Photography

Photos of the Week: Monorail Rescue, Human Pyramid, Mountain Ritual

Continued wildfires in Spain, a sail-in parade in Amsterdam, weigh-ins at the London Zoo, harness racing in Germany, an independence celebration in Indonesia, and much more

By Alan Taylor
Female soldiers stand side-by-side in close formation, seen from the side.
Kevin Frayer / Getty
Soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army stand in formation as they practice for an upcoming military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and Japan’s surrender, at a military base in Beijing, China, on August 20, 2025.
A dove perches on the hat of one of many soldiers in dress uniform.
Achmad Ibrahim / AP
A dove perches on the hat of an Indonesian army soldier during a flag-raising ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the country’s independence, at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 17, 2025.
A heron takes flight, seen in silhouette.
Michael Probst / AP
A heron takes off from a dung hill in Frankfurt, Germany, on August 18, 2025.
A person sits in a circular window, looking at penguins swimming on the other side.
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
The keeper Jessica Ray watches Humboldt penguins as the London Zoo records animals’ vital statistics at an annual weigh-in as a way of monitoring their health and development, and even identifying pregnancies, in London, England, on August 19, 2025.
A satellite view of a hurricane near Cuba and Florida
Gallo Images / Orbital Horizon / Copernicus Sentinel Data 2025 / Getty
A satellite view of Hurricane Erin in the Atlantic Ocean, on August 18, 2025.
A dancer performs, spinning on their head.
Lisi Niesner / Reuters
China’s Royal performs during the B-girls’ gold-medal breakdance match at the 2025 World Games, in Chengdu, China, on August 17, 2025.
A motorcycle racer leans into a tight turn.
Gold & Goose Photography / Getty
Marc Marquez rides during a qualifier for the MotoGP of Austria, at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, on August 16, 2025.
A security guard makes a flying tackle, trying to grab a fan who ran onto a sports field.
Denis Poroy / Imagn Images / Reuters
A security guard tackles a fan who ran onto the field during a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres, at Petco Park in San Diego, California, on August 19, 2025.
A person in a T-Rex costume plays with a ball on a soccer field.
Liu Jianmin / VCG / Getty
A person in a dinosaur costume entertains the crowd and cheers for players prior to a Jiangsu Football City League match between Changzhou and Zhenjiang, in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, China, on August 16, 2025.
A racehorse pulls a small carriage on mudflats, with a container ship visible in the distance.
Focke Strangmann / AFP / Getty
A harness racer prepares for a race of the Duhner Wattrennen horse race, with a container ship in the distance, in Cuxhaven, Germany, on August 17, 2025.
A group of people all wearing all-white clothing perform a sort of dance in a foggy mountain field.
Spasiyana Sergieva / Reuters
Followers of the Universal White Brotherhood, an esoteric society that combines Christianity and Indian mysticism set up by the Bulgarian Peter Deunov, perform a dance-like ritual called “paneurhythmy,” in Rila Mountain, Bulgaria, on August 19, 2025.
A wildfire burns in a line across a hillside.
Cesar Manso / AFP / Getty
A wildfire burns in Castrillo de Cabrera, Spain, on August 16, 2025. Spain, now in its third week under a heat-wave alert, is still battling wildfires raging in the northwest and west of the country, where the army has been deployed to help contain the blazes.
Tree trunks and a car are engulfed in flames in a wildfire.
Pedro Nunes / Reuters
A car burns during a wildfire in Meda, Portugal, on August 15, 2025.
An injured horse is treated for burns.
Florion Goga / Reuters
A person treats a burned horse in an animal shelter after a wildfire, in Tirana, Albania, on August 15, 2025.
A zookeeper crouches down beside a capybara.
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
The keeper Poppy Jewell weighs a capybara during the London Zoo’s annual weigh-in, on August 19, 2025.
A close portrait of a person's face with many freckles.
Jorge Silva / Reuters
A person poses during the “walk for Exu,” an event for followers of the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomble and Umbanda, in São Paulo, Brazil, on August 17, 2025.
An interior view of a large angular public art installation inside an airport.
Andy Wong / AP
Passengers take escalators to a subway station as they arrive in Chaoyang Railway Station, in Beijing, China, on August 18, 2025.
An aerial view of many boats and ships of all sizes crowded into a harbor.
Robin Van Lonkhuijsen / ANP / AFP / Getty
Ships and boats gather in a sail-in parade during the 50th edition of the Sail Amsterdam festival, in Amsterdam, on August 20, 2025.
People form a tall human pyramid inside a multi-story atrium.
Indranil Mukherjee / AFP / Getty
People throw water on Hindu devotees forming a human pyramid during Krishna Janmashtami, a festival that marks the birth of Krishna, in Mumbai, India, on August 16, 2025.
A woman and her child arrive at a hearing as federal agents patrol the hallways outside of a courtroom in New York City.
Charly Triballeau / AFP / Getty
A woman and her child arrive at a hearing, as federal agents patrol the hallways outside of a courtroom at New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building, in New York City, on August 20, 2025.
A soldier stands in a truck bed beside a mounted gun, seen under stars at night.
Pierre Crom / Getty
Members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces 18th Sloviansk Brigade anti-drone unit work to intercept Russian drones in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on August 20, 2025.
Rescue crews use extended ladders to reach people stranded on stuck monorail cars.
Deepak Turbhekar / AP
Fire officials rescue passengers from a monorail after it stalled due to overcrowding, which caused an electrical outage, in Mumbai, India, on August 19, 2025.
The northern lights glow green in the sky above an illuminated tent.
Mark Schiefelbein / AP
The northern lights glow in the night sky near Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, on August 20, 2025.
Smoke rises from a wildfire, seen beyond a cemetery in Spain.
Mikel Konate / Reuters
A pyrocumulus cloud forms as wildfire smoke rises above a cemetery, in the village of Vilarmel, Lugo area, Galicia region, Spain, on August 16, 2025.
People run from a building that was just hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Bashar Taleb / AFP / Getty
Palestinians rush for cover as debris flies after an Israeli strike hits a building in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on August 20, 2025.
Parachutes carrying food and supplies drop from the sky.
Ramadan Abed / Reuters
Aid packages, dropped from an airplane, descend over Gaza, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on August 19, 2025.
A man and child pose along a wall near horses. The man leans away as a horse leans toward him.
Ulet Ifansasti / Getty
Members of a Yogyakarta classic-bicycle group pose with horses after taking part in a ceremonial event to mark the 80th Indonesian Independence Day, on August 17, 2025, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
A person sits in an old-style horse-drawn mowing machine, behind a single horse, in a grassy field.
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP
A man mows a meadow near the town of Ignalina, Lithuania, on August 20, 2025.

About the Author

Alan Taylor is a senior editor at The Atlantic.