Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

A demonstrator wears a mask during a protest inside the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Civic Center station on August 15, 2011 in San Francisco, California. The hacker group “Anonymous” staged a demonstration at a BART station this evening after BART officials turned off cell phne service in its stations last week during a disruptive protest following a fatal shooting of a man by BART police. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In 2002 photographer Corey Arnold left behind a poor economy in San Francisco and headed up to Alaska to try his luck at his longtime passion of fishing. Arnold, who had worked summers during college on a salmon boat in Alaska, signed onto the f/v Rollo, a crabbing boat that fishes in the dangerous Bering Sea. While working long, strenuous hours on the Rollo, Arnold often stole away with the captain’s permission to grab his camera and photograph the crew and the ship. Arnold eventually put together “Fish Work: Bering Sea”, a documentation of his seven adventurous and dicey crab seasons aboard the Rollo. (Photo by Corey Arnold)

A Barbie cosplayer arrives for San Diego Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on July 20, 2023. (Photo by Chris Delmas/AFP Photo)

A group of youngsters dressed as ghouls and zombies for Halloween parade in downtown Lisbon, Portugal, Friday, October 31, 2014. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

San Diego Ballet School students wear protective masks backstage during a performance of “The Nutcracker”, presented by the San Diego Ballet in a drive-in performance at a parking lot in San Diego, California, December 5, 2020. (Photo by Bing Guan/Reuters)

People sit next to a pool where the Tower of Madrid skyscraper is reflected at sunset in Madrid, Thursday, November 26, 2015. The tower was the tallest in Spain since it was finished in 1957 until 1982. (Photo by Francisco Seco/AP Photo)

Father Angel (L), parish priest of San Anton Church blesses a dog during the celebrations of San Anton in Madrid, Spain on January 17, 2018. (Photo by Fernando Alvarado/EFE via ZUMA Press)