This photo shows a gorilla cub born in January 2022 in the breeding group at Madrid Zoo, which is part of the European Endangered Species Programme. These western gorillas are critically endangered and every birth is a ray of hope for the survival of the species. Conservation programmes are more necessary than ever. It is called Kibo, after the highest peak on Kilimanjaro. This photo has a very special meaning for me, because I have been with this baby gorilla almost from birth and have been able to witness its gradual growth and awakening to the world and to consciousness. In this photo, as soon as I pointed the camera at the mother, she turned her back to me, but soon Kibo couldn't stand the curiosity and stuck his head out. It just goes to show how similar we are to this species so close to us. Watching them interact is fascinating and thought provoking.

Nenets are indigenous Siberian people whose traditional economy has long been rooted in nomadic reindeer-herding, fishing and hunting. They live in chums: small huts made of reindeer skins, in order to ensure a minimum of thermal insulation, especially during the winter. In this picture Roman looking out of the chum, with his red cheeks worn by the cold, -50°C.

I have been photographing myself living with a chronic illness for which there is no cure for the last 13 years, since 2010. I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS). The project follows the progression of my illness from being housebound to having to leave my apartment and move in with my parents in order to receive assistance with daily living, and then continuing to get worse and becoming completely bedridden in a room in the back of that house, unable to speak at all, hardly able to move for 7 long years, and needing a feeding tube and PICC line installed in my body because my stomach became paralyzed.
 
I have had ME/CFS for 18 years, or since I was 21. But it has gradually become more and more severe and in 2010 I became housebound.
 
I went for a long time without being able to photograph at all, which was a dark time for me emotionally. Photography has been my main creative outlet since high school and without it, I felt lost. But in 2010, I had a breakthrough; I realized that my story of living with such a severe chronic illness for which there was no cure was the exact kind of story I would be inspired to photograph and show the world if I was healthy, and that I could photograph myself. So I turned the camera on myself and started making images of myself doing things I did every day.
 
It was revelatory for me because not only was I able to make portraits again, but since I was the subject I was able to let the camera into my life completely without question. These images are representations of real moments in my life and honest depictions of things I was going through. I never thought of these images as self-portraits. I split my mind into photographer and subject and thought about both separately. I always called them ''documentary photographs of myself''.
 
A dark period followed in 2013 and lasted about 7 years. My health plummeted and I became extremely severe. For much of this time, I could not even move.
 
Then in 2020, a miracle happened. I took an experimental drug and I slowly started getting a little bit better. It meant I could photograph again. I bought a DSLR and continued photographing using both my phone and when I had the energy, my DSLR.
 
In making these images, I hope to not only make interesting, provocative works of art that speak to people about the nature of human suffering and chronic illness, and evoke emotion and inspiration in viewers without explanation, but also spread awareness about ME/CFS. ​Please visit this link to read a full explanation of this project as well as some information about ME/CFS and why it is such an important story.

A grandmother who is sewing a cloth tiger watches her granddaughter dance in a clay kiln in Licheng County, Shanxi Province, China,on November 7, 2011.

On September 9th, 2022, the Indonesian National Wheelchair Basketball Team had been practicing for the Paralympic basketball competition at Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. Their spirit echoed through the arena, creating a wild atmosphere among the fans. They competed impressively, like The Avengers. Despite their physical limitations, they fought way better than some healthy people.

Picture taken in 2015 with a Leica Q and 1.7/28 mm at “Le champ de Mars“ near La Tour Eiffel in Paris (France) where the French puppet show named “guignol“ is regularly played. I crouched under the stage in the darkness to get all the expressions of the children during the spectacle and I was amazed of how they were attentive and moves to what happened. As an actor it was a lesson for me, looking all the ways of expressing surprise, laughs and fear.

Many homeless people in Dhaka, Bangladesh have lost their homes and properties due to frequent floods, river erosion, and other natural calamities. They were forced to migrate to the city in search of a better future. These people have no place to take shelter in big cities. Their day starts in boats and ends on roads to nowhere. The boat is a flower bed for these refugees who practically do not have any identity. They live by working as street hawkers, boatmen, etc.

This is Charley. He lives in the hills beneath the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. His playmates are a 5-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. During Covid, the family was all lucky enough to have moved to a new house with lots of room outside to play. The boy likes to hang from a swing (that hangs from a tree) and Charley chases the boy back and forth...wishing he too could dangle from a swing!
 
This is part of my series, ‘The Lost Years’ which addresses the years that most adults cannot remember before the age of 7 years old.

Alex and Zoe from my ongoing project Natural Tendencies in which I study the complex and symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world. I am acutely aware of the precarious nature of our shifting environment, of the fragility of life and the ephemerality of childhood.This is an image of my son, Alex, an identical twin, holding our pet duck, Zoe. During the covid lockdown, our children spent a lot of time with the animals on our little farm since they weren't able to play with other children.

My name is Wen Hua Chen, but everyone calls me Zola Chen. I am a passionate admirer of art and photography that captures the beauty of marine life. My particular fascination lies with whales, which has taken me to various locations, such as Tonga, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, South Africa, and Japan, to capture stunning images of these magnificent creatures.
 
One of my most significant series of works is Floating Together, which is my art creation of Humpback whales underwater in the Kingdom of Tonga Vava'u from 2015-2022. Humpback whales are named after their long pectoral fin and can grow up to 11 to 16 meters long, with newborn calves measuring 3 to 6 meters. They reproduce and give birth in tropical regions, migrating from the distant Antarctic to the warm waters from July-October to nurture their young before returning to the Antarctic for food. During this period, adult whales do not seek food, and only calves can drink their mother's milk.
 
The ocean surrounding Vava’u, the Kingdom of Tonga, is a place to search whales, jumping into the Whale Soup. It's an addiction I've never been able to quit, and an experience many people long to have. The direct face-to-face visual experience is incredibly shocking, and to capture the perfect shot, one needs physical strength, willpower, and a little bit of luck. The moments when you hang out with the whales and capture stunning images are some of the most beautiful in my series of works. It requires persistence, and I spend almost a month in Tonga each time, 6-8 hours a day searching for whales, sometimes spending an entire day at sea without finding any, or facing miserable wind and rain.
 
My focus is not limited to photographing whales alone, as I also engage in other ocean projects. Working closely with biologists, I have participated in various collaboration projects such as the Lemon Shark Research Project in Dongsha Island, Taiwan, the survey and underwater photography of whales in eastern Taiwan, and contributed to the Black Tide Navigation Project and the Megamouth Shark Documentary Program. I am committed to using my work to capture stunning images of the magnificent creatures of the ocean and to inspire those around me to cherish and protect marine life. The ocean is vast and fragile, and it is essential to do what we can to preserve and protect it for future generations.

They did it voluntarily and with great enthusiasm, the participants at a Women's mud run in Duisburg (Germany) in 2019 . After completing the course, they paused for a short while, frozen into a temporary bronze statue and then returned to everyday life, thoroughly showered.

That photo was taken during complete lockdown period of COVID-19 on a cyclonic day. I was in a hotel at Bakkhali to depict the disasters of a cyclonic weather on a full moon day. Before the day the picture was taken, that night I made a plan to visit Lakkhipur village as in that region (Fraserganj, where the picture was taken) there are no embankments. I reached early in the morning there and witnessed the power of high tides. The people of that village (village name - Lakkhipur, Bakkhali Island) were running here and there trying to save their belongings from sea water. Pallavi was also there and her house which had a tea shop, got completely submerged in water the night before. I observed her strong face and calm nature during that devastating period. It forced me to capture her photograph to show her strong and powerful identity at the time of a destructive rising sea.

My Mom’s daily routine is to roll curlers into her hair and then cover them with a scarf as the curls set. When she sleeps at night her hair straightens and the next morning she repeats the task. Despite her dementia, she remembers to do this every day. Her hair and how she presents herself are very important to her. This image is part of a deeply personal and emotional project that delves into the everyday struggles my mother faces as she ages and battles the effects of dementia and declining physical abilities. This project serves as a reflection on the bond I have with my mother, both in the present moment and through the perspective of her past. It captures the challenges she faces, but also celebrates the resilience, strength, and grace she exhibits in the face of adversity. The project is ongoing and a tribute to the remarkable woman she is.

The ocean, seashore and its surroundings are often viewed as dynamic, intense and restless. I, however, choose to focus on it's quieter side. There are times when the light is muted, the lines and forms are clear, the shadows are softened and the reflections are fanciful. I aim to capture a version of Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment but in nature and at the shoreline. This powerful environment can be quieted by the lack of color Drawn to minimalism, I eliminate all unnecessary pixels to create the essence of the image.

This image is from me wandering the neighbourhood streets near the pyramids in Giza, Cairo, Egypt . I came across this family whose young children were playing having fun, not a games console insight. I spoke with some of the family members who had little english, but also with the help of Google Translate we spoke for a little while. I noticed their father, the young children's grandfather sitting there so composed, so content, so happy, he appeared happy with his lot. I asked for a photo and they obliged.

Change the thought: In an Islamic environment, it's not common for a female teacher to take her students to the seashore for recreation and to take selfies with them but time changes as well as people's acceptance level. Now following all Islamic requirements, some women try to do what they are supposed to do not like what they are told to do. Things are changing over the course of time as well as peoples' thought processes that have a direct positive impact on society.
 
The photo was taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on March 18, 2019.

Rows of brightly colored fabrics shimmer in reflections as they are hung to dry above a field in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on 24 September 2022. Workers hang the vivid clothing on wooden frames as the colorful dyes set in the sun. The clothes will be used for t-shirts, Under-vest, trousers etc. making.

Relatives of the Ukrainian soldier Taras Didukh, 25, mourn his body at a funeral held in the Church of the Most Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of Lviv, Ukraine, before being buried at the Lychakiv Cemetery on March 11, 2022. The Officer Andrii Stefanyshyn, 39, and the Sergeant Dmytro Kabakov, 58, were also buried on the same day. The escalating tension between Russia and Ukraine finally blew up in the early morning of February 24, 2022, after almost eight years of war in the Donbas region, with the entry of the Russian Army into the Ukrainian territory. This new conflict phase has caused millions of lives to be cut short and the devastation of several parts of the country. The shellings and the frontline advance have cost more than 6,800 deaths and 10,900 verified wounded (United Nations. December 27, 2022). Currently, the number of military casualties participating on both sides can not be accurately estimated. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at least 6.5 million people have fled Ukraine and the number of internally displaced persons rises to 8 million.

The purpose of this shooting is to show the past and present of my people who live in Moldova - ATU Gagauzia. After all, Without the past, there is no present. The shooting was carried out in the fall of 2022. In the photo, young girls in the national costumes of the people of Gagauzia, which were worn in the past by our grandmothers, mothers and girls of that time. And the horse-drawn wagon was in the picture quite by accident. During filming, a couple drove by on a cart; they were going to another town. In many rural areas, people use the horse and cart for transportation and farming. After all, each nation has its own national costumes, which can characterize the status and marital status of its mistress. Therefore, preserving the ancient national costumes, we keep the memory and honor the traditions of the people. And by dressing modern youth in ancient Gagauz clothes, we preserve our history.

One afternoon early in quarantine due to Covid 19 I heard my son ask his dad if he could take a bath and his dad answered yes. I went in the bathroom a little while later with my camera to maybe capture a candid moment of my son in the tub. I saw that my son had his dog, Marius in the tub with him. Just then Marius tried to jump out the closed window. I was standing at the other end of the room metering the camera and had to quickly organize myself to make some shots.

The Covid pandemic has caused many deaths. It led to a dramatic loss of human life and job loss for tens of millions. The economic and social disruption has become devastating. It feels like the world has ended for so many people. Until now, the pandemic still haunts us with great grief.

The Spring Festival is a major traditional festival among Chinese people, among which the lion is known as a mascot for celebrating good luck and driving away demons and evil spirits during the festival. In Deqing County, Zhaoqing City, China, it is said that there was already a folk custom of frying lions during the Spring Festival in the Song Dynasty. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, everyone took turns lighting firecrackers and throwing lions until the lions were blown to pieces, symbolizing the drive away evil and praying for peace in all seasons and a bountiful harvest.

An older woman stands beside a car with her daughter and three other women as they primp themselves for the Ballinasloe Horse Fair Parade. The Ballinasloe Horse Fair is the oldest annual horse fair in Ireland. The Travelers attend the fair for the week to sell and trade their horses. It is traditional for women and young women to dress up and parade themselves around the fairgrounds and town of Ballinasloe.

Rodeo is very dangerous sport. This young cowboy was riding a strong cow, which bucked erratically and quickly threw him to the ground. The lucky cowboy quickly avoided the airborne cow before it fell heavily.

New Wave Self is the ocean and the mind is the wave.
 
We are swimming in an ocean of Prana, a field of Energy. There is nothing but the One, non-dual Force. This is the Supreme Truth. Our human lives are part of something bigger. We are individual drops of water but we belong to the ocean. Where is consciousness? Where is this thick existence of life?
 
In the ocean of life. I am exploring our lives in and around water on a more spiritual level. I am using an underwater camera to get close to subjects as they merge into the ocean. I am exploring the non-dual aspect of human existence. The water is the metaphor that binds us all as an expression of one consciousness.
 
I have been working on this project since January 1, 2023. It is a work in progress. I bought the Olympus TG6 underwater camera so I could get close to people in the ocean. I took this image in January 2023 at my local beach. The subject was jumping in the waves so I crouched down low to give the impression of a taller more dramatic wave. I have chosen to shoot these images in black and white as the lack of color in a beach scene gives it a more surreal feeling.

Since 2020, environmental activists have occupied the trees, fields and houses in Lützerath, a hamlet in Western Germany. They oppose the eviction of the village and the energy company RWE, which wants to extract the millions of tons of lignite that lie beneath the village. The resistance in the small village became a symbol in the fight against the climate crisis. I documented the clearing of the Hamlet and its transition from a place of utopia and dreams to a fortress of an energy company. - Activists block the bucket wheel excavator at the edge of the Garzweiler II open pit mine on the outskirts of the village of Lützerath, Germany on January 08, 2023. If people are standing in the danger zone at the edge of the quarry, the bucket wheel excavator has to stop its work until the people have left the area.

Irish Traveller Rocky sits on a plastic-covered couch on his first holy communion. Plastic-covered furnishings are very common in the community due to having many children in the home.
 
Project Statement: In 2009, I started photographing Travellers who are an ethnic group at a horse fair in Ireland. I returned to the horse fair the following year to meet them again and to give them some photos I had taken. They gained my trust and invited me to photograph their families and other clans. I am intrigued by their nomadic lifestyle so I decided to visit their caravans, halting sites, and roadside encampments. In March 2017, the Irish Travellers group have been formally recognized as an ethnic group. Today, they are still facing racism, discrimination, hardship by society, and high suicide rates. Travelers are very proud of their culture. I want to represent these people through my photographs. My goal is to continue to work with these families as well as other members that I encounter, and perhaps let the settled people have more understanding of their unique culture.

This is a side project from the series multiexpo. 'Stadtbaum' means urban tree. It's about urban trees and their resistance against the high urbanization level. You can find trees in the city everywhere but they are on the retreat. More and more the cities becomes a concrete desert. I wanted to seperate the individual trees and erect them a small monument. I use for this series a 35mm film camera. Each image is a multiple exposure on one negative. This picture was taken in Berlin in 2014. This tree stands alone directly on the grounds of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in the heart of Berlin. The series is not complete and is constantly being expanded.

Tbourida, also known as Fantasia, is a traditional equestrian performance that originated in Morocco. It is a spectacular and colorful display of horsemanship that is often performed during festivals and special occasions. Historically, Tbourida was a display of the military prowess of the Berber cavalry. It was performed before battles to intimidate and demoralize the enemy. The riders would charge towards the enemy lines while firing their rifles and screaming war cries. Over time, Tbourida evolved from a military display to a cultural performance. Today, it is performed during festivals, weddings, and other special occasions as a way to celebrate Moroccan culture and tradition. Tbourida is still closely associated with the Berber people, who continue to maintain and preserve their equestrian traditions. However, it has also become a popular cultural tradition throughout Morocco, with performances being held in cities and towns across the country. The picture belongs to the final of the annual competition and was taken in the Fantasia festival in El Jadida, Morocco.

The photograph was taken during a Muslim festival near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Electrification of Bangladesh Railway is yet to be done, so people dare to travel on the roof of the train. They are actually travel free of cost and are habituate travellers taking a bit of risk. The man in front of my photograph is looking if there is any empty place on the roof that he may climb the roof and sit.

The Czech diver, Navratil, makes a wonderful jump in Bilbao's sky with the Guggenheim Museum showcased in the background, during the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. The beauty of the execution of the jump contrasts with the whimsical forms of the Museum.It seems to be suspended in the sky.

A man, standing with his hyena, is getting ready before the show, in one of the small villages of the desertic north-eastern Nigeria. They are the mysterious hyena men of Nigeria. Predominantly composed of Hausa people (one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa) they come from rural areas in the North, moving from city to city. They never spend more than two days in the same place and they arrive wrapped in snakes, trained monkeys and hyenas in chains. They are traditional storytellers and they perform a street circus with black magic (called “juju”) for the audience that believe that these animals have magical powers. It is said they use ancient magic to acquire superpowers and become one with the animals. The spectacle of these traditional storytellers is huge, accompanied by fires and the sounds of drums and all the spectators are also involved. At the end of the show there are many people who buy amulets or magic potions. There are those who want to settle gambling debts, those who want a baby and those who want to bring rain for the harvest.

The phenomenon of sea migration from the North African coasts to Europe unites a multitude of desperate people fleeing from wars and hunger. This historical event is destined to mark our era and is one of the main reasons for debate and conflict among European states.
 
To escape from the pietistic narrative that surrounds the daily news of shipwrecks and deaths at sea, I decided to propose my own more ironic reading of the facts, which is not meant to be an underestimation or diminishment of these tragedies, but a different way of emphasizing them.
 
The image I present is a composition of two of my photographs from 2019, in which I relate a cruise ship departing from the port of Trieste to African children playing and diving into the sea from the port of Stone Town (Zanzibar). What appears is the attempt of the children to reach this luxurious ship by sailing towards hope for a better life, which for most of them will not turn out to be true.

Aliyana Stokes, 10, and her brother, Bryson Stokes, 5, right, take part in a gun safety class for children with replica firearms as people gather at Choppa Community gun range on Sunday July 10, 2022 in Welcome, MD. Choppa Community gun range has become a place for African American gun owners and others to assemble to learn gun safety, self-defense and have a place to target practice. Many are from nearby Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD and have been affected by gun violence. The rates of gun related crimes in large metropolitan cities across the United States has been on the rise. This has caused many people to obtain guns as a means of personal protection.

When I meet people who touch and inspire me me in one way I want to show the things they touch in me. I specially become enthousiast when I see more layers of their personality at the same time. I found it very exciting to try to capture this in my portraits. In my portraits I am looking for honesty and vulnerability. I believe that vulnerability makes us nicer human beings and that this makes the world a little more friendly and more understanding. People who show themselves vulnerable give the other the confidence that they themselves may be who they are. My portraits are distinguished by having, on the one hand, the stylizedness of a studio portrait; on the other, they have the roughness and authenticity of a social documentary portrait.

There is a peak of heat on the Kola Peninsula behind the polar circle for the month of June. With +30°C, it is 18°C above maximum averages which has been kept for 10 days. Young girls go to bathe in a stream near the family country house in Lovozero.
 
Being part of the last indigenous of Europe, the Saami of Russia lost their nomadic autonomy with the rise of Soviet power. Reindeer herders in the tundra on the Kola Peninsula, the Saami were forced to live in apartment buildings in Lovozero village, considered as a reserve. Settled to work in kolkhozes, the saami language and the traditional costume were prohibited. Today, there are 1500 saami people, and some 200 speak the language, most of them are elderly. Proud of their traditions, they strive to preserve their culture while adapting to modernity and global warming in the Arctic region.

Sardinia is a region where there aren’t many opportunities and the people have to invent a job for a living. Cristina and Tosino have become breeders of cavalier kings and poodles. They have 54 dogs and live with them in the country house near Sassari.

A woman steps carefully over fish on the ground in the Hamar Weyne fish market in Mogadishu, Somalia, 27/11/2022.
 
The Hamar Weyne fish market in Mogadishu is a bustling hub for the sale and distribution of fish in the city. Located just a few meters from the old port, the market is a key destination for both local and international buyers. Fishermen and porters bring their daily catch to the market, where traders and buyers negotiate prices for different types of fish. The market is a vibrant and bustling place, with a constant flow of activity as fishermen and traders go about their work making it a vital source of employment and economic activity in the city.

The photo illustrates the situation found in a bar on the Polish Baltic Sea. The photo is part of a series titled Relationships. The existence of people equals the existence of relationships. A love relationship, a platonic relationship, a hate relationship, a relationship with space, a relationship with loneliness, silence, light and darkness and the most important relationship in our lives - relationship with ourselves. We create relationships everywhere and always.