere months after tornadoes hit Rolla and north St. Louis County.
Unprecedented political action — including a government shutdown — left residents in the lurch, while immigrants watched their hopes for stability and belonging get placed on hold by state and federal policies.
Through it all, these photographs bear witness.
They document moments of tension and upheaval, but also moments of whimsy, joy and wonder that endure.
We welcomed mermaids to St. Louis.
High school students in Rolla gave us the “razzle dazzle.”
The passion behind the beautiful game came to our biggest pitch.
Despite the uncertainty of the past year, one thing is certain: While the St. Louis region was shaken, it was not defeated.
The story of 2025 is one of neighbors banding together — clearing debris, coordinating mutual aid and extending a helping hand when it is needed the most.
St. Louis is weathering the storm, together.
— Brian Munoz, STLPR visuals editor
(Photo above: Miguel Marquez, 57, throws his hands in the air while marching with roughly 1,000 people protesting President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation plans on Feb. 1 in downtown St. Louis.
The protest came weeks after the administration outlined an aggressive enforcement strategy that drew nationwide criticism from immigrant-rights groups.)
Political turnover and turmoil
This year brought new levels of political action.
St. Louis Public Radio documented President Donald Trump’s rise to power in Washington, Mayor Cara Spencer’s bitter fight to unseat former Mayor Tishaura Jones and unprecedented levels of legislative action in Jefferson City after Republican infighting stunted such moves in the past.
The Missouri Statehouse overturned voter-backed provisions requiring paid sick and medical leave and advanced a proposed constitutional amendment for the 2026 ballot that would repeal abortion rights protections approved by voters in 2024.
In their place, the proposal would impose strict limits on the procedure, allowing abortions only in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant person.
The measure would also enshrine a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in the state constitution.
Those moves were followed by a series of extraordinary legislative sessions in which Republicans also pushed measures to curb the initiative petition process and redraw Missouri’s congressional maps to favor the GOP, at the behest of Trump.
Lawsuits are pending against many of the legislature’s measures.
Weathering the storm
A devastating EF3 tornado tore through St. Louis on May 16, the first time a tornado had directly struck the city since the 1950s.
The fast-moving storm carved a path across multiple neighborhoods, flattening homes, toppling trees and splintering power lines.
Four people in St. Louis died as a result of the tornado — Delois Holmes, Rena Scott-Lyles, Larry Patrick and Patricia Penelton.
Juan Baltazar was killed when straight-line winds knocked a tree onto his pickup truck in Carondelet Park.
The twister injured at least an additional 38 people.
The tornado damaged more than 10,000 buildings, displacing thousands of residents and caused more than $1 billion in damage.
Entire blocks of some of St. Louis’ most vulnerable neighborhoods were left uninhabitable and critical infrastructure — including schools, churches and community centers — suffered extensive destruction.
Seven months later, recovery efforts are still underway.
Many residents continue to navigate insurance disputes, housing shortages and rebuilding delays, while city officials and residents work to stabilize neighborhoods and prevent long-term displacement in the hardest-hit areas.
It is unclear how long recovery efforts will take.
If you made it this far...
None of this work would be possible without your support.
This year, we were fortunate to welcome Lylee Gibbs as our 2025 summer visuals intern, whose photographs appear throughout this curated collection.
We’re also incredibly excited to keep pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling — including our multidisciplinary “Remember Me” collaboration with the Marshall Project, our Dia de Muertos digital ofrenda and our many — often comedic and award-winning — short-form videos.
STLPR remains committed to giving back to the next generation of photojournalists through our annual Teen Photojournalist Prize, which drew a record number of entries this year.
If you have an idea for a visual story or a potential collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.
Reach out anytime at photo@stlpr.org.
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