“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Jean-François Leroy launched Visa Pour l’Image, the international photojournalism festival, in Perpignan in 1989. Before heading up the festival, Leroy was shooting reportage for the agency Sipa Press and also working for Photo-Reporter, Le Photographe, Photo-Revue and Photo Magazine. He is the chairman of the company Images Evidence. Photo: 2008 Visa d'or Feature: Brent Stirton. Conservation Rangers from an Anti-Poaching unit work with locals to evacuate the bodies of four Mountain Gorrillas killed in mysterious circumstances in the park, July 24, 2007, Virunga National Park, Eastern Congo. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Exclusive by Getty Images)

A woman poses for her husband alongside a giant camera Thursday, November 7, 2013 outside the Historic Green County Courthouse in Monroe, Wis. Chicago photographer Dennis Manarchy created what's being called the world's largest camera. It's 35-feet long and 12-feet tall it's a working replica of a vintage accordion-style camera that produces 16- by 24-foot prints, the equivalent of a two-story building. The giant camera is on display in Monroe through November 17 because a Monroe company manufactured the specially-built trailer. Manarchy plans to tow the camera around the country to shoot photos of indigenous cultures. (Photo by Mark Hoffman)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

The stunning Milkyway in Midwestern U.S.A. captured by photographer Randy Halverson in 2013. The stunning skies in Midwestern U.S.A. captured by photographer Randy Halverson. The videographer captured rare footage of the Milky Way, the elusive Northern Lights and raging night storms in some of the most isolated regions of the U.S.A. The footage, which spans the skies of South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah, was taken between spring and autumn 2013. The 47-year-old spent 40 nights scattered across the eight-month period sat near his camera to capture the clear footage. Randy from Kennebec, South Dakota has been shooting timelapse for over 4 years. (Photo by Randy Halverson/Barcroft Media)

A photographer has weathered some of Americas most violent storms to capture these stunning snaps. Storm chaser Mike Mezeul II, 30, has travelled all over the US to shoot the likes of mammoth thunderstorms and surreal cloud patterns. His incredible collection of storm images are the result of more than 15 years of photography and thousands of miles of travel. The photographer, from Frisco in Texas, USA, became interested in storm chasing aged 16 when he got his first car. He has since shot ferocious storms as far north as the Canadian border and as far south as Mexico. (Photo by Caters News)

A woman with “I'm Charlie” written on her hand takes part in a Hundreds of thousands of French citizens solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015. French citizens will be joined by dozens of foreign leaders, among them Arab and Muslim representatives, in a march on Sunday in an unprecedented tribute to this week's victims following the shootings by gunmen at the offices of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the killing of a police woman in Montrouge, and the hostage taking at a kosher supermarket at the Porte de Vincennes. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

These chilling images prove there is no sign of life at this abandoned tuberculosis treatment hospital. Johnny Joo, 24, captured the eerie shots of the desolate TB ward, in Perrysburg, New York. Where equipment lies gathering rust and walls are left crumbling. The photojournalist, from Cleveland, Ohio, stumbled upon the facility, which shut its doors in 1995, before shooting what remains of the historic site. Johnny said the facility, named after Buffalo Mayor James Nobel Adam, remains something of an unknown quantity as it is surrounded by more than 500 acres of forest land. (Photo by Johnny Joo/Caters News)