Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

An Afghan girl makes a pile of unbaked bricks near the road passing through the Shamali Plains, about 10 kilometers (6 miles), west of Bagram, Afghanistan, Wednesay April 9, 2003. Children assist parents in their job to supplement family income. (Photo by Gurinder Osan/AP Photo)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

German model Lorena Rae arrives for the screening of the film “Brother And Sister (Frere Et Soeur)” during the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2022. (Photo by Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)

A Romanian honor guard soldier waits before the arrival of Moldovan President at Cotroceni Presidential Palace, in Bucharest, Romania, 23 November 2021. Maia Sandu is on a one-day official visit to Romania. (Photo by Robert Ghement/EPA/EFE)

Unidentified people beat Svyatoslav Sheremet (L, bottom), head of Gay-Forum of Ukraine public organization, in Kiev, May 20, 2012. Sheremet was attacked after meeting with members of the media to inform them that a scheduled gay parade was cancelled. The attackers ran off when they realised members of the media were documenting the attack. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters)

A dog jumps into the air to catch a ball along the beach near the County Kerry village of Rossbeigh, Ireland, February 4, 2018. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

A tourist poses for a souvenir snap in front of autumn foliage in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain on September 28, 2018. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)