The eighth annual Nipponbashi Street Festa stamped Osaka March 20, 2012 (Nipponbashi is Osaka’s geek district – much like Akihabara is for Tokyo). Cosplayers turned up in colourful outfits, dressing as characters from their favourite manga, anime, and video games. The street was closed to cars, and otaku flooded the streets, snapping pics, cosplaying, and hanging out.

Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

Hirari Ikeda, a well-known Harajuku street fashion personality, on the street in Shibuya. (Photo by Tokyo Fashion)

Wrestling camel “Faytoncu” adorned with colourful ornaments is escorted by his groom as he waits for the Camel Beauty Contest ahead of the annual Selcuk-Efes Camel Wrestling Festival in the Aegean town of Selcuk, near Izmir, Turkey, January 14, 2017. (Photo by Murad Sezer/Reuters)

David Pariken 46, of the indigenous Maasai community, roasts meat at the inaugural Maa Cultural Week dubbed The Maa-Festival aimed to promote peace, tourism, and cultural exchange as the wildebeests (Connochaetes taurinus) make their annual cross border migration at the Sekenani village, in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, in Narok County, Kenya on August 22, 2023. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

A girl in a military uniform poses for a photo after the see-off ceremony before the launch in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 25 April 2024. China's Shenzhou-18 manned spaceflight mission with three astronauts is the third manned spaceflight mission of China Space Station's development phase. The mission will last for about six months and the crew will carry out tasks such as installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair, and experiments in space. (Photo by Wu Hao/EPA/EFE)

A vendor prepares breakfast on his mobile cart place on a railway track on which train services are suspended temporarily due to festival rush in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, October 2, 2024. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

From left, Oscar winners Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin share a moment together in the Academy Awards press room on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Brody and Madison won best actor and best actress. Saldaña and Culkin won for supporting roles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Photo)