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)
Protesters sit in a cafe during a “SlutWalk” protest, in which several hundred participants march through the centre of Jerusalem, May 13, 2016. The SlutWalk movement began after a Toronto policeman suggested in 2011 that women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like a “sl*t”. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)
A woman enjoys her last alcoholic drink on December 4, 2020 in Cardiff, Wales. Following a firebreak period that ran from October 23 to November 9 the Welsh Government have introduced new rules which will prevent pubs, restaurants and cafes from selling alcohol at any time from 6pm on Friday. The rules will be reviewed on December 17. (Photo by Wales News Service)
A tourist stands on a paddle boat near soldiers taking part on a military and police drill in preparation for the temporary closure of the holiday island Boracay in Philippines on April 24, 2018. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)
Sharni Edwards, 27, and Robyn Peoples, 26, a Belfast couple who are the first known same-s*x couple to get married in Northern Ireland, kiss after being married, in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland on February 11, 2020. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)
Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano spews vulcanic materials during an eruption as seen from Pululera village in East Flores Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, on April 27, 2025. (Photo by The Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG)/Handout via Reuters)
Henry Leese drives a 1952 British Rail Ivatt number 46512 at Strathspey Steam Railway on August 27, 2013 in Aviemore,Scotland. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Highland Main Line built as a transportation link to the South for lairds and landowners living in northern Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)