Best photographs of 2014

From the Ferguson riots to the school attack in Peshawar, a Missouri ‘firenado’ and hailstones in Siberia: the Guardian’s features picture editor Sarah Gilbert selects the most compelling images of 2014. Check the "best photographs of 2014 " on the Guardian's website.

Massimo Sestini about his picture of boat people: "I tried for two years to take this picture. I took the same photo the year before, again from a helicopter, of an almost identical boat. But we didn’t manage to get directly above: some of the people in the boat looked one way, others a different way. This year I tried again. I photograph the Italian navy calendar, so we collaborate. I waited 12 days on an ­Italian navy boat for the force seven sea to calm, for this moment. I took the shot ­outside the helicopter, my feet on the skids. The incredible thing is that every single person in the photo looks up."