From a height of three meters, porcelain figurines are dropped on the ground, and the sound they make when they hit trips the shutter release. The result: razor-sharp images of disturbing beauty—temporary sculptures made visible to the human eye by high-speed photography technology. The porcelain statuette bursting into pieces isn't what really captures the attention; the fascination lies in the genesis of a dynamic figure that replaces the static pose. In contrast to the inertness of the intact kitsch figurines Klimas started out with, the photographs of their destruction possess a powerfully narrative character.

Nurse's Home, North Brother Island, New York. Photographer Christopher Payne specializes in the documentation of America’s vanishing architecture and industrial landscape. His new book, North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City, explores an uninhabited island of ruins in the East River of New York City. (Photo by Christopher Payne)

Annelie Vandendael was born in Belgium and grew up in the South of France. After college she came back to Belgium to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kask) in Genth where she got a master degree in Photography; Images have always been a passion for her. After finishing her studies, she was invited to “La Fabrica”, the Benetton Communication and Research Center in Treviso, Italy. She was also nominated for the photo academy Award in the Netherlands and won the Award of the Roorda Agency, Amsterdam. (Photo by Annelie Vandendael)

Sandrine Kerfante has had a fascination with “doubles” ever since meeting her mother’s twin as a child. In 2012, this lifelong captivation inspired her to create a blog called twin-niwt, which celebrates photographs of doubles in all their forms. “I’m fascinated by the idea of the duo, repetition, symmetry, reflection, mirror games and all the symbolism associated with it”, she says. “I think it’s a topic often present in photography, more or less consciously”. (Photo by Sandrine Kerfante/The Guardian)

Luis Hernan was always curious about how wireless technologies like radio are transmitted through the air. So after finishing up his studies in architecture, computer science, and design, Hernan decided to research these invisible signals through a PhD at Newcastle University. Hernan set up a system that turned the wireless signals around him into colourful, ghostlike images using long-exposure photography, allowing people to see the strength of the signals around them. (Photo by Luis Hernan)

“GoPro is a brand of the privately owned San Mateo, California company Woodman Labs that features “wearable” camera/camcorders such as helmet cameras that are targeted at adventure video/photography. Widely used by professionals and hobbyists”. – Wikipedia. Photo: “Skydiving fun in Miami by Ralph Turner. This is a shot I took yesterday at Skydive Miami during a fun jump with friend Dexter Marcelino”. (Photo by Ralph Turner)

Mug shot of William Stanley Moore, 1 May 1925, Central Police Station, Sydney. This picture appears in the Photo Supplement to the NSW Police Gazette, 28 July, 1926 captioned: “Opium dealer. Operates with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine. A wharf labourer; associates with water front thieves and drug traders”. (Photo by NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice & Police Museum, Histiric Houses Trust of NSW)

The photograph you see above isn’t the result of Photoshop or infrared photography. Captured by Spanish photographer Palíndromo Mészáros, it shows what the landscape of Ajka, Hungary looked like half a year after the Ajka alumina plant accident — an industrial disaster in which 35 million cubic feet of toxic waste flooded the land to a height of around 6.5 feet. Mészáros lined up the thick red line caused by the sludge with the horizon line to obtain this surreal image.