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)

In this September 21, 2017, local villagers repair a fishing boat in Shah Porir Dwip, an island by the Bay of Bengal at Bangladesh’s southern tip. This island can mean both hope and death for the Rohingya Muslims who are desperate to escape the violence that has engulfed their lives in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. High tide or low, day or night, rough waters or calm, when they can find a boat, the Rohingya take their chance to flee to Bangladesh. More than 430,000 have left Myanmar in less than a month. (Photo by Bernat Armangue/AP Photo)

A man walks his dog as the sun sets in a park in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, September 18, 2017. Cool damp weather is set to continue in this part of Germany for the next few days with temperatures in the mid teens Celsius. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Police officers display their AI-powered smart glasses in Luoyang, Henan province, China on April 4, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

In this March 2, 2018 photo, an Andean man rests with his llama while tourists take in the natural wonder of Rainbow Mountain in Pitumarca, Peru. Tourists gasp for breath as they climb for two hours to the 16,404-foot (5,000-meter) peak in the Peruvian Andes, but stunned by the magical beauty that unfurls before them. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

Children play on a flooded highway during a summer downpour in Edsa, Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines on April 25, 2018. (Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Reuters)

Ukrainians attend an open military training for civilians on a training range in Kiev, Ukraine, 06 February 2022. According to a survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from December 2021, 50.2 percent of Ukrainians said they would resist in case of a Russian military intervention into their city, town or village. Every third respondent to the poll said they were ready to engage in armed resistance, and 21.7 percent said they were ready to participate in civil resistance actions. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A placard featuring an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading “We are with him for the sovereignty of Russia! And you?” is seen left in front of the Russian State Duma building in central Moscow on February 24, 2022. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)