This photo taken on February 1, 2018 shows a worker trimming the skin imperfections of a silicone doll at a factory of EXDOLL, a firm based in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian. With China facing a massive gender gap and a greying population, a company wants to hook up lonely men and retirees with a new kind of companion: “Smart” sеx dolls that can talk, play music and turn on dishwashers. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

Cave Diver, Anhumas Abyss, Bonito, Brazil: The Anhumas Abyss is an underground cavern with a crystal-clear lake below, more than 260 feet (79 m) deep. A visitor must enter through a narrow opening at the top of the chamber and rappel into the cave. Snorkeling and scuba diving in the lake reveal amazing scenery. Distinctive, conical limestone stalagmites and stalactites occupy the lake and the surrounding area, some reaching 65 feet (20 m) high. (Photo by Marcio Cabral/Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2017)

Montegut fire chief Toby Henry walks back to his fire truck in the rain as firefighters cut through trees on the road in Bourg, Louisiana as Hurricane Ida passes on August 29, 2021. Hurricane Ida struck the coast of Louisiana on August 29 as a powerful Category 4 storm, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans. “Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Ida makes landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana”, the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory. (Photo by Mark Felix/AFP Photo)

“The knight and his steed”. This picture was taken in a natural but controlled environment. There are pictures that can not be done in nature or that would imply a very high cost of both time and money, thats why photography workshops are run conducted at strategic locations and bringing EVERYONE who is interested, the basic notions (lighting, camera handling, composition, etc...) or the specimens, and afford them the opportunity to take pictures like this. Although controlled, this shot was not prepared at all, I was performing a workshop with the agalychnis callidryas treefrog from Costa Rica when the frog managed to jump to the branch where this huge titan was sleeping... I had my gear ready so I only had to change a few settings and shoot... the rest is history. (Photo and caption by Nicolas Reusens Boden (Sweden)/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

Children dressed in festival costume sit on the huge paper doll of historical Japanese figure named Hashi-Benkeii on the carts during the Mikuini annual festival on May 20, 2014 in Sakai, Japan. The annual festival takes place from May 19-21 and is attended by thousands of visitors. During the festival people dressed in traditional Japanese costumes pull carts carrying 6 meter high dolls of Japanese historical figures through the narrow streets. The origins of the festival are unclear but its history can be traced back more than 250 years. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

A crane loads logs at the Novoyeniseisk wood processing plant, with the air temperature at about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), in the town of Lesosibirsk in Krasnoyarsk Region, Siberia, Russia, February 16, 2016. The plant exports timber to Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. The Taiga, also known as the boreal forest, on the coast of the Angara River and Yenisei River is one of the main areas for the industrial cutting of wood thanks to the high quality of the Angara pine. Open air work continues all year around regardless to temperatures which can drop to minus 52 degrees Celsius (minus 61.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to employees. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

This photo taken on April 16, 2014 shows ethnic Kayan women wearing traditional clothes and bronze rings around tbeir neck in Panpet village, Demoso township in Kayah state, eastern Myanmar. Some ethnic Kayan women, also known as Padaung, begin wearing the bronze rings on their neck and legs from a young age. Usually they start wearing six to ten rings when they are five to ten-years-old and then they put on one more ring a year for years after then. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)