Tuvalu Beneath the Rising Tide by Sean Gallagher, Tuvalu. Changing environments prize: Fallen trees lie on a beach as the waves from the Funafuti lagoon in Tuvalu lap around them. Land erosion has always been a problem for the South Pacific country but problems are intensifying as sea levels rise. Rising seas are on the verge of completely submerging the tiny archipelago’s islands. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2019)

Shortlisted: Sólheimasandur aircraft crash site, Iceland by Ollie Conway. (Photo by Ollie Conway/Historic Photographer of the Year Awards 2019/The Guardian)

The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

“Misty Rainbow”. A rainbow appears over tea fields in Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia. (Photo by Dani Agus Purnomo/Royal Meteorological Society’s Weather Photographer of the Year Awards)

Winner, photojournalism. Elephant in the room, by Adam Oswell, Australia Zoo. Visitors watch a young elephant performing underwater. Oswell was disturbed by this scene, and organisations concerned with the welfare of captive elephants say performances like this encourage unnatural behaviour. In Thailand, there are now more elephants in captivity than in the wild. With the Covid pandemic causing tourism to collapse, elephant sanctuaries are becoming overwhelmed with animals that can no longer be looked after by their owners. (Photo by Adam Oswell/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

This outrageous display of facial hair configurations made an appearance at the 4th Annual National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans. Luckily Las Vegas-based photographer Greg Anderson was on-hand to give us a front-row seat as the bizarre spectacle of facial hair paraded in front of his camera lens. The championships involved some 150 contestants from the U.S., U.K., and Canada who competed in 17 different categories.

“I wonder about everyone that I photograph, what are they thinking at the moment, what is going on in their life, what are they really like. Photographs are such abstractions of real life, both true and false at the same time and so limited in the scope of what can be captured, yet limitless in how it stimulates our imagination. Indeed, photography is a rich medium”. – Mike Peters. Photo: Meatpacking District, NYC, September 28, 2012. (Photo by Mike Peters)

David LaChapelle, Land Scape Anaheim, 2013, chromogenic print, 70 3/4 x 95 inches, 179.7 x 241.3 cm, edition of 3. Image courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery. (Photo by David LaChapelle Studio)