At 10,582 square kilometres, the Bolivian salt flats – otherwise known as Salar de Uyuni – are the largest on the planet and contain between 50 and 70% of the world’s lithium reserves. After exploring Chile and Argentina, photographer Joel Santos decided to travel to Bolivia in January 2017 to check the salt flats off his bucket list. With an electrical storm rolling in, Joel and his two travelling companions were the only souls left on the vast flats and captured the eerie flats without a person in sight. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

In this Monday, September 23, 2019, a woman waits for alms as she sits with her child in a street on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

A three-metre-tall painted bronze sculpture, Seated Man 2016, by the artist Sean Henry, is lifted into its new home on July 23, 2019 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield, England. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

ISS Expedition 66 main crew member, actress Yulia Peresild blows a kiss through a bus window as she leaves for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 5, 2021. The launch of the Soyuz MS-19 mission to be involved in making the feature film “The Challenge” (working title) aboard the International Space Station is scheduled for 5 October 2021 at 11:55 Moscow time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/TASS)

A vegetable vendor wearing gloves and face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus interacts with a customer in Bengaluru, India, Sunday, October 11, 2020. India's confirmed coronavirus toll crossed 7 million on Sunday with a number of new cases dipping in recent weeks, even as health experts warn of mask and distancing fatigue setting in. (Photo by Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo)

A female referee counts as member of Uganda's Soft Ground Wrestling is pinned to the ground during a training session at their camp in Mukono on February 28, 202. Uganda's Soft Ground Wrestling is getting attention worldwide and becoming an Internet sensation. Members showcase their wrestling skills on their YouTube channel, performing inside makeshift bamboo ring posts with string ropes and soil. Currently, Soft Ground Wrestling has 200 members, most of them from unprivileged backgrounds, and include both men and women training vigorously as they dream of becoming professional wrestlers. (Photo by Badru Katumba/AFP Photo)

A woman checks on two of her puppies after her neighborhood was evacuated because of severe flooding in Channelview, Texas, on Saturday, May 4, 2024. Days of rain caused rivers to swell, leaving homes and businesses flooded and thousands of people displaced. (Photo by Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/AP Photo)

This watering hole is the social hub of the veldt; the scrubby grasslands that stretch across Namibia. The scorched earth supports sometimes fragile populations of magnificent wildlife – from endangered predators to plentiful herds of game. But these gentle giraffes and elephants need to be careful: lions don’t sleep at night, they hunt! The spectacular starscape above southern Africa is unchanged since explorers first mapped the continent. The photographer, Pietro Olivetta from Italy, said he had to be patient to capture these shots – but it was worth the wait. (Photo by Pietro Olivetta/Caters News)