A participant runs on stairs during a vertical run event at China World Summit Wing hotel in Beijing, China, September 19, 2015. About 800 runners took part in the event on Saturday, which takes runners up 82 floors, covering a total of 2,041 steps to a height of 330 metres, the organizer said. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Photographer Tyler Shields had become comfortable, a feeling he found “terrible” as an artist. He wanted to do something challenging, something that pushed the human boundaries. So he spent a year documenting heights, fear, energy and falling – a series he calls “Suspense”. Photo: “Balloon”. (Photo by Tyler Shields)

For our latest mission, we put a Carnegie Hall orchestra in the middle of New York City and placed an empty podium in front of the musicians with a sign that read, “Conduct Us.” Random New Yorkers who accepted the challenge were given the opportunity to conduct this world-class orchestra. The orchestra responded to the conductors, altering their tempo and performance accordingly. This project was a collaboration with Carnegie Hall and Ensemble ACJW.

Stefan Sigmund, 29, from the Transylvanian city of Cluj, attempt to smoke 800 cigarettes through a self designed device in less than five minutes, in central Bucharest Tuesday, January 30, 1996, trying to enter the Guinness Book of Records. It is the last of his several attempts entering the record book which included eating 29 hard boiled eggs in four minutes and leaping into a lake from a height of 41 meters (135 feet) even if the Guinness Book of Records no longer rewards self damaging attempts. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

People walk along the Dune du Pilat (Dune of Pilat), the tallest sand dune in Europe, in La Teste de Buch, near Bordeaux, France, June 15, 2016. The dune has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is currently 110 meters above sea level. (Photo by Sergio Perez/Reuters)

Mexico City resident Romina Montoya takes a playful selfie wearing a protective face mask over her eyes and nose, in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Concern is spreading that the critical winter holiday tourism success could be fleeting because it came as COVID-19 infections in both Mexico and the United States were reaching new heights. (Photo by Emilio Espejel/AP Photo)

Asbjørg Nesje from Norway is a participant and trains in front of the Opera House in Oslo, Norway, on August 25, 2023, one day before the 2023 World Championship in Døds Diving (Death Diving). According to the organisers, Døds is “a form of extreme freestyle diving from heights jumping with stretched arms and belly first, landing in a cannonball or a shrimp position”. (Photo by Javad Parsa/NTB via AFP Photo)

Zookeepers measure the length of a pueblan milk snake in the Reptile House of ZSL London Zoo as part of their annual weighing and measuring of their animals on August 25, 2011 in London, England. The heights and weights of over 750 different animal species at the zoo are recorded into the International Species Information System, to monitor their health and share the data with other zoos across the world. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)