APU Gallery

A model poses in front of a tailor's stall in the center of Dakar, Senegal during the ninth edition of the Dakar Fashion Week. She is wearing a dress by US-based Senegalese designer Yolande Ngom Mancini. The Fashion Week began in 2003, as a private venture without government support, at the initiative of former model turned designer Adama Paris and has become a leading showcase for design from across the continent.
(Dakar, Senegal. 09 July 2011)

Marika Bajur sings 'Kuriu', in the restaurant Eurasia. Entertainers perform in restaurants in the Russian resort city of Sochi, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Greater Sochi sprawls for some 145 kilometers along the shoreline, attracting predominantly Russian holidaymakers, who come for the sun, sea, sand, and nightlife. Restaurants are plentiful and competition is fierce. Most provide entertainment. The singers come from all walks of life, and are of all ages. Some perform in one place all year round, others move from restaurant to restaurant during the summer season. They sing a mixture of Russian ballads and pop music, solo or in duos, accompanied on a synthesizer, by recorded music, or sometimes by live instruments.
(Loo, Greater Sochi, Russia. 07 July 2011)

Maria, a drug-addicted sex worker, rests between clients in the room she rents in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. The country has the highest incidence of HIV/Aids in Europe and, according to a UNICEF report, one in five sex workers is living with HIV. Maria says she remains HIV negative.
(Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. 31 August 2011)

Tahani (in pink), who was married at the age of six, and her former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, stand with their husbands outside their home in Hajjah, Yemen. At first, Tahani hid whenever she saw her husband, who was 25 when they married. Every year, all over the world, millions of girls below the age of 18 undergo marriages initiated by their families. The tradition of child marriage spans continents, religion, and class. Girls who marry early often abandon their education. The incidence of maternal and infant death is high for women who give birth under the age of 18. Child marriages often take place in defiance of national laws, and despite education programs about health issues. They are seen as an economic necessity in some regions, or are deeply ingrained in local culture.
(Hajjah, Yemen. 10 June 2011)

A portrait of North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung, decorates a building in the country's capital Pyongyang. The 'Great Leader', as he was known, was succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il, in 1994. Kim Jong-il died on 17 December, having designated his youngest son Kim Jong-un (aged 27 or 28) as heir.
(Pyongyang, North Korea. 05 October 2011)

NEVER LET YOU GO
Marcos and Monica were married for 65 years and, for much of that time, lived in the same apartment in Buenos Aires. In 2007, aged 84, Monica was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Marcos looked after her himself, coping with the emotional and physical stress of being a caregiver. In the later stages of Monica's illness, Marcos had to feed her, pureeing her meals beforehand as she could not chew. During the last year of her life, Monica was bedridden and Marcos had to change her diapers three times daily and help visiting nurses treat her bedsores – activities that took up most of his day. She could barely recognize him, though cuddles and caresses helped her to connect, even if for a few seconds. But Marcos was determined to care for his wife at home. "Tell me where she is going to be better than here," he said. "I treat her like a princess, here she has everything." Monica passed away in July 2011.
(Buenos Aires, Argentina. 28 April 2009)

Demonstrators on Tahrir Square, Cairo, react to a televised speech on 10 February, in which contrary to prior expectations, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak said he would not give up power.
(Cairo, Egypt. 10 February 2011)

A young male polar bear climbs on a cliff face above the ocean at Ostrova Oranskie, in northern Novaya Zemlya, Russia, attempting unsuccessfully to feed on eggs from the nests of Brünnich's guillemots, in late July. Bears hunt seals from sea-ice platforms, and also use ice floes to move from place to place. In summer months, when much sea ice melts, polar bears can become stranded, and have to forage for what food they can. Their dependence on sea-ice platforms for food, traveling, and also for breeding, makes polar bears vulnerable to the effects of climate warming.
(Ostrova Oranskie, Novaya Zemlya, Russia. 30 July 2011)

A protester is arrested during demonstrations against police stop-and-frisk tactics in Harlem, New York on 21 October.
(Harlem, New York, USA. 21 October 2011)