Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

Documentary photographer William E. Crawford was one of the first Western photographers to gain access to North Vietnam after the war ended. He has photographed the capital, Hanoi, at regular intervals since 1985, concentrating on the colonial and indigenous architecture, urban details, landscapes and intimate portraits of people in their home settings, street scenes and the city’s surrounding countryside. Here: 54 Hàng Ga (Chicken Street), 1994. (Photo by William E. Crawford from the book “Hanoi Streets 1985-2015: In the Years of Forgetting”)

From stuffed elephants to picnics under power lines, Leipzig-born photographer Frank Herfort coaxes magical, colour-saturated tableaux from intriguing slices of everyday Russian life. Here: A lonely dog watches the mailboxes in a typical Moscow residential block. (Photo by by Frank Herfort/The Guardian)

“This is a shot I have envisioned in my head for a while, and only possible to shoot today with the invention of the GoPro. Shot at a beach break near my home. The board broke on this wave, but the vision made it worthwhile. Shot with the GoPro Hero 3+ and a Gripstick Pro Mount”. (Photo and caption by Mike Coots)

A steam traction engine with a broken rear axle in Pall Mall, London. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). November 1923

Penguins majestically march on sand before heading out for a morning swim. Wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever, 45, visited the Falkland Islands this year to shoot pictures and scout the area for future tours. Wim’s breathtaking images show a small group of king penguins before they head out to sea at sunrise. Here: King Penguins marching during sunrise, Falkland Islands. (Photo by Wim van den Heever/Caters News)

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia plays a backhand return to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their women's singles final match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, January 10, 2015. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

A Brazil soccer fan wearing contact lenses that mimic the Brazilian flag reacts as she watches her team play Germany in a World Cup semifinal game via live telecast inside the FIFA Fan Fest area on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)