“Guns have a massive amount of power associated with them. They are designed to kill. We decided to photograph portraits of them in a similar way you might photograph a powerful person. Like powerful people, pistols have this “perfect” quality that we wanted to explore. As we started shooting them, we could see flaws in their design. Metal burring around the barrels, scratches in the metal. This imperfection and detail were very interesting to us; connecting us back to these images as portraits”. – Peter Andrew. (Photo by Peter Andrew/Simon Duffy/Derek Blais)

A woman walks past posters bearing the letter “Z” in the colours of the ribbon of Saint George, which has become a symbol of support for Russian military action in Ukraine, and reading “We are proud of Russia! We are not ashamed!” at a bus stop on Nevsky Prospekt in central Saint Petersburg on March 15, 2022. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

You don't often see a man walking around a field of cows wearing a pink tutu. Needless to say, we were intrigued by Bob Carey and the shirtless photos of him gallivanting around in a costume often worn by little girls. We sensed there was a good story behind this alter-ego ballerina, but we didn't expect it would be this heartwarming.

Photographer Emily Dryden and sculptor/actor Zahydé Pietri combine theatricality and organic produce to compose the photographs for their series Fresh Faces. The portraits are made from a wide range of fruit and vegetables and aim to highlight humanity’s diversity – Pietri is from Puerto Rico and Dryden is from New York. Each face has its own name and identity: “We have stories for them, which you can see in the expressions”, says Dryden, “but we decided to keep them to ourselves. We didn’t want to spoil that”. (Photo by Emily Dryden and Zahydé Pietri/The Guardian)

Each day as we look in the mirror, we think that we know ourselves. We are used to the image that we see before us, but the mirror can show us much more than we ever hoped to see. Sometimes it only shows basic emotions, while at other times it can highlight the deepest crevices of our soul. If you wish, in the reflection of the mirror you can see your deepest thoughts, masks that you wear every day, your desires, and of course the people that you think about. But are you brave enough to look deep within your soul? Will you dive headlong or shy away from your true image? Those that will muster up the courage necessary will realize it was well worth the effort. (Photo by Devin Mitchell)

Journeys and adventures winner – This is My Jungle. A wild elephant attacks a jeep full of people. “We should respect nature and care more about it, but we should also avoid taking unnecessary and reckless risks”. (Photo by Savvi Sergey/SIPA Contest)