"I am completely inspired by the natural world. Beauty is everywhere. It is the growth of the forest, the depth of the sea, and the curve of the bone. It is skin, scales, bark, and tide pool ripples. It is texture, and it is raw. I am a translator of life, and I am compelled to narrate it."

The Berlin & Freiburg-based duo deftly translates the scale of the lightly stained woodgrain to create the winsome scenes. From swimsuit-clad sunbathers on a sparsely populated beach to cabins against a backdrop of fresh snow, it takes just a couple well-placed elements, digitally printed on plywood, to suggest an aerial image on the otherwise unassuming tabletop.

Miles Van Rensselaer using everything from glass and crystal to bronze and iron, from gold and silver to tooth and bone, from steel, copper and lead to wood, clay, feather and hair. He has been fortunate enough to work – and humbled by working – with and among talented artists from all over the world. His work is his homage to these people and their vanishing ways of life, his translation of their technique, imagery, idea of “primitive” art into modern Western materials.

Freelance illustrator and graphic designer Aurélien Police was born in France in 1978. He has already worked and is currently working on projects for the music and publishing industries (book covers, CD design, children book illustrations). He uses computer as melting pot to mix up all sorts of raw materials, erasing the frontiers between all possible media so as to provide his pictures with a graphic finishing of his own. Flirting with various themes -often associated with fantasy, detective or supernatural- allows him to translate in pictures his own personal vision of those genres.

Damir Sagolj has won Reuters photojournalist of the year for his 2016 work, which included documenting the deadly Philippine drug war and the North Korea congress. Here: A 17 year old girl lays dead next to her doll after she and her friend were killed by unknown motorcycle-riding gunmen, in an alley in Manila, Philippines early October 26, 2016. According to the police, a sign on a cardboard reading “Tulak ka, hayop ka”, which translates to “You are a (drug) pusher, you are an animal” was found with the body of girl's friend. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Hawa Mahal, which translates as the Palace of Winds, was built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. The design of the palace was created by Shreyansh Jain to resemble the crown of Krishna. The design of this unique five-story building is akin to a honeycomb. The main purpose of this building was to allow royal ladies to watch the street below while remaining unseen, since during those times they had a strict code of dressing, which meant covering their faces. The palace was designed to produce the Venturi effect, which created natural air conditioning and kept the interior relatively cool during hot summers.

People walk on a sightseeing platform in Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China, August 1, 2016. China has opened a 100-metre-long glass skywalk stretching around a cliff on the side of the Tianmen Mountain. The skywalk provides a view of a 300-metre drop and overlooks Tongtian Avenue, a mountain road with 99 turns that snakes up the mountain. When translated in English, it means “Avenue to the Sky”. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

“The Tibetan Mastiff also known as Do-khyi (variously translated as “home guard”, “door guard”, “dog which may be tied”, “dog which may be kept”), reflects its use as a guardian of herds, flocks, tents, villages, monasteries, and palaces, much as the old English ban-dog (also meaning tied dog) was a dog tied outside the home as a guardian. However, in nomad camps and in villages, the Do-khyi is traditionally allowed to run loose at night and woe be unto the stranger who walks abroad after dark”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man displays a Tibetan Mastiff he raised during the Tibetan Mastiff exposition on April 7, 2007 in Langfang of Hebei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)