Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

A Kurdish girl celebrates Newroz Day, a festival marking spring and the new year, in Akra, Iraq March 20, 2016. Nowruz is the name of the Iranian New Year also referred to as Persian New Year which is celebrated worldwide by Iranian peoples, along with some other ethno-linguistic groups. Nowruz is the day of the vernal equinox, and marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day, depending on where it is observed. Although having Persian and religious Zoroastrian origins, Nowruz has been celebrated by people from diverse ethno-linguistic communities for thousands of years. (Photo by Ari Jalal/Reuters)

A woman prepares to fly a kite, during an event celebrating spring at the Citadel in Amman, Jordan, April 15, 2016. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

A man pulls a cart with collapsed cardboard boxes past boutiques in the Sinchon district in Seoul, May 5, 2015. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

American soldiers leaping from an armoured personnel carrier during exercises in Korea, 17th March 1954. (Photo by Three Lions)

Wakhi nomad women milk yaks in Wakhan, Afghanistan. About 12,000 villagers live at an altitude of 4,500 metres in the harsh, desolate terrain. The Wakhi people live a simple, relaxed life with their livestock. (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Barcroft Images)

A dressed up participant without trousers takes part in the 2017 No Pants Subway Ride in New York, the United States, on January 8, 2017. The event, which first took place in New York in 2002, has become a yearly event attended by people in more than 60 cities across the globe. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)