Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

In this June 17, 2014 photo, a North Korean man takes shelter in the rain next to long propaganda billboards in the town of Samjiyon in North Korea's Ryanggang province. The Associated Press was granted to embark on a weeklong road trip across North Korea to the country’s spiritual summit Mount Paektu. The trip was on North Korea's terms. An AP reporter and photographer couldn't interview ordinary people or wander off course, and government “minders” accompanied them the entire way. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP Photo)

Sébastien Del Grosso is a French artist and a photographer, who will allow you to enter the world of surrealism, which combines photography and hand-drawn art. His works masterfully blur the transition between the real photo and the picture. By viewing his works, we can see that Sébastien is not only a master of creating photo illusions, but also a person who tries to show his inner world through his art. His emotions, his feelings, his fears and desires are all vividly and skillfully expressed in simple strokes of a pencil. He is the continuation of his art. So much so, that he loses his identity, fearing it, but being unable to stop. (Photo by Sébastien Del Grosso)

Documenting the effects of climate change first hand over the past eight years, Camille Seaman fears we may be on the road to the last iceberg. Photographing the enormous frozen floats at both poles for the past eight years, the Californian adventurer has seen the receding ice shelves and experienced the changing warmer weather. Feeling that her intimate and emotional work documents a snapshot of history, Camille presents her series “The Last Iceberg” as a study of what she sees as the personality of each huge iceberg. Drawing parallels with the famous novel, “The Last of the Mohicans”, Camille, 42, wonders whether these unique, almost alien natural features will become a thing of the past or part of nature's renewal process. (Photo by Camille Seaman/Barcroft Media)

Nina Leen, one of the first female photographers to work for Life, took pictures for the magazine from 1940 to 1972. In the mid-1940s, her essay, “City Dogs”, featured actors and artists with their pets on the streets of New York City. In late-March, Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City, is opening a solo exhibition of Leen’s work that features images from that essay and others. Here: author Fannie Hurst clad in mink coat, enjoying the jumping antics of her Yorkshire terrier Orphan Annie on the street. (Photo by Nina Leen/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

“The series of photos called Workwears, by French photographer Bruno Fert, visually juxtaposes people’s private lives with their lives at work. A firefighter, a fisherman, a nurse, a diver, a judge. One by one, Fert’s photos show people in their homes wearing everyday clothing – followed by another photo showing them dressed in the clothing of their chosen professions. Our reaction, Fert said, reminds us how tightly humans hold on to certain stereotypes about some professions. “I like to break those stereotypes”, he said”. – Thom Patterson via CNN. Here: Lola is seen at left in everyday clothes – and then at right in her work clothes. She works as a clown in Paris. (Photo by Bruno Fert/Picturetank)

These surfing penguins are making waves as they glide gracefully across the ocean.They are showcasing their talent as they arrive on the East Coast beach of New Island in the Falklands.The penguins are of the gentoo species, characterised by their bright orange bills and the distinctive white stripes on their heads. The dazzling images were captured by amateur photographer Shanu Subra, during a 26 day ecology expedition. Here: a lone penguin balancing cooly on a single foot as it catches a wave. (Photo by Shanu Subra/Solent News/SIPA Press)

French artist Thomas Lamadieu, also know as Roots Art, must really love looking at the sky. Every time he looks up, Thomas sees a potential canvas where the building rooftops frame the sky. He photographs it and uses the odd sky shapes to create whimsical line drawings. “My artistic aim is to show a different perception of urban architecture and the everyday environment around us, what we can construct with a boundless imagination,” says Thomas. (Photo by Thomas Lamadieu)