Elena Chernyshova's vision of Norilsk, Russia, the northernmost city in the world, is a series of surprises by which she extracts otherworldly beauty from ugly realities. Here: 2013. A woman is visible through a narrow passageway between two buildings. Norilsk's urban spaces were designed to shorten distances around large developments and give residents maximum protection from arctic winds. (Photo by Elena Chernyshova)

“Krampus is a beast-like creature from the folklore of Alpine countries thought to punish children during the Yule season who had misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards well-behaved ones with gifts. Krampus is said to capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away to his lair”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A participant dressed as the Krampus creature pulls a barrel of fire past onlookers during his search for delinquent children in Neustift im Stubaital. (Photo by Sean Gallup)

When he's driving, New York-based painter Gregory Thielker takes in the views that change from moment to moment: the road, the sky, other cars. “Inside the car it's easy to forget the outside temperature, humidity, the noise of the road”, he says. “But something happens when rain interrupts the view: the lens through which we are seeing is revealed. Water both obscures and highlights the landscape”. Gregory Thielker's exhibition “Between here and now” will be at Castor Gallery in lower Manhattan from early March. Here: “Complete Stop”. (Painting by Gregory Thielker)

French twins Thomas and Vincent (L) Seris take the tram in Bordeaux, November 12, 2014. Born with Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), the twins cannot be exposed to the sun and its ultraviolet (UV) light, which could provoke precocious cancers due to an autosomal recessive genetic disorder of DNA repair. Colloquially referred to as Children of the Night (Les Enfants de la Lune) the Seris twins are among 70 to 80 people in France who suffer from the genetic defect. The French association “Les Enfants de la Lune” reports that there are between five and ten thousand such cases in the world. Thomas and Vincent have been testing a new protective mask for the last year which is transparent and ventilated and developed by several hospitals in France. (Photo by Regis Duvignau/Reuters)

A murmuration of migrating starlings is seen across the sky near the village of Beit Kama in southern Israel on January 16, 2018. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Damaged buildings are pictured at night in Aleppo, Syria December 11, 2015. (Photo by Ammar Abdullah/Reuters)

The Milky Way galaxy is seen in the sky above the International Car Forest of the Last Church in Goldfield, Nevada on July 18, 2020. The roadside attraction, created in 2002 by Mark Rippie, has over 36 automobiles including cars, trucks, vans and buses that have been balanced on their ends or stacked on top one of another. (Photo by David Becker/AFP Photo)

The International Space Station (ISS) moves along its orbit above at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, July 18, 2019, with a statue of Soviet Union founder Vladimir Lenin in the foreground. Circular star tracks around the Polar Star and tracks of the ISS is the result of the camera multiple exposure with a total duration of two hours. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)