The Belgian photographer Anton Kusters spent two years photographing the Yakuza, Japan’s most notorious gang. He returned with some amazing images that he made into a book called “Odo Yakuza Tokyo”. (Odo means “the way of the cherry blossom” and is the credo of the Yakuza family he followed. Photo: An erotic danser picks up fake 2-dollar bills during a private dance with a Yakuza customer in a strip tease bar in Kabukicho, a bar which is controlled by the ODO family – 2010. (Photo and caption by Anton Kusters)

Polar frame, by Dmitry Kokh, Russia. When Kokh’s boat approached the small island of Kolyuchin in the Russian High Arctic, which had been abandoned by humans since 1992, he was surprised to spot movement in one of the houses. Binoculars revealed polar bears – more than 20 in total – exploring the ghost town. Dmitry used a low-noise drone to document them. (Photo by Dmitry Kokh/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022)

A picture taken on August 25, 2021 shows a view of the Aletsch Glacier. After hiking for hours across the mountain and a vast expanse of white, Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss crouches down near the middle of the massive glacier and checks the measurements. Analysis of the data gathered from Aletsch, the largest glacier in the Alps, paints a dire picture of the toll that climate change is taking on the behemoth. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

In this photo taken on Saturday, March 9, 2019, a visitor dances in front of a sculpture burning at the Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) festival at the Nikola-Lenivets art park in Nikola-Lenivets village, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south-west of Moscow, Russia. As part of the celebrations of Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) Holiday in Russian, a folk holiday which heralds the beginning of spring, contemporary artist and park founder Nikolay Polissky built a giant sculpture made of wood and hay which was burnt to ashes during a traditional bonfire. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./AP Photo)

Human canvases modelling world famous artworks including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Edvard Munch's The Scream take to the streets of London in a bid to mend Britain's disconnect with art on September 25, 2017. Award winning body paint artist Sarah Attwell was commissioned by online art platform Rise Art to show that great art is for everybody, following research that revealed 1 in 6 Brits have never set foot in an art gallery. (Photo by Imagewise Ltd/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A 9 year old girl receives digital lessons from the primary school teacher in Rotterdam, Netherlands on April 20, 2020, because the schools are closed due to the corona crisis staying at home. Many schools are putting together a homework package or using digital teaching methods, now that education has been closed for several weeks due to the corona virus. (Photo byRobin Utrecht/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

Aliia Nasyrova laying her hair on the couch to show her hair's length on March 5, 2017 in Riga, Latvia. Real-life Rapunzel Aliia Nasyrova has hair so long that her husband admits he thinks of it as another member of the family. Aliia, 27, who lives in Riga, Latvia, took 20 years to grow out her hair, which measures 90 inches to the floor – and even has its own space in the marital bed. And while her massive mane attracts stares when out in public, her husband Ivan Balaban says he loves it and is proud of her for not cutting it. Weighing in at 4.5lbs (2kg), Aliia says her lengthy locks weigh as much as the family cat. (Photo by Eduard Kolik/Barcroft Media)