Participants prepare backstage before the 5th “Strongo Cup” open amateur bodybuilding tournament at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, November 1, 2014. Participants from all over Russia took part in the tournament competing in bodybuilding, body fitness and bikini fitness disciplines. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A man poses with a hyena along a street in Lagos, Nigeria November 4, 2008. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Newlyweds take wedding photos hanging from bridge, Yueyang, Hunan province, China on August 9, 2016. They held such a special wedding ceremony on China's Qixi Festival. (Photo by Top Photo Corporation/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

A model prepares backstage at the Meskita fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 on September 4, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Meskita)

Historical re-enactor Andreas Wenzell dresses as Britain's King Richard the third in a living history camp during an anniversary event for the Battle of Bosworth near Market Bosworth in central Britain, August 23, 2015. The Battle of Bosworth took place in 1485 during the War of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. King Richard III was defeated by Henry Tudor marking the end of Plantagenet rule and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)

A woman jumps over a puddle as she crosses a street after a torrential downpour in the South Beach part of Miami, July 18, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

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)