Looking Back At California in 2022, in Photos

PUBLISHED JAN 1, 2023 6:09 P.M.

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Almarissa Segura, 14, a student at San Antonio Elementary School in Lockwood, looks up while seated on a school bus. She was part of a CatchLight and CalMatters photo project that captured student life during the pandemic in California. Photo by David Rodríguez Muñoz for The Californian, Catchlight and CalMatters

BY CALMATTERS PHOTO TEAM

How to remember 2022 in California? It was a big election year, but it was filled with so much more — old and new.

The old: Homelessness continued to dominate public debate. The threat of wildfires stayed with us, as did the challenges of climate change. And, yes, COVID still hovered over daily life, including schools.

The new: More activism was organized by labor, wage theft gained more attention and abortion politics took center stage after the U.S. Supreme Court took away the federal constitutional guarantee. And the election brought the most diverse Legislature ever.

Here’s a look back, through the work of CalMatters photojournalists and freelance photographers.

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