Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

Shamila, 15, from an internally displaced family, adjusts her wedding dress in an old mud house yard, on her wedding day, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, May 19, 2023. “I have no choice. If I don’t accept, my family will be hurt”, she says. Due to poverty and debt, her father had to marry her to a boy at a young age. Her father said that if I did not do this, I might have to give my daughter to someone that I owe. Now, with the money I received from the boy's family, I can pay my debt and treat my son. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Balinese Hindu people take part in a cleansing ceremony called “Melasti”, in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, 25 March 2025. Melasti is a purification ritual where Balinese Hindus cleanse themselves and their sacred objects in the ocean to purify and renew spiritually, symbolizing the washing away of impurities and starting anew. It typically precedes Nyepi, the Day of Silence, marking the Balinese New Year. Balinese will celebrate Nyepi Day on 29 March 2025, during which Hindus on the island of Bali are not allowed to travel, work, light lamps, cook, or do any other activities. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA)

Animal rights activists from the group “Animal Equality” are covered with plastic sheets to represent meat packaging as they stage a protest during “Day Without Meat” event in Barcelona, Spain, on March 20, 2013. (Photo by Lluis Gene/AFP Photo)

Passionate fans are doing something unique (wacky) to celebrate the World Cup. They’re getting the likeness of their favorite player shaved into the back of their head. Photo: England fan Joel Moore (23) has had a haircut featuring the face of World Cup star Theo Walcott by Daren Terry from Lotus Styling in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. (Photo by Southern News & Pictures)

Clay Lipsky has created a great series called Atomic Overlook. The project takes terribly boring scenic shots and combines them with some exciting nuclear testing. “Tourists will line up for anything and I always found humor in vacation destinations that are nothing but a bunch of people looking into a great abyss”, he says. “I understand the allure of a beautiful landscape, but as the world’s population grows so do the lines to view the “nothingness”. Atomic Overlook flips the script on that and gives new purpose to those suntanned masses”. (Photo by Clay Lipsky)

Wanwisa, a Lao Yi Lai Heng Chinese opera performer waits backstage at the Plub Plachai temple on January 25, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand. The traditional Chinese art form involving music, singing, martial arts and acting has a history of more than 500 years. There are about 30 members working with the group doing specials shows all week to celebrate the Chinese New year. The Chinese opera is popular in many parts of China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Macau. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Adorable cartoonish characters created by a Brazilian illustrator Lucas Levian accentuate the most prominent details of the pictures that he has found on Instagram. The original photos were completely bland and uninteresting; however, Lucas Levitan manages to add a comical effect to them by skillfully adding a character that is doing something completely unexpected. Who would imagу placing a little guy with an iron onto the forehead of an old man? (Photo by Lucas Levitan)