An Iraqi soldier plays with an accordion found on the street while on patrol in the western neighborhood of Tamuz in Mosul on May 23, 2017, after the area was retaken during the ongoing offensive against Islamic State (IS) group fighters. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

The sunken ferry Sewol sits on a semi-submersible ship during its salvage operations at the sea off Jindo, South Korea, in this handout picture provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and released by Yonhap on March 26, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Yonhap/The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries)

Professional conceptual category winner. Greetings from Mars, by Julien Mauve, France. Mauve says: “I have always wondered what it would be like to discover a totally different world ... and to photograph it for the first time as if I was Ansel Adams. So I came up with this project, which is about space exploration and discovery. But it’s also about our behavior in front of landscapes and how we create pictures that will share our personal story with the world”. (Photo by Julien Mauve)

Racegoers in fashionable hats attend Ladies Day at Cheltenham Festival on March 15, 2017 in Cheltenham, England. (Photo by David Davies/PA Wire)

Makeup artist He Yuhong, also known as “Yuya”, checks herself in the mirror during a photo shoot following her transformation into the “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, the 17th century oil painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, at her house in Chongqing, China on August 14, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Suen/Reuters)

Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan's capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019. Huge crowds of protesters thronged the Sudanese capital Khartoum today, a week after the army's ouster of president Omar al-Bashir, determined to complete their revolution seeking civilian rule. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP Photo)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Four-year-old Solaris Arias (right) jumps through water spraying from an open fire hydrant in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 20, 2012. Much of the state remained under a heat advisory Tuesday afternoon because of the steamy air mass that has moved into the region resulting in temperatures in the 90s. (Photo by Steven Senne/AP Photo)