A teller at a money changer handles Indonesia rupiah bank notes in Jakarta, Indonesia November 11, 2016. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

Women perform yoga on a dried river bank in Yunyang county, Chongqing Municipality, August 21, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Traditional May Day parade, held in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1947, documented the IDF's camera lens. Series of images, saved by IDF archives of the Defense Ministry, shows the the streets of Tel Aviv. (Photo by Israel Defense Forces)

Parked scooters and motorcycles in a line on January 13, 2012 in London, England. Statistics showed a 12% increase in scooter registration in 2011, with cost savings on petrol, parking and congestion charge (in London) believed to be the primary factor. (Photo by Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images)

What do superheroes do when they’re not busy fighting bad guys and saving the world from destruction? Perhaps they’re drawing strength alone in the peace and quiet of the great outdoors. That’s the premise of French photographer Benoit Lapray‘s photo-manipulation series “The Quest for the Absolute.”

Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)

Spot-billed pelican interact on the banks of an artificial lake in Colombo on September 28, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

American actress Elizabeth Banks in the first decade of December 2023 shows off her lacy ensemble. (Photo by Elizabethbanks/Instagram)