A Day in the World: Snapshots of Today, for Tomorrow

From May 15 to 22, participants from 170 countries submitted more than 100,000 photos to the world's largest photography project. Here's how they've captured this moment in time.

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From Indian nomads to Moroccan street soccer players, newborns to grandfathers, Aday.org‘s photography project has achieved its goal: to produce an “unprecedented snapshot of humanity.” Organized by the Stockholm-based nonprofit group Expressions of Humankind, the week-long operation encouraged amateur and professional photographers around the world to capture everyday moments in life.

Thanks to word of mouth and help from some big-name celebrity participants such as Grammy-winning Swedish pop star Robyn and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the venture had an incredible turnout. Between May 15 and 22, amateur and professional photographers from 170 countries pulled out their cameras and snapped images.

(MORE: How You Too Can Take Part in the World’s Biggest Photo Project)

A sequel to A Day in the Life of Sweden, a 2003 undertaking that collected photos from 3,000 photographers in 24 hours, Aday.org has tagged the photos with captions and keyword information in order to create a massive online archive, this time with 100,000 images. This library of modern moments will be a searchable resource for researchers and future generations. “Still pictures transcend the barriers of age, culture, geography and gender,” Jeppe Wikstrom, one of Sweden’s most popular photographers and co-founder of Expressions of Humankindtells TIME.

From the online submissions, 1,000 images will be chosen by a panel to be featured in the coffee table book, A Day in the World, set to come out in November.  Click through to see TIME’s favorites.

(PHOTOS: Pictures of the Week: May 18 — May 25)

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