Earlier this year, Belgian film-maker and artist Vincent Bal stumbled upon an uncanny resemblance to an elephant in the shadow of his tea cup. This gave him the idea for Shadowology, a series of doodles that interact with the shadows of simple, everyday objects: a banknote, some ice cubes and a flower, for example, can turn into a church, a woman and a hippy. “I draw a few lines and I get my image. It’s really the shadows that inspire me”, Bal says. Here: “Stonedog”. (Photo by Vincent Bal/The Guardian)

An Indian toddler plays amid marigold flowers at a wasted flowers dumping site, besides a flower market in Mumbai, India, 28 September 2016. Marigold flowers are used in many religious ceremonies in the temples in India. Strung together they make colourful garlands and are used as an offering in temples and to decorate them. (Photo by Divyakant Solanki/EPA)

Sustainable development goal target 12.5 is to reduce waste. But with a planet increasingly dependent on technology, is that even possible? As of today, over 30m tonnes of electronic waste has been thrown out so far this year, according to the World Counts. Most e-waste is sent to landfills in Asia and Africa where it is recycled by hand, exposing the people who do it to environmental hazards. Kai Loeffelbein’s photographs of e-waste recycling in Guiyu, southern China show what happens to discarded computers. (Photo by Kai Loeffelbein/laif Agentur)

in Qayyarah, about 31 miles (50 km) south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, October 23, 2016.in Qayyarah, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016. Islamic State fighters torched a sulfur plant south of Mosul, sending a cloud of toxic fumes into the air that mingled with oil wells the militants had lit on fire to create a smoke screen. (Photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo)

A Black Pete interacts with children during the arrival of Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas, in Maassluis, Netherlands, Saturday, November 12, 2016. Sinterklaas and his helper Black Pete are at the center of a long-time controversy because Pete is often played by white people in blackface makeup. (Photo by Peter Dejong/AP Photo)

A visitor and an employee dressed as Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), the granddaughter of Ded Moroz (Russian equivalent of Santa Claus), pose for a picture inside an upside down house, constructed as an attraction for local residents and tourists and located at the Royev Ruchey Park of Flora and Fauna in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Performers dressed as Ded Moroz, the equivalent of Santa Claus, and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) take on shoe covers as they visit the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre of Pediatric Surgery in Minsk, Belarus, December 28, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

It’s enough to make your head spin. The photographer Katherine Young set out to shoot spiral staircases in London, England to great effect, including this shot she calls the Downward Spiral Part III. (Photo by Katherine Young/Rex Features/Shutterstock)