A lonely monkey to the dark side of the Moon: Nine of the most striking images of 2026 so far

An expert's guide to the some of the most eye-catching photographs of the year – and how they echo masterpieces from art history. The photo of once-powerful figures, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores – hunched over in handcuffs and escorted by armed Federal agents in early January – was genuinely arresting. The drama of formidable leaders suddenly stripped of their authority, has long fascinated artists, from the Rococo master Tiepolo (who imagined the capture of Queen Zenobia), to the Victorian painter Charles Eastlake, who portrayed Napoleon as a prisoner on board the HMS Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound. A stunning aerial image of Bagurumba dancers in traditional attire preparing for a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest-ever performance of the Bodo community's "Butterfly Dance" in January at Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati, Assam, India, blurred the bodies of the the participants into an uninterruptible pattern of tessellating colour. The melting of rhythmic movement into engrossing geometry echoes the ambition of the pioneering abstract artist Piet Mondrian, who left unfinished on his easel when he died in 1944 an absorbing homage to the evapo