Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

An Afghan girl makes a pile of unbaked bricks near the road passing through the Shamali Plains, about 10 kilometers (6 miles), west of Bagram, Afghanistan, Wednesay April 9, 2003. Children assist parents in their job to supplement family income. (Photo by Gurinder Osan/AP Photo)

Bibi rides her bike on the Playa during the Burning Man 2015 “Carnival of Mirrors” arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, August 31, 2015. Approximately 70,000 people from all over the world are gathering at the sold-out festival to spend a week in the remote desert to experience art, music and the unique community that develops. (Photo by Jim Urquhart/Reuters)

A pilot inflates a hot air balloon while taking part in the 38th International Balloon Festival of Chateau-d'oex, Switzerland, 23 January 2016. The festival takes place from 23 to 31 January. (Photo by Vincent Vannay/EPA)

A young Chinese girl dressed in Christmas costume, hugs a pedestrian on a street to celebrate Christmas in Nanjing city, east China's Jiangsu province, 23 December 2015. (Photo by Imaginechina/Splash News)

A Palestinian girl wear a face mask during a lockdown imposed following the discovery of coronavirus cases in the Gaza Strip, Thursday, August 27, 2020. On Wednesday Gaza's Hamas rulers extended a full lockdown in the Palestinian enclave for three more days as coronavirus cases climbed after the detection this week of the first community transmissions of the virus in the densely populated, blockaded territory. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)

Benfica's Portuguese forward Goncalo Ramos (R) vies with Portimonense's Japonese goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura (L) during the Portuguese League football match between SL Benfica and Portimonense SC at Luz stadium in Lisbon on January 6, 2023. (Photo by Patrícia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

Fans attend “The Batman” special screening at BFI IMAX Waterloo on February 23, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)