Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Clown/comedian/filmmaker Pierre Etaix attends The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences' Presents “Pierre Etaix: The Laughter Returns” at AMPAS Samuel Goldwyn Theater on November 16, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Students salute after a man cast his vote at a polling station during the new Family Code referendum in Havana on September 25, 2022. Cubans on Sunday are voting in a landmark referendum on whether to legalize same-s*x marriage and adoption, allow surrogate pregnancies, and give greater rights to non-biological parents. (Photo by Adalberto Roque/AFP Photo)

A group of volunteers dressed as elves and a man dressed as the grinch take part in a Christmas celebration organised by the NGO “Unos Venezolanos” in the neighbourhood of Petare, in Caracas, Venezuela on December 21, 2022. (Photo by Gaby Oraa/Reuters)

English actress Florence Pugh, left, and American actress and filmmaker Zoe Lister-Jones embrace at a special screening of “A Good Person” at Metrograph on Monday, March 20, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Photo)

Brazilian fashion modell Gisele Bundchen on March 9, 2023 teases for Brazilian footwear brand Arezzo's Winter 2023 campaign. The newly-divorced 42-year-old transforms into a blonde bombshell in these striking images to promote the sassy collection by creative director Giovanni Bianco. (Photo by Arezzo/The Mega Agency)

Women atop a boat take a group photo as the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron’s Blue Angels perform in the skies over Annapolis, Maryland, on May 22, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

The trees on the iconic local landmark are silhouetted against glorious sunrise colours on a misty morning near Colmers Hill in Dorset, England on May 1, 2019. (Photo by Celia McMahon/Alamy Live News)