First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

Drag Queen Gaypin (R) and her friends attend the three day RuPaul's DragCon, which is billed as the “first convention celebrating drag, queer culture, & self-expression” at the Convention Center in Los Angeles, California on May 25, 2019. (Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP Photo)

French actress Adele Exarchopoulos – Outside arrivals at Christian Dior Womenswear Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on September, 24, 2019. (Photo by J.M. Haedrich/SIPA Press)

People walk in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays, Tuesday, December 14, 2021. (Photo by Omar Sanadiki/AP Photo)

A two-week-old hoglet finds an unusual spot to sit at the Happy Hedgehogs rescue centre in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire in the second decade of September 2023. (Photo by James Glossop/The Times)

Spectators using virtual reality glasses at the “Los Ultimos Dias De Pompeia” Exhibition at Matadero on September 06, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images)

Lola Aylmer, 25, stands inside the artist Gemma Anderson-Tempini's infinite laundry mirrored room, which is part of a transformed Victorian house, in Leeds, UK early November 2023. (Photo by South West News Service)

Kimono-clad young women take their selfies near a venue during the Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony in Yokohama, Japan on January 9, 2023. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)