Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

An Afghan girl makes a pile of unbaked bricks near the road passing through the Shamali Plains, about 10 kilometers (6 miles), west of Bagram, Afghanistan, Wednesay April 9, 2003. Children assist parents in their job to supplement family income. (Photo by Gurinder Osan/AP Photo)

A Romanian honor guard soldier waits before the arrival of Moldovan President at Cotroceni Presidential Palace, in Bucharest, Romania, 23 November 2021. Maia Sandu is on a one-day official visit to Romania. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

German model Lorena Rae arrives for the screening of the film “Brother And Sister (Frere Et Soeur)” during the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2022. (Photo by Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)

A South Korea fan smiles ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between Uruguay and South Korea at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 24, 2022. (Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP Photo)

Serra da Aboboreira Megalithic Set (Meninas do Crasto) on September 24, 2023 in Baiao, Portugal. Since 1978 that Serra da Aboboreira (Aboboreira Mountains) has been the scene of a systematic study of its archeological values, among which are the monuments known as megalithic. These are funerary monuments designing the landscape. These dolmens were constructed with stones (lithos) of medium or large dimensions (mega), which were laid in a, more or less, vertical position. Over these, it was still placed a lid, also of stone. These containers were covered by an artificial mound of earth and stones (dolmen). (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

An aerial view of a man standing on Lake Tuz, Turkiye's second largest lake, during sunset in Ankara, Turkiye on April 22, 2024. The lake, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List with its unique natural structure, welcomes many local and foreign tourists every year as it provides 70 per cent of the country's salt needs. (Photo by Hakan Nural/Anadolu via Getty Images)