Under the black clouds of burning oil fields during the Gulf War, camels forage desperately for shrubs and water in southern Kuwait, 1991. Front-line photographs of regions ravaged by human strife can also illuminate war's environmental cost.

Jou Jou, captive chimpanzee reaches out it's hand to Dr. Jane Goodall in Brazzaville Zoo, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, 1990.

A lion climbs a tree to sleep, in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth Park, 2011.

Steve McCurry's iconic photograph of a young Afghan girl in a Pakistan refugee camp appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine's June 1985 issue and became the most famous cover image in the magazine's history.

A cowgirl dropped a nickel in a parking meter to hitch her pony. When this photo was taken in 1939, El Paso, Texas, was still a highly horse-conscious town with many cattle-ranch residents.

Noor Nisa, about 18, was pregnant, and her water had just broken. Her husband was determined to get her to the hospital, but his car broke down, and he went to find another vehicle. The photographer ended up taking Noor Nisa, her mother and her husband to the hospital, where she gave birth to a baby girl, in Afghanistan, 2010.

“I expected this leopard seal to flee with her catch, a live penguin chick, but she dropped it on my camera,” says Paul Nicklen, who shot this photo in Antarctica, 2005. Since these aggressive mammals eat whatever they find in the variable ice pack, scientists track their diets to gauge changes caused by global warming.

Floating on dreams and whispers, girls from a West Bank village cool off in the salt-laden waters of the Dead Sea. With its main tributary, the Jordan, at less than a tenth of its former volume, the inland sea has dropped some 70 feet since 1978. Shot in the West Bank, Palestine, in 2009.

The October 2013 issue of The National Geographic Magazine brings together some of the best and most memorable images in the publication's history.

A boy juggler, Kashing, Chekiang Province, China, circa 1929. This and the following images can be seen at the Beetles and Huxley gallery, London.

Young Asaro mudmen at the annual tribal sing-sing at Garoka, Melansia, 2000.

Kumbh Mela Festival, Allahabad, United Provinces, India, 1948.

Stilt dancers from the Mucua Tribe, Cabo Delgado district, Mozambique, 1962.

Indian women, India, circa 1921.

A Jewess of Tunis, 1912.

A diver and a southern right whale, Auckland Islands, New Zealand, 2007.

A school of barracuda surrounds a naturalist, Bismark Sea of New Hanover Island, Bismark Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, 1987.

A topless Tahitian dancer is annointed with coconut oil by firelight, Tahiti, 1971.

Salmon fishing in Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska, 1999.

Sunlight streaming through Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona, 2011.

Bird hunters, Indus River, Mohenjo Daro, Pakistan, 2000.

Elly's Ford hillside in the mist, Rappahannock river, Virginia, USA, 1999.

A woman leading her sheep past Lamayuru Gompa, Ladakh, India, 1978.