Fabrice Monteiro travelled to the most polluted places in Africa and created terrifying characters who roamed their midst dressed in eerie debris. They are spirits, he says, on a mission to make humans change their ways. Informed by Africa’s environmental problems, Fabrice Monteiro’s photographs aim to highlight urgent ecological issues all over the world. His series “The Prophecy” is on show at Photo Basel 2017 until 18 June. (Photo by Fabrice Monteiro/Photo Basel 2017/Mariane Ibrahim Gallery/The Guardian)

Iraqi boys swim with a herd of buffaloes in the Diyala River in the Faziliah district, east of Baghdad on August 2, 2021, amid extreme summer temperatures. As Iraq bakes under a blistering summer heat wave, its hard-scrabble farmers and herders are battling severe water shortages that are killing their animals, fields and way of life. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Blizzard in the High Peak, Derbyshire, by John Finney: “After a difficult journey in the snow, I made my way from Mam Tor down onto the Great Ridge. As the clouds got darker, I placed the tripod and camera at just the right angle to avoid snow getting onto the lens, and used a flash gun and a relatively slow shutter speed to highlight the fast motion of the blizzard”. Classic view, adult class – winner. (Photo by John Finney/Landscape Photographer of the Year)

In this undated photo released by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, a newly born Sumatran rhino calf walks in its enclosure at Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary at Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia. The critically endangered Sumatran rhino was born on Sumatra Island Saturday, November 25, 2023, the second Sumatran rhino born in the country this year and a welcome addition to a species that currently numbers fewer than 50 animals. (Photo by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry via AP Photo)

A man falls from his motorcycle after hitting a water buffalo on his way to work outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, September 6, 2024. Cambodian animal owners have been warned to keep their animals, which often cause traffic accidents, leashed and could face prison time if relatives of those who die or are injured in such accidents initiate legal proceedings. (Photo by Heng Sinith/AP Photo)

Christian people crowd a bush taxi on a road 55km north of Bangui as they are on their way to the capital where they expect to sell some products on the market on January 19, 2014. Fresh fighting broke out in the strife-torn Central African Republic on the eve of an announcement on Sunday of the candidates seeking to become the new interim president. Sectarian violence has gripped the landlocked country after a March 2013 coup launched by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels, and the UN has warned that the bloodshed could turn into genocide. (Photo by Eric Feferberg/AFP Photo)

A Nepalese Hindu devotee bathes in the Bagmati River on her way to the Pashupatinath Temple to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, Hindu god of destruction during Shravan festivities in Sundarijal, on the outskirts of Kathmandu on August 3, 2015. According to the Nepali calendar, Shravan is considered the holiest month of the year with each Monday of the month known as Shravan Somvar when worshippers offer prayers for a happy and prosperous life. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

In this August 3, 2015, photo, residents make their way through floodwaters in Minbu, Magway division, in Myanmar. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said that more than 200,000 people are affected in 11 of the country's 14 states and divisions by flooding. In addition to damage to houses and farmland, infrastructure has been very badly hit, with roads and rail lines cut in many places and telecommunication links broken. (Photo by Hkun Lat/AP Photo)