Winner – Animal Portraits: The pose by Mogens Trolle, Denmark. A young male proboscis monkey cocks his head slightly and closes his eyes. Unexpected pale blue eyelids now complement his immaculately groomed auburn hair. He poses for a few seconds as if in meditation. He is a wild visitor to the feeding station at Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo – “the most laid-back character”, says Trolle, “quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen on another monkey” – connects us, he hopes, with a fellow primate. (Photo by Mogens Trolle/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

“Stephen Gough (born c. 1959), also known as Steve Gough and the Naked Rambler, is an activist, and a British former Royal Marine. In 2003-2004, he walked the length of Great Britain naked. He did it again in 2005-2006, but was arrested in England and in Scotland. He subsequently spent six years in prison, having been repeatedly rearrested for public nudity within a short period, each time he was released. He has spent most of his sentences in Saughton and Perth prisons, in Scotland”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Stephen Gough the naked rambler makes his way south through Peebles in the Scottish Borders, following his release from Saughton Prison yesterday after serving his latest sentence on October 6, 2012 in Peebles, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)

Rebelling against political propaganda, acclaimed photographer Antanas Sutkus embarked on a life-long journey to capture the everyday scenes around him. Antanas Sutkus, born in 1939, studied journalism at Vilnius University in the late 1950s before becoming disillusioned by the confines of the Soviet-controlled press. He began taking photographs instead, and soon co-founded the Lithuanian Association of Art Photographers. Here: The first Lithuanian bikers, 1974. (Photo by Antanas Sutkus)

Kevin Russ, a photographer & image moderator for iStockphoto, grew up in Arroyo Grande, California. In 2003, he made the move to Portland, planning to study at Multnomah Bible College. Finding the workload to be minimal, Kevin invested in a camera, filling his free time and finding himself instantly smitten with the craft. A year and a half later, photography had evolved into his full-time job. However, after 4 years of consistent portrait work, Kevin became burnt out and took a step back from photography altogether. Two years later, he picked up the camera again and now spends the majority of his time on the road, exploring & photographing the rustic landscapes & wildlife he encounters.

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the wall enclosing the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry after he cut off a part of his earlobe during his protest action titled “Segregation” in Moscow October 19, 2014. Pavlensky protested against the usage of forensic psychiatry for politically motivated purposes. He cut off his earlobe to demonstrate how authorities could “cut off” an unwanted individual from society by using psychiatric and medical diagnosis to forcefully send a person to a penitentiary hospital, according to Pavlensky. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)

Alfred the frog looks almost as scary as the pumpkin he is perched on at London Zoo 26 October 2011. Keepers at the zoo have joined in the Halloween tradition by supplying pumpkin lunches to some of their animals, including the giant waxy monkey frog. However Alfred is not quite the giant figure his species name suggests – he actually measures up at around 4 inches (10 centimeters). (Photo by EPA/Zoological Society of London)

“The inspiration for this book came to me one afternoon as I watched my son, Hudson, playing with his toy bus. I was trying to keep pace with his three-year-old mind as he got deeper and deeper into a fantasy involving nothing more than a yellow plastic box and armless figurines. At least that’s what I saw. He saw frantic commuters rushing to catch the 77 local bus to Australia. He jumped in place, mouth open and slapping his knees, joyously reacting to a world I couldn’t see, but one powerfully present for him...”. – Jordan Matter

Photo: “Dancers Among Us”: Macys, NYC – Annmaria Mazzini. (Photo by Jordan Matter)