A photographer has weathered some of America's most violent storms to capture these stunning snaps. Storm chaser Mike Mezeul II, 30, has traveled 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. Here: Mike waiting for the storm at Cheyenne, Wyoming, June 2014. (Photo by Mike Mezeul II/Caters News)

Macaque monkeys crowd together in their cage at a monkey farm on February 3, 2016 in Xinye county, Henan province, China. The area boasts a centuries-long and lucrative history of raising and training monkeys for performance. In Xinye, villagers are seeing an increase in business with the lunar calendar's “Year of the Monkey”. Farmers say most of the monkeys are bred and raised for domestic zoos, circuses, and performing groups, but add that some are also sold for medical research in China and the United States. Despite the popularity of the tradition, critics contend the training methods and conditions constitute animal cruelty. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Kacper Kowalski was born in 1977. With a degree in architecture, he focuses on aerial photography. Both a pilot and a photographer, he has unique control over each shot. As a result he captures previously unseen natural environments and ordinarily inaccessible cityscapes. In this way unreal, almost graphic pictures come into being. They show patterns, symmetries and asymmetries created by humans and the nature.

Through handmade craftmanship, multimedia artist Faig Ahmed creatively explores the ornate patterns and traditional designs of Azerbaijan carpets. He draws upon the culture and artistic traditions of the country in order to produce his unique and contemporary sculptures. By directly manipulating the wool, Ahmed transforms iconic carpet designs into modern creations.

Edinburgh-based physicist-turned-web-designer Tom Beddard was inspired by geometry to create these virtual Fabergé fractals – made up of self-repeating patterns, so that structures within the object resemble the whole. “Within a 3D fractal, there is infinite detail”, says Beddard, 37. “The closer you zoom in, the more structure is revealed”. Beddard rendered the fractals using WebGL, a technology used to animate 3D scenes in a browser.

Slovenian artist Franc Grom, aged 72, makes unbelievably intricate egg sculptures using just a tiny electric drill and enormous patience. According to National Geographic, when finished, each egg contains approximately 2,500 to 3,500 holes. While Slovene artisans usually paint their eggs using a technique called drsanka by lightly scratching intricate patterns into the surfaces of colored eggs, carving them was solely Grom’s idea.

A Zimbabwean subsistence farmer holds a stunted maize cob in his field outside Harare, January 20, 2016. About 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that has been exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday. In Zimbabwe, 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the population, face hunger, WFP said. (Photo by Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

A talented body painter has created a series of mind-bending illusions that cover entire torsos. Natalie Fletcher’s work are enough to make people double-take, the spiraling patterns of some appearing to fade into the abyss. In other works, the artists designs look as though they are never ending, while some show body parts appearing to protrude from models chests. The idea behind the ongoing series came to Natalie, 30, as a means of keeping entertained during the winter months. Here: Optical illusion bodypaint. (Photo by Natalie Fletcher/Cater News)