At the 50th anniversary of the Hartford Automobile Club a 1914 Mercer with an economical wind screen, looking like a large magnifying glass, designed to offer minimum wind resistance. Brass is used instead of chrome for the “shiny” parts, circa 1955. (Photo by Three Lions)

Boys pan for gold on a riverside at Iga Barriere, 25 km (15 miles) from Bunia, in the resource-rich Ituri region of eastern Congo February 16, 2009. Ituri is one of many areas of the country to have experienced bitter ethnic conflict between rival tribes in recent years. Massacres have left tens of thousands dead. It is this fighting that led U.S. authorities to take the unprecedented step of naming Congo in section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act, which says U.S.-listed companies that source gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin from Congo or its neighbours must assure the U.S. stock exchange regulator that their business is not helping fund conflict. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

These images give a rare insight into the life of a 19th Century Indian Maharajah. Maharajah Ram Singh ruled in the famous pink city of Jaipur between 1835 and 1880, and was also a keen photographer. Here: Full portrait of a woman in the harem in the royal palace of Jaipur, India, 1857 – 1865. (Photo by Maharaja Ram Singh III/Alinari via Getty Images)

Underwater photographer of the year – winner. Dancing Octopus by Gabriel Barathieu (France). Location: Island of Mayotte, off the coast of south-east Africa. “Balletic and malevolent”, one judge said of this octopus, hunting in a lagoon. Barathieu waited until spring tides when there was just 30cm of water on the flats and plenty of light in the shallows. (Photo by Gabriel Barathieu/UPY2017)

For centuries the Highlands peoples of Papua New Guinea fought over land, women and pigs. Sorcery and battle skills could elevate a clan to Bigmanship, where the bigger the “presentation”, the bigger the man. Clans therefore would paint their bodies and create fearsome masks as part of their psy. Here: These are the terrifying tribe of “mudmen” from a remote part of Papua New Guinea. (Photo by Jeremy Hunter/Exclusivepix Media)

A woman dressed in a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt holds her cat as she take part in an embroidered shirt parade in central Kiev, Ukraine, May 27, 2017. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

The city of Meroë laid undiscovered for two millennia before British archaeologist John Garstang excavated it in the early 20th century. Garstang took the radical decision to document his discoveries with photography – and immortalised an ancient world. “Meroë: Africa’s Forgotten Empire” is being shown until 14 September at Garstang Museum of Archaeology, Liverpool. Here: A group visiting the excavations at Meroë, including (from left) Midwinter Bey, director of Sudan Railways; Lord Kitchener; General Sir Francis Reginald Wingate, Sirdar of the Egyptian Army; Professor Archibald Sayce; John Garstang; and Lady Catherine Wingate, 1911. (Photo by Garstang Museum of Archaeology)

A Zimbabwean subsistence farmer holds a stunted maize cob in his field outside Harare, January 20, 2016. About 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday. In Zimbabwe, 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, face hunger, WFP said. (Photo by Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)