Richard Silver's photographs show us the world's biggest sights like Machu Picchu in Peru or Copacabana in Brazil. His photos, however, are not simply depictions of the landmarks but planned, artistic visual constructions that, with their playful combinations of sharpness and blur, create new worlds of experience. Photo: Coliseum, Rome. (Photo by Richard Silver)

Beautiful, strange and occasionally alarming pictures from the shortlist for this year’s Wellcome image awards – which celebrate the very best in science photography and imaging – from an x-ray of a bat to a micrograph of a kidney stone. The exhibition opens on 12 March at three science centres and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Photo: Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of an Arabidopsis thaliana flower, also commonly known as thale cress. Some of the anthers are open, revealing pollen grains ready for dispersal. Arabidopsis was the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced and is widely used as a model organism in molecular and plant biology. Horizontal width of image is 1200 microns. Magnification 100x. (Photo by Stefan Eberhard/Wellcome Images)

“It’s Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil and you don’t have to be a celebrity or a designer to check out these couture pieces. Subway stations were used as improvised catwalks in order to give the general public a chance to see these creations up close and at the price of a subway fare”. – Reuters. Photo: A model presents a creation in a subway station during the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo October 27, 2013. (Photo by Paulo Whitaker/Reuters)

A woman wearing a protective mask is seen behind a girl dressed in a Plague Doctor Mask in Western-Ukrainian city of Lviv, Ukraine, 22 March 2020. Ukrainian Designer Anastasia Markovska sewed protective masks looking like Plague Doctor Masks, the traditional costume of Venice Carnival, for herself and her friends due to the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In Ukraine had been 47 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including three deaths and one recovery as Ukraine's Health Ministry announced. (Photo by Pavlo Palamarchuk/EPA/EFE)

A fire-eater of the “Diables de Terrassa” performs during Sitges' little “Festa Major”, “Santa Tecla” in Sitges, Spain on September 19, 2016. This celebration brings together some of Catalonia’s most emblematic festive traditions. The central axis of the celebrations is the traditional parade, made up of “big-head” carnival figures and characters who dance to music played on different traditional instruments. One of the most popular events is the Correfoc or fire-running, which is also the closing event of the fiesta. The people run and jump over characters dressed up as devils and dragons, carrying fire. (Photo by Matthias Oesterle/ZUMA Press/Splash News)

Local residents dressed in costumes perform during celebrations for the Malanka holiday in the village of Krasnoilsk in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine, January 14, 2016. The Malanka traditional holiday is more popular in the western regions of the country and is also known as the Old New Year celebrated on January 13 and 14 – St. Basil's and St. Melania's Day, according to the old Julian calendar. During the celebrations, youngsters and adults wear traditional carnival costumes and masks, and visit local houses while singing carols, playing pranks or performing short plays. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Gothic rock music enthusiasts walk the streets between venues during the annual Wave Gotik music festival on June 11, 2011 in Leipzig, Germany. The festival began in the 1990s and has since grown into one of the biggest gatherings of Goth scene followers in Europe with around 20,000 participants. Many of those attending wear elaborate outfits and make-up for which they require hours of painstaking preparation and that also show a departure from the traditional black of the Goth scene. Punk remains a strong influence in today's Goth style as witnessed in Leipzig, but newer trends, with names like Cybergoth and Steampunk, have emerged that blend bold colors, Victorian fashion elegance and 19th and 20th century factory accessories into a look reminiscent of a mutated Venetian carnival. The five-day festival includes performances by around 200 bands. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

In this photo taken Saturday, February 14, 2015, Benjamin Miller, 20, from Georgia, in the US, is gored by a bull during the “Carnaval del Toro” in Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain. An American youth is recovering in the intensive-care unit of a hospital in western Salamanca after being savagely gored during a bullfighting festival celebrating Carnival, officials said Sunday. Surgeon Enrique Crespo said he was called to operate on 20-year-old Benjamin Miller from Georgia, who had been gored and tossed by a large fighting bull on Saturday, the first day of nearby Ciudad Rodrigo's “Carnaval del Toro”. (Photo by Jose Vicente/AP Photo)