Jon Lowenstein trains his eye on the parts of society many people try to avoid. He says he tries to take a problem like modern-day slavery and engage people on a personal, emotional level. Lowenstein's latest project shows those who have been victimized by human trafficking in the United States.

Dutch photojournalist Kadir van Lohuizen discovered an unlikely place during his yearlong journey through the Americas. War refugees from Iraq have created a home away from home near the U.S.-Mexico border, in El Cajon, California, more than 7,700 miles from their motherland. It’s called “Little Baghdad.”

Italian photographer Francesco Zizola compares the industrialized sugar beet harvest in the Netherlands to sugarcane production in northeastern Brazil, a former Dutch colony and the the world’s largest exporter of sugar. His work is part of a collaborative project, "The Sweet and Sour Story of Sugar."

With an ongoing war, citizens in many areas of Afghanistan become refugees as they look for safety or a better life. Photographer Alixandra Fazzina found unaccompanied minors traveling to Europe, searching for opportunity and stability.

Photographer Pep Bonet has been documenting the transformational effects of microcredit loans, which are often provided without collateral or credit history, on poor women around the world since 2010. The project has taken him to nine countries on three continents.

Pictures of the Year International announced Noor’s Yuri Kozyrev as the 2011 photographer of the year in the freelance/agency category last week. His winning image shows rebels running for cover on the road between Benghazi and Tripoli as Libyan forces dropped bombs.