Photographer Vincent Jansen travels throughout Europe, visiting beautiful abandoned places. He explores churches, factories, sanatoriums, mortuaries, villas and theaters, all quietly waiting for renovation or demolition. His photos show a unique perspective on what is happening behind the “no trespassing” signs: where nature is slowly gaining ground and the desolation, loneliness and decay leave their stunning traces. Photo: This piano was located in one of many rooms of a huge chateau in Poland. (Photo by Vincent Jansen)

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)

In this January 3, 2018 photo several female Gelada baboons, also known as bleeding-heart baboons, cuddle with their youngs in order to keep warm at the Wilhelma zoo in Stuttgart, Germany. (Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/DPA via AP Photo)

The HFR x LeBron 16 shoe is unveiled at the Harlem Fashion Row show and awards ceremony before the start of New York Fashion Week, Tuesday, September 4, 2018. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/AP Photo)

A child runs towards Mohamed Maarouf, 28, as he walks with a sack of gifts while dressed in Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) costume in a slum near the centre of Iraq's southern city of Basra on December 24, 2021. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

Two Red-eyed Tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) mate at “Exotic Fauna” breeding zoo, where exotic animals are reproduced to be marketed as pets in U.S., Canada and Asia, in Ticuantepe, on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua on July 17, 2022. (Photo by Maynor Valenzuela/Reuters)

Flames quickly grow as firefighters set a backfire on the eastern front of the Park Fire, which has grown to 360,141 acres and is 12 percent contained, on July 28, 2024 near Chico, California. Strong winds and dried vegetation fueled the fire that exploded 70,000 acres in the first 24 hours after a man allegedly pushed a burning car into a ravine to intentionally set the blaze. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

A tree frog uses a leaf as an umbrella in pouring rain in Karacabey floodplain near the city of Bursa, Turkey in the first decade of June 2023. (Photo by Savas Sener/Solent News & Photo Agency)