Vogue Italia is hosting a series of shows in Milan exploring how the magazine seeks to engage with hot social and political issues and provoke debate through images by top photographers. The Photo Vogue festival in Milan is hosting three exhibitions. The first, Fashion and Politics in Vogue Italia, looks at the magazine’s ambition to be a catalyst for change – in subtle and playful ways. Here: David LaChapelle – October 2004. (Photo by David LaChapelle/The Guardian)

Armin Senoner conceptualizes class system based semiotic alpine escape all visuals courtesy of armin senoner. From birth, every human is organized through the hierarchical class system. Without regard to personal characteristics in the least, each is donned with a label; lower, middle, or upper. Society at large is innately regulated because by it, the rich do anything to remain at the top, the middle tries to overthrow the rich, and the poor just try to survive. Modern times, though less brutal, is no less restrained by the unspoken rules of social division.

A working team appointed by the Archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii performs a Cat scan (Computerized axial tomography) one out of thirty casts of victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD in Pompeii, in Napoli, Italy, 29 September 2015. The project which aims to trace the habits of life, employment and social class of the victims, involves a working team of archeologists, anthropologists, radiologists, dentists and engineers to obtain results from the scan. (Photo by Cesare Abbate/EPA)

Where Children Sleep – stories of diverse children around the world, told through portraits and pictures of their bedrooms by James Mollison. This is a selection from the 56 diptychs in the book (Chris Boot November 2010). The book is written and presented for an audience of 9-13 year olds ‘ intended to interest and engage children in the details of the lives of other children around the world, and the social issues affecting them, while also being a serious photographic essay for an adult audience.

For over 14 years, photographer Dane Shitagi has been photographing beautiful, strong, and powerful women dancing all over New York City. The juxtaposition of the incredible strength of the dancers’ bodies plus a seemingly devoid urban landscape creates a captivating visual experience. When social media emerged, Shitagi took advantage, creating pages for his photo series on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter. Currently, it is the largest dance photography page on Facebook with 850,000 “likes” and its Instagram account has about 500,000 followers. (Photo by Dane Shitagi)

“Elat’ma, the Ryazan Oblast region of Russia. This small town is only 300 kilometers (186 miles) from modern Moscow but remains 60 years in the past, dominated by the spirit of socialism. The air of the communist ‘50s can be seen in the town’s architecture, celebrations and other occurrences. But neither its beauty nor its ties to a socialist past brought photographer Anastasia Rudenko to this village. Elat’ma is unique in that it functions as a town for mentally disabled people”. – Michelle Cohan via CNN. (Photo by Anastasia Rudenko)