In 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, all Ukrainians had to get a new passport – and photographer Alexander Chekmenev was on hand to take their photos. The snatched extra shots he took are remarkable in their honesty and tenderness. (Photo by Alexander Chekmenev/The Guardian)

A reveller sleeps on the pavement during the Sanja Matsuri festival in the Asakusa district of Tokyo May 17, 2015. The Sanja Matsuri festival attracts over about one million visitors over its duration of three days, when parties of revellers carry portable shrines through the Asakusa neighbourhood, rocking and shaking them in a belief that this intensified the powers of the deities that reside inside them. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A female sniper of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) monitors the area during a celebration at the iconic Al- Naim square in Raqa on October 19, 2017, after retaking the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. The SDF fighters flushed jihadist holdouts from Raqa' s main hospital and municipal stadium, wrapping up a more than four- month offensive against what used to be the inner sanctum of IS' s self- proclaimed “caliphate”. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

In this timed-exposure night photo taken early on February 12, 2017, Mount Sinabung volcano spews reddish smoke and ash, as seen from the Karo district in North Sumatra province. Activity levels have increased in the past week, with Sinabung shooting hot ash clouds into the sky dozens of times, according to the local volcano monitoring agency. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A juvenile blackcap is recorded in the soft light of morning at Minorca, UK, a former open-cast mine near Moira in the National Forest on June 18, 2025. Dr Heather Gilbert, research and evidence manager, checks mist nets among wildflowers and young trees as part of long-term monitoring that shows bird numbers have increased by 48 per cent over 30 years. (Photo by Rod Kirkpatrick/RKP Photography)

Tomomi Ota visits a local shrine with her humanoid robot Pepper in Tokyo, Japan, 26 June 2016. Reaching 120cm in height and 28 kilograms in weight, Pepper does not enter in the category of portable robot. But those characteristics dont stop Tomomi Ota to take Pepper in a cart to stroll in her neighborhood, go shopping or even take the subway... (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA)

Law enforcement officers stand, with some turning their backs, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks on a monitor outside the funeral for NYPD officer Wenjian Liu in the Brooklyn borough of New York January 4, 2015. Tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from across the country gathered on Sunday for the funeral of the second of two New York City policemen killed last month in an ambush that galvanized critics of Mayor de Blasio. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers load a tranquilized elephant onto a truck during a translocation exercise to Ithumba Camp in Tsavo East National Park, in Solio Ranch in Nyeri County, Kenya, February 21, 2018. Wildlife officials in Kenya kicked off a relocation operation for 30 elephants, fitting monitoring collars on the tranquilized animals before using cranes to swing them, inverted with bound feet and scything tusks, onto flatbed trucks. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)