Dancers perform during the Navam Perahera at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 15, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Japanese ornamental dolls (hina dolls) are displayed on the stone steps at Tomisaki shrine during the Katsuura Big Hinamatsuri festival in Katsuura city of Chiba prefecture on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP Photo)

U.S. Corporal Stanley Suski, left, and Miss Tamako, a Geisha girl, whirl a bit of Jitterbug, in a bar, in Tokyo, Japan, on October 1, 1945. (Photo by AP Photo)

A girl marches alongside Salvadoran soldiers during the parade commemorating Independence Day in San Salvador, El Salvador September 15, 2016. (Photo by Jose Cabezas/Reuters)

Iraqi forces launch a rocket in Mosul's eastern Al-Intisar neighbourhood on December 30, 2016, during an ongoing military operation against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists. Iraqi forces advanced on December 29 after declaring a new phase in their offensive on eastern Mosul, stepping up efforts to reclaim the Islamic State group's last major stronghold in the country. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

This September 22, 2014 photo, shows a building with street art murals in the Santurce neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AP Photo)

“I was on Durga Puja Festival vacation, travelling on a local train. A boy was singing devotional song and begging for alms. He was guised as a Hindu god, Lord Shiva. This is a common view in Indian trains but this boy was charming, bright and did have a melodious voice. My camera was ready hanging on my neck so I took a picture”. (Photo and caption by Arup Ghosh/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

When Colin Garratt went to photograph the traditional sentinels of the British countryside, he found they ranged from the dapper to the downright sinister. “They are not from the anaesthetised world of the craft fair”, says Colin Garratt, “but are the direct descendants of the ancient spectres which have haunted the landscape for centuries”. The Scarecrow Exhibition is at Geddes Gallery, London, from 25 to 30 March. (Photo by Colin Garratt)