Paint-splattered revellers take a break at the Notting Hill carnival in West London in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by Andy Hall/The Observer)
The competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine. This year astrophotographers from 91 countries sent in more than 4,200 spectacular entries. Here: The Milky Way rises above an isolated lighthouse in Tasmania. Shot by James Stone of Australia. (Photo by James Stone/Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018)
Mount Sinabung volcano erupts, as seen from Tiga Pancur village, Karo Regency in Indonesia's North Sumatra province October 8, 2014. (Photo by Y. T. Haryono/Reuters)
Festivalgoers are seen running to the gates during the the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Friday, April 12, 2024, in Indio, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP Photo)
A string art picture made by artist Ani Abakumova in a workshop in the village of Romashkovo in Moscow Region, Russia on August 2, 2019. Ani Abakumova and her husband Andrei Abakumov create string art replicas of famous paintings. Andrei makes computer calculations that show patterns for future images, then Ani winds coloured strings around nails hammered around a plywood board. (Photo by Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS)
Devotees of Santa Muerte visit her shrine in the Tepito neighborhood on the eve of the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, Mexico on October 31, 2022. (Photo by Gustavo Graf/Reuters)
Members of the Maori community march in a protest rally to criticise the government for its policies affecting the Indigenous Maori population in Wellington on November 19, 2024. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama/AFP Photo)