Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)

Lido cabaret dancers perform during a demonstration outside the cabaret as dancers, other employees and union activists are gathering to try to save their jobs and the history of the cabaret, known for its dinner theater and its “Bluebell Girls” revue, Saturday, May 28, 2022 in Paris. Amid financial troubles and changing times, the venue's new corporate owner is ditching most of the Lido's staff and its high-kicking, high-glamour dance shows – which date back decades and inspired copycats from Las Vegas to Beirut – in favor of more modest musical revues. (Photo by Thomas Padilla/AP Photo)

Wide-angle category winner. Part of the Illusion by Marcus Blatchford (UK). Location: National Dive & Activity Centre, Chepstow, Wales. “This is the deepest inland dive centre in the UK. The dive plan was to explore the deep end, but this time I dived ‘unplugged’ (without my strobes). With the exception of this change to my camera technique, there were no planned shots I wanted to achieve – just a fun dive with ad-hoc photos along the way. Shortly after this photo was captured, in 6C water and two hours of decompression ahead of us, we turned and started the long ascent back to the surface”. (Photo by Marcus Blatchford/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

A French riot police officer is surrounded by flames, during a demonstration against the controversial labour reforms of the French government in Paris on September 15, 2016. Opponents of France's controversial labour reforms took to the streets on September 15, 2016 for the 14th time in six months in a last-ditch bid to quash the measures that lost the Socialist government crucial support on the left. Scores of flights in and out of France were cancelled as air traffic controllers went on strike to try to force the government to repeal the changes that became law in July. (Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP Photo)

In this July 30, 2014 photo, neighbors help gravely injured Mohammed al-Selek, 39, wounded by an Israeli mortar strike as he lays next to the body of Palestinian journalist Rami Reyan who was killed, in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of the northern Gaza Strip. Al-Selek's life changed forever last July 30, when the shells slammed into his home killing all his three children, his father and six other relatives. A year later, al-Selek, who lost his leg during the airstrike, still struggles to recover and come to terms with his family's loss in the 50-day Israel-Hamas war. (Photo by Adel Hana/AP Photo)

The new curvy Barbie doll body shape (L) is seen next to the traditional Barbie in a combination of photos released by Mattel on January 28, 2016. Barbie, the world's most famous doll, has a new body. In fact, she has three new bodies – petite, tall and curvy. Some 57 years after the impossibly busty and narrow-waisted blue-eyed Barbie doll was first introduced, California-based toy maker Mattel on Thursday released the new models, which it says better reflect a changing world. (Photo by Reuters/Mattel)

A Turkana man and a boy carrying a gun look on as a G3 battle rifle hangs from a structure used to dry fish at a fishing camp on the shores of Lake Turkana, some kilometres from Todonyang near the Kenya-Ethiopia border in northwestern Kenya October 12, 2013The Turkana are traditionally nomadic pastoralists, but they have seen the pasture that they need to feed their herds suffer from recurring droughts and many have turned to fishing. However, Lake Turkana is overfished, and scarcity of food and pastureland is fuelling long-standing conflict with Ethiopian indigenous Dhaasanac, who have seen grazing grounds squeezed by large-scale government agricultural schemes in southern Ethiopia. The Dhaasanac now venture ever deeper into Kenyan territory in search of fish and grass, clashing with neighbours. Fighting between the communities has a long history, but the conflict has become ever more fatal as automatic weapons from other regional conflicts seep into the area. While the Turkana region is short of basics like grass and ground-water, it contains other resources including oil reserves and massive, newly discovered underground aquifers. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

The photos, created by Tito Mouraz in Portugal, look too surreal, and it takes a while to realize that these are actually not painting but reality. The way people can completely transform the terrain is very reminiscent of the way people tend to change themselves. Chip away the granite of their soul, turning it into something that fits their idea of perfection. However, in the end, most of them end up with an obscene parody of beauty, rather than something truly marvelous. The reason for it is probably that people are actually oblivious to the true image of beauty, making them stumble around in the dark, hoping to find something that might not exist at all. (Photo by Tito Mouraz)