Thorsten Mowes has a more intimate knowledge of the worlds most famous monuments than perhaps anyone else on the planet – because hes spent his entire career cleaning them. As a cultural cleaning expert with nearly 25 years experience, he has been commissioned to make wonders all over the world shine like new – from the London Eye to Christ the Redeemer. The places he has been to, stood on top of, or even hung halfway down include Mount Rushmore and the Space Needle in America, the London Eye, the Statue of Christ in Brazil and the Forbidden City in China. Here: A man cleans a part of Mount Rushmore. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

Nguyen Manh Quan (top), 26, a civil servant, carries a girl using his throat area as he performs during a showcase of the traditional Thien Mon Dao kung fu at Du Xa Thuong village, southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam May 10, 2015. Thien Mon Dao, a traditional Vietnamese martial art, was formed by 18th century villagers in Du Xa Thuong village, who believed the art form could help improve health as well as fight against foreign invaders. There are currently about 3,000 practitioners including farmers, industry workers and state servants. These practitioners say they are able to bend metal against their bodies and carry heavy objects using their throats, eyes or tongues, as well as run across the surface of a river, according to Thien Mon Dao kung fu master Nguyen Khac Phan. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

Bystanders look on as workers arrange silver blue fabric, part of the process of wrapping L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris on September 13, 2021, designed by the late artist Christo. Work has begun on wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in silvery-blue fabric as a posthumous tribute to the artist Christo, who had dreamt of the project for decades. Bulgarian-born Christo, a longtime Paris resident, had plans for sheathing the imposing war memorial at the top of the Champs-Elysees while renting an apartment near it in the 1960s (Photo by Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP Photo)

Lily Winter (top) and Lana Austin (back) match up during the “Atomic 6 – Atomic Fighter” wrestling show at the Azvex Brewery in Liverpool, Britain, 21 February 2024. Atomic Pro Wrestling was started in 2023 by wrestling enthusiasts and former training mates Matt Davies, Declan McCarthy (stage name Declan Sands) and Chris Welsh as a way to showcase emerging male and female wrestling talent from England’s North and North West regions, which they felt were being overlooked and under-represented. In contrast to the highly polished world of televised WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Atomic takes a DIY approach, holding shows at a local brewery large enough to make way for the ring, and where customers can enjoy craft beer as they watch the wrestling matches from up close. (Photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA/EFE)

A dog sits in a plastic tub filled with water in Taipei, Taiwan, 28 July 2020. Betel nut seller Mr Luo, the dog's owner, said he puts his dog, a 12-year-old mixed breed called Ah Dai (Stupid), in a plastic tub filled with water whenever the weather gets hot. Ah Dai enjoys the bath and can sit in the basin for hours, according to Mr Luo. Luo has a dozen pairs of glasses for Ah Dai, so the dog wears different glasses every day and many tourists take photos of Ah Dai. (Photo by David Chang/EPA/EFE)

Artists perform during a “Yandu Story” Show performance, in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China, 20 September 2022. The story dates back to some 100 years when – according to the organizers – two prominent local families, Gu and Ling, were committed to get out of a predicament, but parted due to different development concepts and ended in a turmoil. The large-scale immersive series of performances took more than a year of careful planning and consists of two parts: a daytime performance and a 90-minute night performance, they added. (Photo by Alex Plavevski/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

A fire-eater of the “Diables de Terrassa” performs during Sitges' little “Festa Major”, “Santa Tecla” in Sitges, Spain on September 19, 2016. This celebration brings together some of Catalonia’s most emblematic festive traditions. The central axis of the celebrations is the traditional parade, made up of “big-head” carnival figures and characters who dance to music played on different traditional instruments. One of the most popular events is the Correfoc or fire-running, which is also the closing event of the fiesta. The people run and jump over characters dressed up as devils and dragons, carrying fire. (Photo by Matthias Oesterle/ZUMA Press/Splash News)