A man dresses as a Minion tries to convince a tourist to have her picture taken with him, in Times Square, in New York, April 7, 2016. The assortment of costumed characters, painted naked women and ticket sellers who make the streets of New York's Times Square their office, catering to tourists, may soon be restricted after a City Council vote Thursday. (Photo by Rickey Rogers/Reuters)

These macro images by Alejandro Santillana are being showcased in the Insects Unlocked project at the University of Texas at Austin. Here: A female sweat bee. (Photo by Alejandro Santillana/Insects Unlocked/Cover Images)

A vendor smokes behind a display of dog meat at a dog meat market on the day of a local dog meat festival in Yulin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, June 22, 2015. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

An employee sorts waste at the Wecycler recycling centre in Ebutte Meta district in Lagos, Nigeria July 28, 2016. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.

A father crosses a road with his twin daughters in Shanghai, China September 28, 2018. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Teenage girls at a drinking fountain in Hyde Park in Central London on August 9, 2022 after weeks with no significant rain and unprecedented high temperatures. Many parts of southern England and Wales are facing drought conditions and preparing for emergency water measures. (Photo by Sarah Lee/The Guardian)