This costume, with corn husks and feathers and paper flowers, is worn by a member of a dance group that gathers in cemeteries and other places to mark Day of the Dead festivities (called Xantolo, the word written above the mask). The idea of combining a skeletal mask with European fashion was devised by the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, who lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Phyllis Galembo hide caption
Soleman Nessa's husband took his own life after authorities questioned his citizenship. "It was the month of Ramadan. The sun was rising. We were boiling rice and when my son went to the kitchen to get something, he saw my husband hanging there. He screamed. People from all over the village came and brought him down," Nessa says. The family had exhausted its savings to confirm Nessa's citizenship. CK Vijayakumar for NPR hide caption
Luthier Freeman Vines sits with his hand-carved guitars in the tobacco field by his house, 2015. Tim Duffy/Courtesy of Music Maker hide caption
Six of the 50 Azalea Trail Maids gather under oak trees. The dresses come in six different colors, but only the queen of the court wears pink. Adair Freeman Rutledge hide caption
In Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, oil bunkering — the practice of siphoning oil from pipelines — has transformed parts of the once-thriving delta ecosystem into an ecological dead zone, according to the U.N. Environment Programme. Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto hide caption
The mobile library travels on one of its routes on the Outer Hebrides island of Lewis and Harris. For isolated residents, seeing the mobile librarian is sometimes the only human contact they may have for days. Celeste Noche hide caption
Fatima Dahiru, now 17, lives with her sister and mother in an internally displaced persons camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Her village was attacked two years ago. Robin Hammond/NOOR hide caption
Members of the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team parachute into Normandy on Wednesday, in Sannerville. Luke Sharrett for NPR hide caption
Protesters wave flags on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in the weeks leading up to the violent crackdowns on June 4. These photos were donated to Humanitarian China by the photographer, Jian Liu, then one of the student protesters. Jian Liu/Humanitarian China hide caption
Hannah Bloch, an editor on NPR's international desk, shared this photo her great-grandfather took in 1931, with Notre Dame in the background. He had served as a U.S. Army doctor in France during World War I and returned on holiday years later. Courtesy of Hannah Bloch hide caption
Ariel Ramos, 50, is tearing out coca leaves to be processed into coca paste, a substance that can be smoked or used for making cocaine powder. "I don't need to move to sell coca paste, the buyers come to me. It is easier than planting anything else." Fabiola Ferrero hide caption
This 1991 photo became famous in the climbing community after appearing in a 1995 Patagonia catalog. Almost three decades after the photo was taken, Jordan Leads, the baby pictured, is grown up and tells NPR about her perspective on the photo. Greg Epperson hide caption
Women and children evacuated out of the last territory held by Islamic State militants wait to be screened by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the desert outside Baghouz, Syria, on Feb. 27. Felipe Dana/AP hide caption
This land is not barren, this land is thirsty. Hot Springs, Jordan Valley, 2016. Nadia Bseiso hide caption