Over the past three years, Los Angeles-based photographer Dotan Saguy has spent hundreds of hours documenting the diverse culture, people and pageantry of the iconic Venice Beach boardwalk. He was irresistibly drawn to the free-spirited, anti-materialistic and inclusive nature of the world-famous location, which he found to be a breath of fresh air in contrast to Los Angeles’s sometimes homogenized, celebrity-obsessed culture. (Photo by Dotan Saguy)

“Winter Climbing from inside Ben Nevis”. The view from inside the mountain, as a winter climber passes through the cave on Minus Three gully. Photo location: Ben Nevis, Fort William, Scotland. (Photo and caption by Daniel Wildey/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Heesco, Windsor. Born and raised in Mongolia and now living and working in Melbourne, Heesco is well known for his skill in rendering photo-realistic portraits. They speak to the viewer in a way that the subtext is enjoyable to decipher. Just what is the Blue Lady’s message? The sunglasses might mask the confronting gaze but her body language fills in the gaps. Heesco’s characters often wear traditional jewellery and clothing that remind us of his Mongolian cultural heritage. (Photo by Lou Chamberlin/The Guardian)

In the works of a photographer named Dave – who goes by Freaktography and never gives out his full name – haunting abandonment leaps from images of discarded machinery, tools and factory essentials. (Photo by Freaktography/Caters News Agency)

“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Students of Yuba Pratibha School, wearing a face shield and masks at school during a coronavirus pandemic in Kathmandu, Nepal, 26 November 2020. The head Teacher of Yuba Pratibha School, Yanga Raj Dahal, started to conduct classes for students, who can’t afford and attend online classes, with strict sanitary regime, providing also free face masks and shields for students. However majority of schools have been conducting online classes in Nepal from 19 March 2020 as part of precautionary measures against the spread of the coronavirus Covid-19. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)