In 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, all Ukrainians had to get a new passport – and photographer Alexander Chekmenev was on hand to take their photos. The snatched extra shots he took are remarkable in their honesty and tenderness. (Photo by Alexander Chekmenev/The Guardian)

People use snowshoes during a tour of the Great Kemeri Bog, Latvia, October 17, 2015. The Kemeri bog is more than 8,000 years old and is one of the largest dry moss swamps in the Baltics. A more than decade-long joint restoration of the bog by the European Union and the Latvian government helped the bog recover its high moss marshes, damp black alder forests, floodplain meadows and seaside lakes – features now considered rare in Europe due to industrialisation. (Photo by Ints Kalnins/Reuters)

Artist Amber Wheeler of Minneapolis, Minn., has given her 2-month-old boy just that. All she used was some Photoshop and well-timed photos. Using simple black lines – much like the ones in this series of cat Instagram portraits – Wheeler transformed her son into an astronaut, a superhero, and a cowboy without spending one dollar on costumes.

Animal rights groups and PETA stop in front of a Prada store on Rodeo Drive during an anti-fur demonstration urging Black Friday shoppers to stop buying fur-related products on November 25, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Ace Wu searches the deep to photograph stunning underwater creatures. Against their predominantly black backdrops, Wu’s breathtaking subjects glow with sublime vibrancy. In one, a fearsome fish glares at the camera with rows of sharp teeth showing, while in another, a translucent octopus looks like an extraterrestrial. Here: Wunderpus larva. (Photo by Ace Wu/Caters News Agency)

Photographer Sandro Giordoan has created a photo series of people who look like they’ve just taken terrible falls, spilling all their things around them. “Each shot ‘tells’ about worn out characters who, as if a sudden black-out of mind and body took over, let themselves crash with no attempt to save themselves, unable, because of the fatigue of the everyday ‘representation’ of living, oppressed by ‘appearance’ instead of simply ‘existing’,” said Giordano. (Photo by Sandro Giordoan)

Two rainbows emerge from a black storm above the mountains, on August 19, 2014, in Kingman, Arizona. Double tornadoes, lightning storms and rotating supercells – this is what it's like to chase storms for a year. These dramatic images show apocalyptic weather throughout 2014 from a lightning storm to a pair of rainbows. Roger Hill, 57, has been chasing storms in the United States for thirty years and runs a tour operation with his wife Caryn. His favourite photograph of the year was also one of the most difficult to get – as two violent tornadoes tore through Pilger, Nebraska on June 16. The spiraling winds killed a five-year-old girl and injured at least 19 others, and as Roger tried to get the perfect shot debris began to rain down on his car. (Photo by Roger Hill/Barcroft Media)