Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

A love story with two log choppers. “In 1993, I was working on a project about life in the Olomouc region of Czechoslovakia. One day, I came to the village of Dlouhá Loučka-Křivá and went into a courtyard where I saw two old people, a husband and wife, sawing firewood for winter. They were working quietly, concentrating. I watched them fetch a beam from a wrecked barn, but they didn’t discuss how they planned to carry it to the saw. The woman faced one way, the man the other. When they realised, the woman eventually turned and followed her husband. The picture I took is the picture of many relationships – when each partner wants something different, but they have to come to an agreement, pull together eventually”. (Photo by Jindrich Streit)

A woman looks at traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs “Pysanka”, installed as part of the upcoming celebrations of Easter, in central Kiev, Ukraine, April 29, 2016. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax. Many other eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. These include the Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Sorbs. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

This photo taken on November 6, 2023 shows people posing for photos next to the statue of “Hachiko” in front of Shibuya station in central Tokyo, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the legendary dog's birth this month. A century since its birth, the tale of the loyal companion who had waited at the Shibuya train station for its master to come home – not knowing he had already died – continues to inspire the public, who have made the statue a singular landmark at a glitzy hub of Tokyo's street culture. (Photo by Richard A. Brooks/AFP Photo)

A racoon jumps over a fence in almost deserted Central Park in Manhattan on April 16, 2020 in New York City. Gone are the softball games, horse-drawn carriages and hordes of tourists. In their place, pronounced birdsong, solitary walks and renewed appreciation for Central Park's beauty during New York's coronavirus lockdown. The 843-acre (341-hectare) park – arguably the world's most famous urban green space – normally bustles with human activity as winter turns to spring, but this year due to Covid-19 it's the wildlife that is coming out to play. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Nottingham-based Vic Fearn & Co. has created unusual coffins in the shape of beer and whiskey bottles, the Angel of the North, guitars and in a geometric style. The handmade caskets cost as much as £5,000 ($6,200). Here: A coffin in the shape of a fish which has been handmade. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

An Ambassador car, licensed as taxi rolls past other vehicles through a busy road in Kolkata, india, Monday, May 26, 2014. India's oldest car factory has abruptly suspended production of the hulking Ambassador sedan that has a nearly seven-decade history as the car of the Indian elite. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

In this January 24, 2017 photo, boxer Idamerys Moreno wraps a bandage on her hand before a training session at a sports center in Havana, Cuba. Boxing has long been an athletic engine for Cuba, which has won 72 Olympic medals in that category but women are not allowed to box. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)