Women soldiers dance during a parade marking the 78th anniversary of the Indonesian Armed Forces in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, October 5, 2023. (Photo by Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo)

Soldiers stand guard in Maua square where a cotton candy vendor passes by in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 9, 2016, as security is deployed to get to know the areas they'll be patrolling during the Olympics. Roughly twice the security contingent at the London Olympics will be deployed during the August games in Rio, which are expected to draw thousands of foreigners to a city where armed muggings, stray bullets and turf wars between heavily armed drug gangs are routine. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Members of the Dominican Armed Forces participate in a commemorative act on the 170th anniversary of national independence at the esplanade of Santo Domingo, on February 27, 2014. (Photo by Orlando Barria/EPA)

A member of the United Arab Emirates armed forces gestures as the first batch of UAE military personnel returns from Yemen in Abu Dhabi, November 7, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/United Arab Emirates News Agency WAM)

A service member of the Ukrainian armed forces is seen at fighting positions on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk region, Ukraine on April 10, 2021. (Photo by Oleksandr Klymenko/Reuters)

A woman cries outside her house after armed gangs set it on fire in the Post Marchand neighborhood of Port-au-Prince on December 17, 2024. (Photo by Clarens Siffroy/AFP Photo)

Four pillars of light from the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) are shown reaching into the Chilean night sky in this image from ESO Photo Ambassador Fred Kamphues, on September 2, 2016. The lasers are a key part of the adaptive optics system on the VLT. Adaptive optics allows astronomers to drastically reduce the atmospheric distortion present at even the best sites in the world for astronomy, including Paranal in Chile, the home of the VLT. (Photo by F. Kamphues/ESO)

At 10,582 square kilometres, the Bolivian salt flats – otherwise known as Salar de Uyuni – are the largest on the planet and contain between 50 and 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. After exploring Chile and Argentina, photographer Joel Santos decided to travel to Bolivia in January 2017 to check the salt flats off his bucket list. With an electrical storm rolling in, Joel and his two travelling companions were the only souls left on the vast flats and captured the eerie flats without a person in sight. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)