Retired 90 year old Frank Foss of St. Petersburg, Florida, with his home made banjo, made from a frying pan, a length of wood and some strings. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images). 2nd July 1972

The civilised world lies on its knees, a sickness wracking its body. The affliction causes a necrotising of tissues so perfectly uniform in distribution that victims take on the appearance of corpses long before death occurs due to organ failure or secondary infections. ...

A poster for the IMAX presentation of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (left), and a teaser poster for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part I”, both created by the Los Angeles-based design firm IGNITION. Both are nominated for the 2014 Key Art Awards in the category of Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet. The Hollywood Reporter's annual competition for the best in film and TV advertising honors some of the most creative imagery used in movie posters. Here is a selection of some of this year's nominees. (Photo by Key Art Awards 2014)

Samurai commiting seppuku (hara-kiri) in Japan, circa 1880. (Photo by adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images)

“Say cheese”. Cheetahs jumped on the vehicle of tourists in Masai Mara national park, Kenya. (Photo and caption by Yanai Bonneh/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A giant new exhibition space created by famed graffiti artist Banksy opens to the public on May 3, 2008 in London, England. The disused tunnel beneath Waterloo station has been transformed by 30 artists from around the world. The three day event, tagged as the “Cans festival”, also invites the public to add their own stencil art. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

Joshua Hoffine, based in Kansas City, Mo., and a self-proclaimed “Horror Photographer”, is interested in the psychology of fear. In his project “After Dark, My Sweet”, Hoffine’s surreal and staged images render these fears visible with the “visual grammar of a child”. Through elaborate sets, costumes, makeup and fog machines, Hoffine’s children act out these terrifying scenes in front of his camera. Here: “Basement”. (Photo by Joshua Hoffine/The Washington Post)