A seagull flies through a rainbow near the Savannah River and the open spillway at Thurmond Dam in Clarks Hill, SC, Monday, January 4, 2016. (Photo by Michael Holahan/Augusta Chronicle via AP Photo)

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)

Unforgiving temperatures of up to 60℃ (140℉) beat down on these saltminers on a daily basis. The mines, situated in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, stretch across 38,000 sq miles and at their lowest point are more than 300ft below sea level. Joel Santos travelled to capture the area’s dry, brutal beauty. Here: Dromedaries and donkeys are used to transport the salt. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

Benfica's Portuguese forward Goncalo Ramos (R) vies with Portimonense's Japonese goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura (L) during the Portuguese League football match between SL Benfica and Portimonense SC at Luz stadium in Lisbon on January 6, 2023. (Photo by Patrícia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

Purev and Buyantogtokh enjoy the warmth of the fire in the snow in Altai Mountains, Mongolia, September 2016. Navigate the snowy wilds of Mongolia with this nomadic reindeer herding family. Photographer Joel Santos dived 1000km into the depths of Northern Mongolia to visit the Ganbaa family near Khovsgol Lake. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

Kayla Amara sprays down their home as the Hughes Fire burns in Castaic, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. (Photo by Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters)

Joel said documenting the Kazakh nomad summer migration was really an epic journey – a time travel journey – and at the same time was possible to get an understanding of how the balance of nature is still possible in Altai Mountains, Mongolia, June 2015. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

In this September 4, 1963, file photo, a police officer carries off a demonstrator holding a Confederate flag after a group of demonstrators protested enrollment of two African-Americans at Ramsay High School in Birmingham, Ala. The Confederate battle flag has been removed from South Carolina's Statehouse grounds, in the wake of the massacre of nine African-Americans, including a state senator, at an historic black church in Charleston in June 2015. (Photo by AP Photo)