A child poses with face painting during the event in Canning, West Bengal on June 15, 2025. For generations Bahurupi artists from West Bengal have been practicing in the art of face painting. Using their painting techniques they can easily metamorphose into different characters during a performance, which often represents tribal myths. These traditional artists scrape a living from their performances, relying on the generosity of audiences for their income. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Australian artist Polixeni Papapetrou trends the line between fantasy/theatre, mythology/reality, archetype/play, male/female, child/adult and animal/human. As with all her work the series The Dreamkeepers tells a story that includes her autobiographical relationship with her children, but it also says a lot more about the condition of childhood - its place in our culture and how we react to images of children in photography.

These adorable images of new born polar bears are bound to warm the hearts of even the biggest Ba-humbugs this Christmas. The stunning collection of photographs, taken over the space of ten years, manage to capture the tender bond between both mother and child as they emerge from their den for the very first time. Here: a Polar bear with its cub. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News)

Widows, who have been abandoned by their families, light sparklers after offering prayers on the banks of the river Yamuna as part of Diwali celebrations organised by non-governmental organisation Sulabh International in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh October 21, 2014. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

“Winter shapes, Moscow river”. Moscow river at this part is never covered by ice. When the temperature is very low it's possible to see a strong fog. Morning light and pipes of the oli factory creates a fantastic landscape. Photo location: Moscow, Russia. (Photo and caption by Sergey Rumyantsev/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Bikini-clad women sit as they operate a 3.6 metre-high custom-made female robot at the “Robot Restaurant” in Kabukicho, one of Tokyo's best known red light districts, August 15, 2012. (Photo by Tokyo Scum Brigade)

A Hindu priest waits to perform prayers next to Tejas, India's first locally-built Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), before its induction into the Indian Air Force at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Airport in Bengaluru, India, July 1, 2016. (Photo by Abhishek N. Chinnappa/Reuters)

A fledgling solar system containing deep within it enough water vapor to fill all the oceans on Earth five times, located in our Milky Way galaxy about 1,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Perseus. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech)