“Kavadi Attam is a dance performed by the devotees during the ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War. It is often performed during the festival of Thaipusam and emphasizes debt bondage. The Kavadi itself is a physical burden through which the devotees implore for help from the God Murugan”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A devotee pulls his procession burden connected by hooks pierced in his back during the Thaipusam procession at Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on February 7, 2012 in Singapore. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

“People of the River”. This is a Karo tribe family; father, mother, two sisters and two brothers. The tribe, who live along the Omo River in east Africa, incorporate rich symbolism into their rituals by using ornate body art, headdresses and body scarification to express beauty and significance. (Photo by Jatenipat Ketpradit/International Portrait Photographer of the Year)

“The Buran program was a Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at TsAGI and was formally suspended in 1993. It was a response to the United States Space Shuttle program”. – Wikipedia

Photo by: These Pictures are Entirely Bad ; Source: Flickr

13-year-old Emmanuel Festo from Tanzania poses for a portrait with a plush toy that he says makes him feel safe at night and that he sleeps with, in New York's Staten Island, September 21, 2015. Albino body parts are highly valued in witchcraft and can fetch a high price. Superstition leads many to believe albino children are ghosts who bring bad luck. Some believe the limbs are more potent if the victims scream during amputation, according to a 2013 United Nations report. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

People who live in nearby villages make their yearly pilgrimage as they walk up the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico, Wednesday, March 12, 2014. Every year on March 12, residents make their way up the volcano celebrate the day of Don Gregorio Chino Popocatepetl, as the volcano is known to them, with food, music, dance and fireworks. When the sun rises, hundreds of pilgrims head out from the towns of Santiago Xalintzintla, Tlamacas and San Nicolas de Los Ranchos in van and trucks to drive, then walk up the 17,886-foot (5,450-meter) volcano for their daylong celebration. (Photo by Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo)

Photographer Joana Choumali’s latest project explores body image and beauty by documenting the men building Abidjan’s clothing models. The “Awoulaba” mannequin is a customised model designed with the African ideal of beauty in mind, curvier than the stick-thin examples usually seen in the west. They first appeared in 2011, and have since become a familiar sight outside the numerous clothing shops dotted throughout Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan. Here: An apprentice lines up his work on a roadside. (Photo by Joana Choumali)

With the humpback calving season drawing to a close, here’s a look at some of Rita Kluge’s distinctive marine photos from the south Pacific. The Sydney-based photographer fell in love with whales after witnessing southern rights from the New South Wales coastline as they travelled to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic. She has since been to Tonga, where humpbacks breed and calf in winter months, to photograph them in the water. (Photo by Rita Kluge/The Guardian)

Yalena Leuliette, 7, of Greenbelt, Md., throws seeds from a cattail plant up in the air as she plays while visiting the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in northeast Washington, on Sunday, August 9, 2015. Leuliette visits the public garden with her parents a few times a year. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)