Our PROOF blog invited the photo editors of National Geographic to look back through each issue in 2013 and select one image that spoke to their heart, intrigued them, inspired awe, or made them smile—in short, to choose their favorite photo from this past year, whether breathtaking, touching, imperfect, or beautiful.

Kinshasa, Urban Pulse of the Congo, September 2013 Jenna Turner, Photo Coordinator Luxury and adversity mingle in this dichotomous image made by Pascal Maitre. The opulent ensembles these men style look out of place in the littered streets of Kinshasa. For Les Sapeurs, members of the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Elégantes (the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People), their clothes are as much about extravagance as they are about creativity. But beyond being a form of self-expression, it is a lifestyle about poise and propriety. Good manners, attention to detail, visual perfection, and social etiquette are of utmost importance to these gentlemen. Although often spending exorbitant amounts of money on clothes in a country where nearly half the population lives beneath the national poverty line, like all of us, they are striving to carve out their identities in the world, moving beyond class and circumstance. Photograph by Pascal Maitre, National Geographic See More

First Australians, June 2013 David Whitmore, Design Director I can see Edward Steichen’s pond in moonlight and Maurice Sendak’s enchanted bedroom of wild things in this nocturnal scene. Smudged umbers and coal-black embers contrast against cool gray green grass dissolving into lavender sky. The Dreamtime. The time of ancients, alive in that space, not quite night, not quite day. With this image, Amy Toensing captures what she set out to find in this story: a spirit presence in the land and our closer understanding of the Aboriginals’ sustained state of awakening to that spirit. Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic See More

Last of the Viking Whalers, June 2013 Pamela Chen, Senior Photo Editor For our story “Last of the Viking Whalers,” photographer Marcus Bleasdale captured this picture of schoolgirls painting golden streaks on their skin and hair by smearing dandelions on each other after a coming-of-age ceremony on the remote island of Røst, Norway. Some island fishing communities like Røst have become so small that they cannot support a local high school, and parents must send their children to live on the mainland, away from home, to continue their education when they turn 15. These girls here are part of the next generation who must leave the island to continue their schooling. At first you don’t even realize how close Marcus must be standing to the girls to compose this image in a way that feels as if you are right there with them. And by doing so, he takes us there at once, to see the stunning natural beauty of the island and the joy of a normal day in one honest, elegant moment. Through this photograph, we understand more about why it is so hard to leave this place altogether. I love that a photograph can celebrate the in-between, and remind us that life happens here, even as it is bittersweet.

Elizabeth Grady, Rights Manager After glancing through the entire year, this image drew me in the most for some reason. I love the innocence, the ephemeral quality, the movement, the sweetness. Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013 Ken Geiger, Deputy Director of Photography One of the most amazing stories I’ve seen in the short time I’ve worked here is Nick Nichols’s photo coverage of “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion,” which ran in the August 2013 issue. Not only is this image hauntingly beautiful, as are many images in the story, but what makes this image gripping is the moment created by the intensity of the lion’s eyes combined with the intimacy of having the camera on the same level as the lion. Those two factors create such a gripping image that I’ve never tired of seeing it. I also have such an amazing respect for this set of images—they reset the bar for all brilliant wildlife photography. Nick, along with the gift of time on the ground, used and cobbled numerous pieces of technology so that he could capture never before seen images of lions. That kind of dedication to the craft of photography—and using every tool available to tell a story that moves the dial on lion conservation—is a pleasure to behold. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Rain Forest for Sale, January 2013 Sadie Quarrier, Senior Photo Editor One of the most memorable stories I worked on this year was Yasuní National Park (“Rain Forest for Sale”). It was a special story because we conducted a photo blitz, sending five photographers for one month to document every aspect of this Ecuadorian park, from threatened species and isolated tribes to oil drilling and deforestation. They delivered a wealth of visual riches. Photographers Ivan Kashinsky and Karla Gachet worked together to cover the Waorani people, immersing themselves in the daily lives of the tribe and documenting the impact oil companies have had on their culture. This image of Waorani hunters by Ivan stays with me. I love its rawness—both how it was shot and what it portrays. It speaks to the purity of the people, still hunting for food and relatively untouched by the modern world and possessions. The image transports me to another time. Ivan breaks the rules by putting a person in the middle of the frame and by cutting off half a body. Yet with the angled gun and machete in the foreground, and the hunter in the background giving dimension, the image is arresting. Photograph by Ivan Kashinsky, National Geographic See More

Bringing Them Back to Life, April 2013 Kim Hubbard, Senior Photo Editor When you ask a museum for permission to photograph their prized specimen of an extinct species, it’s not always easy to get approval. When you also tell them that you’d like to photograph the species with a technique that requires potassium cyanide to be in close proximity, it’s nearly impossible. Nevertheless, Robb Kendrick persevered, and he came away with my favorite photo of the year. Robb is known for his tintype photography, a method popular in the 1800s. Also called wet plate collodion, it produces one-of-a-kind images, but requires a darkroom on site for immediate processing of the exposed plates. When Robb and I were assigned a story about resurrecting extinct creatures, we knew this type of photography could work really well with the subject matter. Our goal was to make the extinct creatures look as alive as possible, as if they’d been photographed during their lifetime. Artist Fernando Baptista created backgrounds appropriate for each species, and we used grasses, branches, and rocks in the foreground to put the animals in an “environment” where they would’ve lived. I think we succeeded best with the Tasmanian tiger at the American Museum of Natural History. I love this picture not only because it was difficult to produce, but also because it allows you to believe, if only for a moment, that the Tasmanian tiger is still among us. You can almost hear it growl. Maybe someday. Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic See More

Living With Lions, August 2013 John Baxter, Senior Design Editor This picture delivers exactly what I’ve come to expect from National Geographic. We asked Brent Stirton to go off to a distant place and come back with a story about the cost that can arise from humans and lions living near each other. We expected him, like all the great photographers we work with, to bring back a story told economically, convincingly, and memorably. A man lost both arms in a lion attack and now depends on others to bathe him. Brent’s image is touching, shocking, intriguing—and you just can’t wait to read about it. Photograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National Geographic See More

The Weed That Won the West, December 2013 Todd James, Senior Photo Editor My love for this photograph by Len Jenshel and Diane Cook is more layered than a Viennese pastry. The scene is so sunny and yet so ominous. Tumbleweeds have invaded suburbia! Where are the kids? Something has gone terribly wrong at the end of this cul-de-sac. A Russian tumbleweed invasion! If you were writing a chapter for a photography text about implied narrative, including this photograph would be a must. But my layer cake of appreciation for this photograph goes much deeper. I first saw Len and Diane’s photographs of the American West more than 20 years ago. They were my introduction to a new generation of color landscape photographers that included Joel Sternfeld, Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, and Richard Misrach. These photographers were using big cameras to capture big landscapes and reshaping how we think about photography today. Len and Diane’s work shared that sensibility but also offered a subtle wink, wink at times. A stone wall at the edge of the parking lot added a touch of irony to a Monument Valley landscape. Their sensibility seemed perfectly suited to this science story with a twist. The tumbleweed, a symbol of the American West, turns out to be an invasive species from the Russian steppes. Of course I knew Len and Diane loved the western landscape but I had no idea about their tumbleweed obsession, which they trace to a 1964 episode of The Outer Limits. In the show, a couple is stranded in the desert and stalked by a bunch of tumbleweeds. Len and Diane’s photograph of the lonely red wagon surrounded by tumbleweeds sets the scene for this story perfectly. It is also a perfect expression of their lifetime body of work with a wink and a nod to their favorite episode of The Outer Limits. I waited 20 years for this photograph, and it is well worth it. Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, National Geographic See More

Return to River Town, March 2013 Elizabeth Krist, Senior Photo Editor The truth is that on another day I could have picked a different picture altogether. It didn’t have to be Anastasia Taylor-Lind’s image of a fisherman’s kids floating on the Yangtze. I could have chosen Rena Effendi’s haymaking out of a Bruegel painting, Michael Yamashita’s Suzhou opera singers through the curtain, Matthieu Paley’s Khan with his wife tiny in the snow behind him, Diane Cook and Len Jenshel’s canopy of cherry blossoms, David Guttenfelder’s North Korean performer crying for her nation’s leader, or Jonas Bendiksen’s ancient skier propped up by skis. I love them all. How can you prefer one child over the others? And no offense, Anastasia, but the composition is messy, with that fish balloon overlapping the girl’s knee and giving her body such an odd shape. Why is she grabbing her foot, as the fish swims out of the frame, giving us the eye? But favorite is not the same as best. I suppose I just couldn’t resist such a casually lighthearted moment—the kids fooling around unself-consciously, the brother’s arm around his sister as he sprawls across the boat yelling or singing, her head trustingly on his shoulder. There’s an immediacy that draws us into their intimacy. So, go look at all the pictures from 2013 and choose your own favorite—this one’s mine. Photograph by Anastasia Taylor-Lind, VII/National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013 Tess Vincent, Photo Coordinator Love at first sight. No phenomenon could better describe this image and its effect on me. When Nick Nichols’s assignment images started rolling in, I remember my eyes being drawn to this particular one early and often. I felt like the lone patron of a tiny museum, and, somehow, I discovered something new each time I revisited this piece. The tale of the Serengeti lion has been one of the most significant stories for me while at National Geographic, and Hildur, pictured here, one of its most compelling protagonists. This still (which is anything but) is a synthesis of beauty and burden, an illustration of the majesty of the Serengeti as well as the hardships of its inhabitants. When I first saw it, I felt hypnotized by the grace and movement in front of me; I could almost hear the swish of the grass and feel the rippling sinews of Hildur as he ran a punishing distance from one territory to the next. I wasn’t looking at a photograph; I was in it. And I was swimming in the painterly swirl of the Serengeti as it was brushed by the fading light of dusk. As I came to know this story more, though, I wasn’t only seeing Hildur’s streaked mane and primordial power; I was seeing each rib in his cage, each vertebra in his back, the indisputable evidence of an uncertain life on the plains. This image strikingly brings us into the intricate world of lions and all that makes it so extraordinary. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Field Trip on Mars, July 2013 Elaine Bradley, Senior Design Editor Since 1997, NASA has been sending rovers to Mars to document the soil, dig up rocks, and take pictures of the Martian landscape. But never before has a rover managed to take photos of itself. On August 8, 2012, the aptly named Curiosity touched down and made this ultimate selfie. Stitched together from 63 images, it shows the entire rover and even the imprints in the sand of its scoop and wheels—but not the seven-foot robotic arm that was holding the camera. As we all know, a self-portrait is not a unique achievement. But to take one from 34.8 million miles away is extraordinary. Photograph by NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) See More

Deepsea Challenge, June 2013 Bill Douthitt, Senior Editor, Special Editions Being a science fiction geek, this picture of a glowing mysterious craft holds natural appeal for me. Though it may look like a fanciful spaceship, the mission of DEEPSEA CHALLENGE is quite real—to reach the deepest part of the ocean. Mark Thiessen’s brooding depiction of James Cameron’s one-man submarine is a perfect way to show this vehicle dedicated to exploring the unknown. Yet the picture came about quite by accident. During a night test dive, the sub surfaced some distance away from the recovery ship—a situation that took place only once during the expedition. Mark was in the water and realized that the brilliant lights of the ship as it approached to recover the sub would highlight the craft in an exceptionally dramatic way. He quickly swam to the front of the sub and then dove below it, waiting to make this picture, which became the lead to the story. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic See More

Kinshasa, Urban Pulse of the Congo, September 2013 Susan Welchman, Senior Editor Pascal Maitre shot this image of Julie Djikley, a street artist in Kinshasa. Julie covered her body with engine oil and wore cans on her breasts as a statement about pollution in our environment created by cars and traffic. On several occasions she carried a gas tank on her back and a steering wheel in her hands, pushing a tiny car made of old cans. In her seminaked state she drew jeers and disapproval from crowds on Kinshasa streets but she continued to walk in silence throughout the city. Recently her doctor suggested she stop this practice because the oil was entering her body through her skin, our largest organ. The image is effective without a caption, the composition both momentary and studied. I don’t get tired of looking at this photo because there are so many subtle colors and textures worth gazing at. Unable to see her eyes or what she is thinking, her smile communicates peace and purpose. Her body is that of a strong young woman and makes you wonder why she risks her well-being. Having traveled to Kinshasa twice I keep this image as a reminder of the strength of poor and concerned artists who continue to communicate what is on their minds amid danger and strife in that dense urban African life. Photograph by Pascal Maitre, National Geographic See More

Bringing Them Back to Life, April 2013 Bill Marr, Creative Director Robb Kendrick photographed Martha, the last passenger pigeon, for our April story about bringing extinct species back to life. Robb’s specialty in tintypes was a perfect marriage of craft and concept. The tale of Martha has always struck me as one of the saddest stories of extinctions directly caused by the hand of man. From billions of birds in eastern North America down to just one, Martha died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her remains were shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, where they were mounted and have been on display since. Robb refreshed our memory of her. Photography is personal. We all respond to pictures for different reasons—sometimes very obscure reasons. I love what Robb did to bring Martha back to life in a way. But also my sister’s name was Martha, and I think of her whenever I hear the name. Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013 Kathy Moran, Senior Editor, Natural History My favorite photograph of 2013 has to be one of C-boy the lion. I’ve worked with photographer Nick Nichols for 20 years. “The Short Happy Life of the Serengeti Lion” is the 15th story that we’ve collaborated on for the magazine and the one that I have most wanted to do. I love big cats. For me, this image is the culmination of years of research, planning, and advances in photographic technology coming together in a simple yet powerful way. Lions come alive at night. By photographing C-boy in infrared black and white, without intrusive flash, Nick made the most naturalistic images ever of nocturnal lions. His photographs revealed lions as we rarely get to see them—in the dark, attuned to everything happening around them, in their element. When you look at C-boy, you know that you are playing in his world. It was a privilege. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

First Australians, June 2013 Jake Rutherford, Photo Coordinator I envy this girl. I want to wade just like Mawunmula and feel the sun shining through my closed eyelids. The feeling of buoyant bobbing almost overtakes me, even as I recline in my cubicle in the distant adjacent hemisphere. The composition is simple and the content straightforward, yet it is visually visceral in the way that it accesses my senses. It feels like a flood. For me, this image has a character of equality. It doesn’t matter if Mawunmula is poor and I am among the world’s wealthiest, nor does it matter if she has cotton undergarments and I have a pricey department store swimsuit. We are the same for a moment. We are alike, as we actually are. In front of the lens, particularly in this image, all things are treated as equals.

Zahira Khan, Photo Coordinator Buoyed by a sense of serenity and infinite weightlessness—seeing this young girl quietly floating along, both wild and limitlessly graceful, I’m immersed in this photograph’s ethereal qualities, which transport me to this moment of transient beauty. Photograph by Amy Toensing, National Geographic See More

Visions of Earth, October 2013 Sarah Leen, Director of Photography To take the all too familiar and to show it in an entirely fresh way that has the power to astonish and delight is a true gift. For a story called “Visions on Earth,” published in our October 125th anniversary issue, photographer Abelardo Morell worked his magic to show us the iconic landscapes of U.S. national parks in a way we had never seen them before. Using a portable camera obscura he calls a tent camera, Morell made this image of Old Faithful while it was erupting. The image is essentially being projected onto the gravelly ground through a lens on top of the tent camera and being re-photographed. It is actually a simple antique process, though one that’s complicated to explain. The results took my breath away. Old Faithful has been photographed since practically the invention of photography and by millions of tourists and professionals ever since. This image is a singularity; it is the captured moment of a timeless event, using an age-old technique to bring you something old yet new, magical, inexplicable, and beautiful.

Kurt Mutchler, Senior Editor, Science I have seen a lot of images from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, but nothing like Abelardo Morell’s. The commonplace becomes an abstract collage yet the geyser still clearly dominates the landscape. Photography is all about gear and technique, yet it’s nothing without vision. Morell has taken the simple physics of the tenth-century camera obscura and brought it into the 21st century. National Geographic’s first image of Old Faithful appeared in the June 1912 issue with this caption: “In the 40 years that this geyser has been known to the white man, it has never failed to eject its graceful column of water at intervals of 65 minutes.” One hundred years later Morell captured the wonder of it all with his astute, graceful vision. Photograph by Abelardo Morell, National Geographic See More

The Power of Photography, October 2013 Adrian Coakley, Photo Coordinator It’s probably not well known but one of the perks you get working here at the Geographic is that you can choose two photographs and have them framed for your office. I took this offer very seriously when I first started working here almost seven years ago. I thought of it kind of like a tattoo—you better like what you get because you're going to be stuck with it. So naturally, it took me almost three years before I finally settled on my first selection. The photograph I had printed back then is the same one that appears on the contents page of National Geographic’s October issue on photography: the portrait of an Ojibwa woman taken by Roland Reed in 1907. It is a lovely and quiet image of a woman standing in profile wrapped in a blanket. There’s something about it that I find calming and introspective, and for me it’s a photograph that is broken down to its simplest and most beautiful elements. I’m still happy with the choice and, if you’re wondering, I still haven’t chosen my second print.Photograph by Roland W. Reed, National Geographic See More

The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion, August 2013 Alice Gabriner, Senior Photo Editor It’s hard to pick one. I don’t have a favorite food, song, or movie, so how do you choose a favorite picture? When editing a magazine story, I look at every frame shot by the photographer and whittle down one by one. In much the same way, I approached this exercise by relooking at every image published in 2013 and then narrowed my selects until just a few remained. There’s a beautiful Abelardo Morell from Olympic National Park that I would love to hang on my wall. Sebastiao Salgado’s Siberian herders stand out because—well, he’s a master. I’m drawn to the subtle cinematic quality David Guttenfelder captured in a picture from North Korea of a woman standing next to a fish tank. Having worked with Ed Kashi on his northern Nigeria feature, I’m particularly moved by his depiction of women running on railroad tracks strewn with garbage. Nick Nichols’s multiyear opus on lions is filled with iconic imagery. Yet, in the end, reflecting on the merits of each photograph—again and again—the most unusual, for me, is this scene of mating lions. Perhaps Nick’s passion for this project comes through and mirrors the ferocity portrayed. In any case, it’s unforgettable. Photograph by Michael Nichols, National Geographic See More

Light and Dark, January 2013 Jeanne Modderman, Photo Editor What I love about this photo is that it exceeded anything I could have imagined. I am often tasked with making the non-visual visual. How was I going to illustrate a story about measuring an invisible quantity like dark energy? Staff photographer Mark Thiessen took this flat, dull metal disk and transformed it into a stunning object. His vision and technical skill made it intriguing and mysterious. This is what is so exciting about photography. With most everything already photographed, you can still see objects in new, provocative ways. Whether you’re interested in space or not, this compelling image encourages you to read the story and hopefully learn something you didn’t know before. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic

Last Song for Migrating Birds, July 2013 Jenny Trucano, Budget Manager When David Guttenfelder showed us the pictures he shot for “Last Song for Migrating Birds,” a story about how poachers coat tree branches with glue to trap migrating songbirds, I was horrified. Who would want to eat a sweet little oriole? And how could there possibly be enough meat to make the effort worthwhile? It would be one thing if people need the birds to subsist, but that’s mostly not the case­­. These birds are considered delicacies that people pay a lot of money for. So when David projected this image of a man with the wing of a blackcap in his lips, I braced myself for a gruesome story about how the man ate the bird live. Instead, David told us, the man was actually a conservationist sucking the sticky sap from the wings of a bird that had been stuck in a glue trap. What at first glance looks like a moment of imminent violence and tragedy is actually a moment of incredible tenderness and hope. As with so many things, there is more than meets the eye in this picture. Photograph by David Guttenfelder, AP/National Geographic See More

The Weed That Won the West, December 2013 Mary McPeak, Photography Research Editor Having worked with Diane Cook and Len Jenshel on several stories, the tumbleweeds story is a favorite of mine. The photograph of the two masked workers in California holding a compact car-size tumbleweed above their heads catches your eye and makes you smile. The men seem to be surrounded by dangerous tumbleweeds almost inching toward them. It also illustrates what an invasive problem the weeds have become. Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel See More

To Walk the World, December 2013 Dennis Dimick, Executive Editor, Environment Standing as if waiting for signals from another world, these men on the Djibouti shores hope for a faint cell phone signal from neighboring Somalia. The power of this picture speaks to our enduring quest to explore—to connect with each other wherever we go—despite facing often daunting obstacles as we roam across the Earth. We are not alone. We are all connected, or try to be.

Elena Sheveiko, Photo Coordinator As it happens, I’ve worked with John Stanmeyer since his first ever story in National Geographic. And each story had an image that touched a hidden string in my soul. Years later, I still hear the sound. This picture from “To Walk the World” is one of them. It makes me want so much for everybody desperately trying to connect with others, to be heard and hear back from loved ones. Photograph by John Stanmeyer, National Geographic See More

Joy Is Round, February 2013 Keith Jenkins, Director of Photography, Digital I fell in love, on the opening spread, with the photo story on soccer in Africa by Jessica Hilltout. Young Orlando’s face, full of determination as he clutched his homemade soccer ball, reminded me of my own children, who I coached half a world away in suburban Virginia. Both of my boys struck similar poses for our youth soccer team photos—only they wore crisp blue jerseys and held perfect, regulation-size balls. All of their faces, Orlando’s and my two boys’, speak to their love of the game, but their means of expressing it are worlds apart. It is Jessica’s photo of the mini-goal in Burkina Faso that fascinates me the most, however, as it speaks to both the universal nature of the game as well as to the excess we take for granted here in the west. Can one enjoy this most special and universal of games playing on an overgrown field with a makeshift goal of sticks and cloth? Absolutely, these pictures say, and perhaps your enjoyment is even greater because by literally building your soccer match with your own hands you invest a bit more heart and soul in the process. I don’t see a broken-down goal when I look at this picture; rather I see the most pristine of altars to the game that lets us all be children again. Photograph by Jessica Hilltout See More

Stranded on the Roof of the World, February 2013 Alexa Keefe, Photography Producer, Digital I found many photographs from this story to be exquisite for their combination of vivid color and barren landscapes, of humor and harshness. The riveting gaze of this young girl, at once innocent and old beyond her years, draws me in. The contrast between her dead-center, sharp presence and the slightly out-of-focus, more candid air of the girl on the right reminds me this is a glimpse of everyday life in a remote and extreme corner of the world. Photograph by Matthieu Paley See More

To Walk the World, December 2013 Kate LaRue, Senior Designer This looks like the set of an M.I.A. video. Beautiful. Yet it has a simple significance: The captured bags are evidence of the many travelers who have passed through the desert. The people didn't stay, but Stanmeyer’s photo proves they were there. Photograph by John Stanmeyer See More

The Changing Face of America, October 2013 Sherry Brukbacher, Assistant Photo Editor, Digital When I was asked to participate in the casting of photo subjects for the Changing Faces story I was daunted to say the least. We needed multiracial subjects from all over the U.S., from every kind of community, for the photos to be accurately representative. We brainstormed for days to find the best way to locate our subjects. What it boiled down to was good old-fashioned research, phone calls, emails, and more phone calls. While scouring Facebook one day I came across this wonderful little angel’s face with platinum blond hair, green eyes smiling back at me. His profile was perfect for our story. After many emails and phone calls (and luck) I finally made direct contact with Tayden Burrell and his mother. “Of course” they were willing to be photographed by Martin Schoeller for our story! Almost everyone we contacted had the same enthusiastic reaction. I was even luckier to have found myself in New York City the day Martin was photographing little Tayden. Not only was I fortunate enough to watch Martin in action, I had the chance to touch those golden locks on Tayden’s head—and it was just as wonderful as you’d imagine.Photograph by Martin Schoeller, National Geographic See More

Now You See It, October 2013 Janna Dotschkal, Assistant Photo Editor, Digital This picture is really striking to me because of the beautiful window light and the woman’s expression. I’m drawn to pictures that inspire more questions, and this photo really accomplishes that well. Who is this woman? How does she feel about her life? The odd bareness of the fish tank reminds you of where she is: North Korea. Photograph by David Guttenfelder See More