Mina Arsanious, Learn to embrace the storms of life: sunshine all the time makes a desert' - Arab Proverb (PLACES WILDERNESS 2023)

Working as an expedition doctor for a charity desert marathon, I witnessed seemingly ordinary people push themselves to exhausting limits for their individual causes. What I found more remarkable was once the runners had completed their race and the finish line photos were taken, their accommodation was not a hotel with a shower and a mini-bar but a rudimentary huddle of tents grouped together on a stepped plain in the southern reaches of the Moroccan Sahara. As an eleventh hour test of everyone's resolve a sandstorm blew into the camp ground sending all the participants and support crew into their tents for refuge. This photo was taken just before the storm crescendoed and shrouded the setting sun.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.