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)

Irish actress Jessie Buckley in Miu Miu attends the EE British Academy Film Awards 2020 at Royal Albert Hall on February 02, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Jamie Simonds/Bafta/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A swimmer competes in Le Defi Monte-Cristo (Monte Cristo Challenge) swimming event at the Chateau d'If, off the coast of Marseille, southern France, on June 21, 2019. Created in 1999 and inspired by Alexandre Dumas' character of Edmond Dantes, the Monte Cristo Challenge will take place from June 21 to 23, 2019. (Photo by Boris Horvat/AFP Photo)

A woman rests on a pile of plush toys at IKEA store in the shopping district of Causeway Bay in Hong Kong on November 3, 2024. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

Alex Lual (R) in action against Trent Girdham (L) during the undercard bouts ahead of the WBO Asia Pacific Super Welterweight Title Bout between Tim Tszyu and Takeshi Inoue at Qudos Bank Arena, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 17 November 2021. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts/EPA/EFE)

A woman visits the mirror installation “Mar de Espelhos” (Sea of Mirrors) ahead of its opening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 13, 2023. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Ice swimmer Klaudia prepares to swim in a filled up water kettle in an ice cave inside the Nature Ice Palace, with a hight of 3,250 meters (10,663 feet) above sea level, at Hintertux Glacier near Hintertux, some 480 kilometers (298 miles) western of Vienna, Austria, 28 July 2018. (Photo by Christian Bruna/EPA/EFE)