Atsushi Abe and Yumi Adachi from Japan perform in the synchronised swimming mixed duet technical routine preliminary at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia July 25, 2015. (Photo by Michael Dalder/Reuters)

International photographic competition, which runs in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, awards special prize for the best close-up images. Here: Winner – Mayflies by Petar Sabol, Goričan, Croatia. (Photo by Sabol Petar/International Garden Photographer of the Year)

France's Simon Billy gets ready to practice speed skiing on the Chabriere ski slope in Vars, on March 29, 2017. (Photo by Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP Photo)

Xie Guobiao (C), 11, tied to a pillar with a rope, cries as his grandmother (L) and younger sister look on at his home in Daohui village of Lishui, Zhejiang province May 7, 2014. Xie was diagnosed as mentally handicapped when he was young, but the family was not able to provide him with sufficient medical treatment because of poverty. At the age of six, Xie started to sneak out of his home when others were not looking, climbing on top of houses and smashing windows. Xie's family had to pay over 10,000 yuan ($1,606) in compensation to others for the damage he caused. Since then, the family has had to tie Xie up with a rope both at home and in public, they said. (Photo by William Hong/Reuters)

Netherland's Kitty van Male is hit in the face by Argentina's Agustina Habif during the women's quarterfinal field hockey game, August 15, 2016. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Prayer flags fly at Namgyal Tsemo Monastery above the town of Leh in Ladakh, India September 24, 2016. High in the Indian Himalayas, young novice monks in maroon robes take their lessons inside the 15th-century Thiksey monastery. (Photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

Japanese artist Mami Kiyoshi has spent 15 years creating vivid portraits of people surrounded by their belongings – from wine bottles and violins to the odd stray pet. Mami Kiyoshi’s ongoing series “New Reading Portraits” is, in part, a nod to the mise-en-scène found in traditional woodcut printing. Here: Sakura and Kazuhiro, Tokyo, 2015. (Photo by Mami Kiyoshi/Galerie Annie Gabrielli/The Guardian)

Participants wearing fantasy costumes attend the 4th Hero Festival in Marseille, France on November 11, 2017. The 4th Hero Festival edition has attracted all sorts of people to role play their favourite characters from all kinds of movies and comic book legends. (Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters)