World Press Photo Contest: Captivating Images for 2016.

Launched in 1955, the World Press Photo Contest is an annual competition that celebrates the highest standards in photojournalism. Photo entries are judged in terms of their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about our world. Now in its 59th year, this year’s contest attracted over 82,951 photo entries made by 5,775 photographers from 128 different countries. The winners were recently announced across the various News, Daily Life, People, Sport and Nature categories, and we’ve picked out our favourites to share with you today. Some got us thinking about family, life and love, some had as pondering the extraordinary power of the wilderness around us, and others had us feeling very charged. Nonetheless, all powerfully captivating in their own unique ways. Let’s take a look…

La Maya Tradition by Daniel Ochoa de Olza, Spain: The feast of Las Mayas is an annual ritual to celebrate the coming of Spring, held by a small town in the outskirts of Madrid. With its origins in pagan ritual, the ritual requires altars to be decorated with plants, flowers and young girls wearing traditional outfits.

Digging the Future by Matjaz Krivic, Slovenia: Arzuma Tinado (28) leads an eight-member crew of miners at Djuga, an artisanal gold mine in north-eastern Burkina Faso. Around 15,000 people work in the area, in pits hacked into the ground, some barely wider than a manhole.

2015 NCAA Tournament by Greg Nelson, USA: Ron Baker shoots over Nick Zeisloft, as Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Rashard Kelly battle for position under the basket, at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament game between Wichita State and Indiana. The tournament, held each spring and popularly known as ‘March Madness’ is a major national competition, featuring 68 college teams. Since its creation in 1939, it has become the most popular basketball tournament in the US.

Neptun Synchro by Jonas Lindkvist, Sweden: Members of Neptun swimming club’s synchronised swimming section perform in sailboat position, during pre-Christmas Lucia festivities.

A Life in Death BY Nancy Borowick, USA: Howie sits beside his wife Laurel in what he calls their “his and hers” chairs as they get their weekly chemotherapy treatments for stage-four cancer. Photographed by their daughter, the photo series looks at love, life, and living, in the face of death.

It’s a big, bad world out there, and there’s no better reminder than extraordinary images taken by those intrepid enough to get out and explore it when it’s acting its most temperamental.

From rare acts of nature to the at times disastrous impact of humanity, here are the ones that had us marvelled, appalled or feeling very tiny.

The Power of Nature by Sergio Tapiro,
Mexico: Colima Volcano erupts with rock showers, lightning, and lava flows. Lightning in volcano eruptions is generated when rock fragments, ash and ice particles in the volcanic plume collide, producing static charges.

North Korea, Life in the Cult of Kim by David Guttenfelder, USA: At dusk, the skyline of central Pyongyang, North Korea – one of the most isolated and least understood countries.

Avalanche by Roberto Schmidt, Colombia/Germany: A roaring wall of rock, snow and debris slams down on the Everest Base Camp; a massive avalanche triggered by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

Amazon’s Munduruku Tribe by Mauricio Lima, Brazil: Children play in the Tapajós River, home to the Munduruku people, in the Brazilian Amazon. Their tribe has lived along the river for the last three centuries, which is now in danger of disappearing due to the government’s plans to flood the area and build a hydroelectric plant.

China’s Coal Addiction by Kevin Frayer, Canada: Smoke billows from stacks as men push a tricycle through a neighbourhood next to a coal-fired power plant in northern Shanxi province, the leading producer of coal in China. Air pollution is estimated to contribute to around 17% of all deaths in China, with the country the source of nearly a third of the world’s CO2 emissions.

An Earthquake’s Aftermath by Daniel Berehulak, Australia: A man passes salvaged belongings to his wife, through the window of their destroyed home in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Just before noon on 25 April, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu in Nepal, followed by a series of severe aftershocks. More than 8,000 people were killed, some 21,000 injured and 2.8 million people were made homeless.

Storm Front on Bondi Beach by Rohan Kelly, Australia: A massive shelf cloud moves towards Bondi Beach. The cloud was part of a weather front that brought violent thunderstorms, with local media reporting damaging winds, hailstones the size of golf balls, and heavy rainfall.

Tianjin Explosion by Chen Jie, China: A large pit, wrecked vehicles and damaged buildings remain in the aftermath of explosions in the container storage station of a logistics company in the Port of Tianjin, northeastern China. The explosions resulted in damage to some 17,000 residences and 8,000 vehicles, killing over 170 people (95 of them firefighters) and injuring hundreds more.

Whale Whisperers by Anuar Patjane Floriuk, Mexico: A humpback whale and her newborn calf swim near Roca Partida, the small island off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The island waters are home to a large population of humpback whales, and are a popular diving destination.

Haze in China by Zhang Lei, China: A cloud of smog hangs over Tianjin, an industrial and logistics hub that is the fourth most populous city in China. Hazardous smog blanketing China’s northeast triggered red alerts across the region: schools were advised to stop classes, and people were told to stay inside and restrict vehicle use.

Many of the award-winning images addressed the serious refugee crisis in both the Middle East and Europe, from news, personal, political and daily life angles.

Here’s a round up of some of the strong imagery that has us feeling incredibly charged – with confusion, anger, hope and sadness.

Lost Family Portraits by Dario Mitidieri, Italy: A Syrian family in a refugee camp in the Beqaa Valley stands beside a chair representing a missing family member. According to UNHCR, by the end of the year, more than 370,000 Syrian refugees were living in camps in the Beqaa Valley, close to the Syrian border.

Reporting Europe’s Refugee Crisis by Sergey Ponomarev, Russia: Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos. Over one million refugees entered Europe in 2015, the vast majority arriving by sea, through Greece and Italy.

Hope for a New Life by Warren Richardson, Australia: A baby is handed through a hole in a razor wire barrier, to a Syrian refugee who has already managed to cross the border from Serbia into Hungary, near Röszke. In July, Hungary began construction on a four-meter-high barrier fence along the entire length of the frontier with Serbia, to close off border crossings through all but official routes. Refugees attempted to find ways through before the fence was completed on 14 September. This group had spent four hours hiding in an apple orchard at night, dodging border police, being gassed with pepper spray, and trying to find a way across.

Into the Light by Zohreh Saberi, Iran: Raheleh (13), born blind, stands behind a window in the morning enjoying the warmth of sunlight on her face. She is curious about life, and always wants to know more. Although she is unaware of colour, she can sense light during the day, and darkness at night, and she explores her surroundings through touch, listening to sounds, and smell.

Where the Children Sleep by Magnus Wennman, Sweden: Fara (2) loves soccer. Her father tries to make balls for her by crumpling up anything he can find, but they don’t last long. Refugee children, on their long journey to a new home, sleep where they can along the route.

The Forgotten Mountains of Sudan by Adriane Ohanesian, USA: Adam Abdel (7) was badly burned when a bomb dropped by a government plane landed next to his family’s home, in rebel-held territory in Darfur. Treatment was hard to obtain, because the government continued to deny NGOs and relief workers access to rebel-held territory.

[Photography credits as noted. Images courtesy of World Press Photo.]