Photograph by Michael Melford – “We love our fish!” says Ina Bouker, a Yupik native and teacher from Dillingham who opposes the mine.

Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann – Boys at the Tagou school limber up before practicing a kung fu form called Chang Hu Xin Yi Men.

Photograph by David Doubilet – Upholstered with luminous sponges and corals, the bridge of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Duane attracts schools of smallmouth grunts—and divers.

Photograph by George Steinmetz – The connection between a Dinka man and his cow is profound; it is part of his personal identity.

Photograph by Fritz Hoffmann – “Gained merit in battle” reads the epitaph of two of the 231 eminent Shaolin monks honored with shrines in the Pagoda Forest.

Photograph by Michael Melford – In the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes a stream carves a canyon through rock formed during the 1912 eruption of nearby Novarupta Volcano.

Photograph by David Doubilet – In the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico, steel pillars supporting a gas platform make a vertical reef encrusted with tube sponges.