A large balloon of a face of “ojisan”, a middle aged man, floats in the sky above the grounds of Nishiki elementary school in Utsunomiya in Tochigi prefecture, 100km north of Tokyo on December 21, 2014. Members of art group “Me”, meaning “eye” in Japanese and the Utsunomiya Museum of Art launched an art installation “The Day an Ojisan's Face Floated in the Sky”, a 15-meter by 10-meter face balloon of the depicted man, who was auditioned in the city, looking down on his home town from the sky. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

Andrew Parkinson, animal behaviour category winner: Crepuscular Contentment, Derbyshire. “In 15 years of working with badgers I’ve never seen a badger sit out in the open to have a scratch. I was sat concealed behind a tree and downwind so it was especially nice that the badger had his back to me, demonstrating just how inconspicuous and inconsequential my presence was”. (Photo by Andrew Parkinson/British Wildlife Photography Awards 2017)

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)

Chinese folk artists perform the lion dance at a temple fair to celebrate the Lunar New Year of Dragon on January 22, 2012 in Beijing, China. Falling on January 23 this year, the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year and ends with Lantern Festival on the Fifteenth day. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

“I have been photographing this group of urban foxes in Bristol for over 12 months; what started off as a chance encounter has become an obsession for me and has changed my feelings and attitudes towards urban foxes forever...”. – Ian Wade. (Photo by Ian Wade)

“They’ve been obsessing me for years. I searched and found them in Benares, on the banks of the river Gange (India). They arrive here to get rid of everything and to wait for death. This existence can last for years, sometimes decades, almost a life. Opposite to mine, well organised and filled as a human life can be, to try in vain to push the limits of its end”. – Denis Rouvre. (Photo by Denis Rouvre)

I would like to tell you why many artists, who like me, have painted portraits and landscapes in oils on canvas, worked with acrylics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings, have turned to the art of gourd carving.

In this Thursday, May 16, 2013 file photo, Finland's Krista Siegfrids, second right, kisses a dancer as she performs her song “Marry Me” during the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden. That was the first girl-on-girl kiss in the history of the annual competition. Previously, organizers had sought to prevent similar embraces citing the competition's status as a family event. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)