“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Damir Sagolj has won Reuters photojournalist of the year for his 2016 work, which included documenting the deadly Philippine drug war and the North Korea congress. Here: A 17 year old girl lays dead next to her doll after she and her friend were killed by unknown motorcycle-riding gunmen, in an alley in Manila, Philippines early October 26, 2016. According to the police, a sign on a cardboard reading “Tulak ka, hayop ka”, which translates to “You are a (drug) pusher, you are an animal” was found with the body of girl's friend. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Animal rights activist, stained with fake blood, perform during a protest against the use of animal skins in the clothes and fashion industry, in Madrid, Sunday, December 10, 2017. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

Children try to walk through a flooded street at Kampung Melayu residential area in Jakarta, December 23, 2014. Torrential rains that have continued in Indonesia in recent days have widened the number of flooded areas that include Jakarta and Bandung, a local newspaper said on Tuesday. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

People look at a tanker after it fell into a caved-in area on a road in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, July 27, 2013. No casualty was reported in the accident, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

“Himalayan Dog”. This dog just appeared out of nowhere and followed us for an entire week during our trekking trip in the Himalayan outback. He always used to sleep in front of our tent and guarded us in the nights. When I decided to get up at 4 a.m. to climb the next 5000 m peak for sunrise he accompanied me as well. On the top he was sitting for the entire 30 minutes on this place looking straight into the countryside. Photo location: Ladakh, India. (Photo and caption by Sebastian Wahlhuetter/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A reveler and a child street vendor pose for a photo during the Banda de Ipanema Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, January 31, 2015. Rio's over-the-top Carnival is the highlight of the year for many local residents. Hundreds of thousands of merrymakers are beginning to take to the streets in open-air “blocos” parties. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

People play "Palin", a traditional ritual and ancestral Mapuche game played with curved sticks called "Chuecas" and a wooden ball, during a meet on Dia de la Raza (Day of the Races), also known as Columbus Day in Vina del Mar, Chile October 11, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)