Shadow and light

The components of the word "photograph" are of Greek origin. Photography — literally means "to write with light". While light serves as a noun, adjective and verb for photographers, shadows complete the sentence in bold. The qualities of light in the picture affect our perception of objects, set the mood, show textures and details of shadows.

These qualities manifest themselves in many variations of light: a ray of sunlight on a dark stage, gentle illumination from a large window, cold disappearing at dusk, warm light from incandescent lamps or late afternoon, a creepy pulse from an electronic screen, a candy splash of neon signs and the contrast of the illuminated silhouette.

Shadows simplify, hide and dramatize in an endless dance with light. The photos collected here are not united by one theme, but on each of them photographers draw with light.

A supplier prepares rice for distribution to the poor on the side of a road in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Amina Khatu holds her son Ahmed in a straw hut in an overcrowded IDP camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, Myanmar. An estimated 111,000 people fled sectarian violence in June and October, mostly the Rohingya, one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A model prepares behind the scenes during Fashion Week at Milk Studios in New York. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Billy Lewis watches a helicopter landing from the cockpit aboard the USS Underwood, while patrolling in the Panama area, as part of a multinational exercise to strike illegal trade routes. (Dario Lopez-Mills/Associated Press)

Buddhist monks study at a monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press)

Syrian children look through car windows during a trip to Lebanon with their families, while crossing the border in Masnaa, Lebanon. (Hassan Ammar/Associated Press)

Joana Escudero holds Sister Caroline as she prepares to leave the Puerta de Hierro settlement area, Spain. Fifty-four families have lived in the Puerta de Hierro for 50 years. The community became the object of eviction on the grounds that the housing is illegal. Families whose homes have been destroyed are moving in with relatives whose homes have survived. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

Chief midwife Maria Antoneta Cabral Barbosa holds a newborn baby boy she just delivered during childbirth by the light of a flashlight at a hospital in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau. In Guinea-Bissau, one of the scariest places to give birth in the world, a woman can die in childbirth in 1 out of 19 cases. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)

Two Syrian rebels occupy sniper positions in the vicinity of Karmal Jableh in the center of Aleppo. (Javier Manzano/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman walks past food near a place known among Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and among Jews as the Temple Mount in The Old City of Jerusalem. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

Palestinian firefighters are trying to extinguish a fire at a factory, which, according to local residents, fell into the zone of an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, the northern part of the Gaza Strip. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

A policeman looks on as thousands of people from France and Belgium participate in a demonstration against austerity in Lille. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

Kashmiri orphan girls study in their room at Gulshan-I-Bannat Orphanage in Jopal It's Time, Kashmir. More than 200,000 orphans live in Jammu and Kashmir. (Farooq Khan/EPA)

A woman walks with a basket on wheels in Madrid. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

Sunlight hits the wall of private housing in Hong Kong. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Lu Changshan is photographed on a bus converted into housing for him and his wife in Hefei, China. Lu, 39, and his 36-year-old wife Zhang Dingmei have been living on the bus for more than three years to keep an eye on their business — selling cement and sand next to newly built residential buildings. (Stringer/Reuters)

Russian-speaking immigrants gather for a festival of Russian folk music in the Gan Hashlosha National Park, near Beit She'an, Israel. (Oded Balilty/Associated Press)

A portrait of the late leader Kim Il Sung hangs in the spotlight while dusk descends on Pyongyang, North Korea. (Ng Han Guan/Associated Press)

A firefighter fights a fire at a garment factory near Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Hasan Raza/Associated Press)

A man runs over a hill against the skyline in Sydney, at dawn. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

Pakistanis gather at Si Beach View, during sunset in Karachi. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images)

A fish jumps on the Lake Worth Pier during the fishermen's return, after the pier was closed for two weeks due to damage caused by the hurricane. (Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post/Associated Press)

Boats float on the Nile River in Cairo. (Bernat Armangue/Associated Press)

Walkers walk past a sand sculpture by artist Raj Kapoor in Allahabad. (Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)

A boy hits a ball while people walk along the Galle Face Green embankment in Colombo. (Philip Brown/Reuters)