Runner English Gardner poses for a portrait at the U.S. Olympic Committee Media Summit in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California March 8, 2016. “My musical inspiration when I'm training is usually a lot of upbeat music”, said Gardner. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Zulmira Jesus poses for a portrait at a street in Povoa de Agracoes, near Chaves, Portugal April 19, 2016. In the villages of Agracoes and Povoa de Agracoe, the steady drip-drip of emigration has brought down population numbers from more than 50 residents to fewer than a dozen each. These remaining villagers share the same glum acceptance that, after they have gone, their villages will die out too. It is the same desolate picture in scores of other backwater settlements in Portugal's interior, north to south. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Izelle Nair, 39, the instructor at the Merschool poses for a portrait in her mermaid attire at the centre in Kayalami, Midrand, South Africa on June 3, 2022. Mermaiding is a fast growing sport world wide and includes several skills such as monofin swimming, sculling, tricks and breath hold. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP Photo)

A woman carries portraits of Red Army soldiers during the celebrations of Victory Day, which marks the 78th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 9, 2023. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

“About nine years ago Photographer Bob Carey and his wife, Linda moved to America's East Coast. Even though the move was exciting, exhilarating, and inspiring, it was a big and dramatic change. The self portraits were a perfect way of expressing himself. He posed in different surroundings wearing a pink tutu. The result is a wonderful, inspiring and poetic series of self portraits: The Tutu Project” – Michael Werner. (Photo by Bob Carey via TheTutuProject.com)

Cosplayer Monzerath Gutierrez, who portrays Dragon Ball Z character Trunks, female version, poses for a portrait during the 4th edition of the MiniCon Anime convention, at the School of Dance, in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July, 26, 2015. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

Japanese artist Mami Kiyoshi has spent 15 years creating vivid portraits of people surrounded by their belongings – from wine bottles and violins to the odd stray pet. Mami Kiyoshi’s ongoing series “New Reading Portraits” is, in part, a nod to the mise-en-scène found in traditional woodcut printing. Here: Sakura and Kazuhiro, Tokyo, 2015. (Photo by Mami Kiyoshi/Galerie Annie Gabrielli/The Guardian)