Tony North; First place, Breathing Spaces; Overall Winner; Blue Tajinaste, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. “Echium thyrsiflorum is endemic to the mountains of La Palma island – from high up, there was a magnificent view of both the caldera below, and the stars above. The Unesco La Palma biosphere reserve encompasses the entire island, with the Caldera de Taburiente containing mountains with a highest peak of 2,426 metres – the Roque de los Muchachos”. (Photo by Tony North/IGPOTY)

A municipal worker who helped with traffic control near a school is presented with flowers at the end of the national college entrance examinations, known as the gaokao, in Beijing, Friday, June 10, 2022. More than 11 million high school students throughout China took the annual college entrance exams which started on Tuesday after the country has just overcome severe COVID-19 outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing, according to state media. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A police officer speaks to a driver shortly after midnight in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, November 9, 2020 informing him of the pandemic related night traffic restrictions that just came into effect. Romania introduces new restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the COVID-19 infections following a week when it registered an all time high number of new infections. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

An anti-lockdown activist dressed as Father Christmas is arrested in Grosvenor Square during a demonstration in London, England, on November 28, 2020. London is to return to “Tier 2” or “high alert” covid-19 restrictions once the current England-wide coronavirus lockdown ends next Wednesday. All three of the tiers, assigned to local authorities across England, have been strengthened since the lockdown began on November 5, however, with the main impacts to be felt by the hospitality sector. (Photo by Mark Thomas/i-Images)

Tsewang Dolma, 33, a farmer and housewife poses for a photograph in Matho, a village nestled high in the Indian Himalayas, India September 29, 2016. When asked how living in the world's fastest growing major economy had affected life, Dolma replied: “Our culture is spoiled now. We don't wear our traditional dress”. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

Women take part in a march in Santiago on October 19, 2016, to protest against violence against women and in solidarity for the brutal killing of a 16- year- old girl in Mar del Plata, Argentina last week The killing, in which the high school student was allegedly raped and impaled on a spike by drug dealers, is just the latest incident of horrific gender violence in Argentina, which has seen more than a year of mass marches to protest brutality against women. (Photo by Claudio Reyes/AFP Photo)

A demonstrator attends a protest against fare hikes for city buses in Rio de Janeiro January 16, 2015. Amid a marked economic downturn and high inflation, bus fares went up in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, from 3 to 3.50 reais, and in Rio, the former capital, from 3.0 to 3.40 reais. (Photo by Mauro Pimentel/Reuters)

A woman holds broken umbrella as a powerful typhoon hits Osaka, western Japan, Tuesday, September 4, 2018. A powerful typhoon blew through western Japan on Tuesday, causing heavy rain to flood the region's main offshore international airport and high winds to blow a tanker into a connecting bridge, disrupting land and air travel. (Photo by Nobuki Ito/Kyodo News via AP Photo)