Associated Press photographer Wong Maye-E tries to get her North Korean subjects to open up as much as is possible in an authoritarian country with no tolerance for dissent and great distrust of foreigners. She has taken dozens of portraits of North Koreans over the past three years, often after breaking the ice by taking photos with an instant camera and sharing them. Her question for everyone she photographs: What is your motto? Their answers reflect both their varied lives and the government that looms incessantly over all of them. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A woman photographs a Norwegian spruce Christmas tree from Oslo after it was lit at Trafalgar Square in central London, December 4, 2014. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

Members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club warm up before swimming at the beach at Coney Island in New York, December 15, 2013. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Reuters)

An Afghan boy walks past a destroyed Russian-made tank, in Kabul, Afghanistan on February 24, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

People walk by a 3D video advertisement display of a giant cat that was recently installed in the famed Shinjuku shopping district in Tokyo on Friday, July 9, 2021. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)

Models get their makeup backstage during the Ukrainian Fashion Week in Kiev, Ukraine, 01 September 2020. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/EFE)

A navy diver storms into the gallery during a military display at Singapore's 52nd National Day celebrations at Marina Bay in Singapore August 9, 2017. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

UK Eurovision girlband Remember Monday feature pals Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele, 2025. (Photo by Rob Parfitt)