The Best Photos of 2017
Since its founding 50 years ago, Rolling Stone has been home to indelible, generation-defining photography – and this year was no exception. With celebrated veterans (Peggy Sirota, David LaChappelle, Mark Seliger) and newcomers behind the lens, we shot some of the biggest names and exciting rising stars in music, TV and beyond. Check out some of the year’s most arresting images featuring Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Gal Gadot and more.
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Harry Styles
Cameron Crowe details a year in the life of the One Direction star as he leaves behind his boy-band past, heads to Jamaica and comes of age. Read the story here.
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Khalid
His album ‘American Teen’ pulses with euphoric dance beats, Eighties synths and tales of marijuana-and booze-fueled high school raging. Read the interview here.
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Gal Gadot
The former Israeli combat instructor and ex-pageant queen had given up on acting when she landed the role of a lifetime. Read the story here.
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Emilia Clarke
How HBO’s insanely popular hit show turned a young British actress into a feminist, a fantasy icon and a royal fan favorite. Read the story here.
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Kendrick Lamar
The greatest rapper alive goes deep on his obsessive studio habits, what Bono taught him and the temptations of stardom. Read the story here.
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Environmental Activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
Juliana vs the United States, a climate lawsuit brought by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez and 20 other kids vs the federal government, will be heard next year. Read the story here.
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Werner Herzog
He’s dragged ships up mountains, hypnotized actors and stared into volcanoes – and the German director is still obsessively seeking a deeper truth. Read the story here.
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Shannon Purser
“Everyone has been an outcast at one point in their life,” nominated ‘Stranger Things’ actress says of her character Barb’s cultural resonance. Read the story here.
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Paris Jackson
In her first-ever in-depth interview, Michael Jackson’s daughter discusses her father’s pain and finding peace after addiction and heartache. Read the story here.
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John Oliver
TV’s sharpest political satirist on crafting comedy in dark times, that ‘Drumpf’ gag and where we go from here in our candid cover story. Read the story here.
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Lorde
She became famous at 16 with an album that changed the mainstream. All she had to do was figure out where to go from there. Read the story here.
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Let’s Eat Grandma
Offbeat duo on how their “creative friendship” led them to Glastonbury and beyond. Read the story here.
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Elon Musk
Inside the inventor’s world-changing plans to inhabit outer space, revolutionize high-speed transportation, reinvent cars – and hopefully find love along the way. Read the story here.
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Denzel Curry
“We didn’t know the impact we was gonna have on the whole game,” Miami MC says of his trailblazing punk-inspired rap. Read the story here.
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Cupcakke
The 20-year-old rapper with viral hits like “Vagina” got her start writing, performing poems “strictly about God” as a 14-year-old in Chicago churches. Read the story here.
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Ashton Sanders
“I want to do films that … inspire people to stand up for what’s right in our country,” the 21-year-old Moonlight actor says. Read the story here.
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Josh Homme
The Queens of the Stone Age frontman, one of rock’s last true believers just made yet another great album – and he has a lot to get off his chest. Read the story here.
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Valerie June
After years of struggle, the Tennessee singer made a bluesy modern-day classic and became Bob Dylan’s favorite new artist. Read the story here.
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Machine Gun Kelly
After years of hard knocks and hard partying, the Cleveland rapper may finally be breaking big. Read the story here.
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Shamir
“On the Regular” singer talks sudden 2015 success and the troubled times that led up ‘Revelations, his new, guitar-driven LP. Read the story here.
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6lack
The “Prblms” hitmaker is working on the follow-up to ‘Free 6lack’ in Atlanta. Read the story here.