Kourtney Roy makes eerie self-portraits in desolate yet dramatic locations – with wigs and wardrobe straight out of 1950s melodrama. In these shots, from her “Enter as Fiction – California” series, she plays characters caught in desolate, often abandoned settings. (Photo by Kourtney Roy/Galerie Catherine et André Hug/The Guardian)

“Weapons Instructor”, 2012. It’s a well known fact that the IDF trains some of the best soldiers in the world, but at the source of every good soldier lies an exceptional instructor – and that’s where Cpl. Daniella Stepanoe steps in. She travels from base to base training everyone from paratroopers to elite special forces units in the use of their weapons. (Photo by Israel Defense Forces)

Snake woman Lunga performs on stage during the “Das Goldene Lenkrad” (“The Golden Steering Wheel”) award ceremony on November 5, 2008 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

Kritchaya “Lolita” Boonhor (R) curls her eyelashes in ladyboy Candy's (L) room while she chats her about her boyfriend, in Bangkok, Thailand, 27 November 2017. Most things in life are a question of negotiation. Lolita is a woman, that was not to be negotiated. What needed to be negotiated was how she was perceived by those around her. And that negotiation was one that took time and effort. (Photo by Lola Levan/EPA/EFE)

This brave swimmer certainly has a brrracing workout each weekend she skinny dips in one of the coldest rivers in Europe which regularly plummets to temperaturess of –9C. Inna Vladimirskaya, 32, strips off on the banks of the Dnieper river, in Kiev, Ukraine, every Sunday morning, and takes a swim after jogging along the snowy banks of the river in the nip. (Photo by David Tesinsky/Caters News Agency)

'Military woman' is a constantly updated gallery of images of women wearing uniform: military, police and so on. We truly hope that our beloved visitors won't remain passive and will take part in this project making it even more interesting! Note that all the images featured in the gallery are taken from publically available sources: their copyright belongs to their respective creators and the trade mark to the owners. ...