A farmer works in a paddy field at Reba Maheswar village, 56 kilometers (35 miles) east of Gauhati, India, Friday, July 3, 2015. Rice is one of the most important food crops of India and about 4,000 different varieties are grown in different parts of the country. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

Somali women sing as they celebrate the election of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in the streets of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, February 9, 2017. This election is important because it may establish a pattern of peaceful change of government as well as continue to grow Somalia’s institutions especially for a country that has not heard a stable government for more than two decades. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)

A hat and boots belonging to a volunteer with the Israeli Antique Authority are seen inside the Cave of the Skulls, an excavation site in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, Israel June 1, 2016. A team of volunteers and archaeologists are searching for remains of The Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the oldest known Hebrew texts, in a national bid, initiated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), to prevent the robbery of such important artefacts and once found to hand them over to the state for preservation. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

Light is the sole reason why life exists. It provides us with warmth; it allows us to see; it nourishes all the living things on this planet. Many painters, especially the masters of Old Renaissance Period, have recognized the importance of light and its intimate connection with nature and life itself. In their paintings they gave tribute to light, giving the impression that their paintings had a light source hidden within them. Al Hogue, the artist who created the paintings that you see before you, has studied their techniques for many years. As time went by, light permeated not only his paintings by also his life, becoming his sole philosophy.

Devotees attend the annual voodoo festival in Ouidah January 10, 2016. The national voodoo holiday in the West African country of Benin had a distinctively political accent this year as practitioners from Africa and the Americas gathered on Sunday to offer prayers and sacrifices for peace. Hundreds of followers of the traditional religion gathered in the Atlantic coast town of Ouidah, once an important port in the slave trade, to pray for calm during the tiny country's presidential election scheduled for February. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Life as tenant farmers in Kasungu, northern Malawi, can be a struggle for families trapped in poverty, who feel forced to rely on their children’s help, impacting schooling. Here: A tobacco field at a farm in Kasungu region, Malawi. Tobacco is the country’s most important export crop, with tobacco leaf from Malawi filling cigarettes found all over the world. Here: Tiyamike Phiri hopes to become a nurse because she wants to travel the country and help others. (Photo by David Levene/The Guardian)

Boat crew members train on the waters of the Tonle Sap River on the morning of the first day of the Water Festival on November 13, 2016 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The yearly three-day Water Festival is one of the most important holidays in Cambodia and celebrates the end of the rainy season and the start of the rice harvesting. The Festival also coincides with the Tonle Sap river reversing course, which it does twice a year. Approximately 2 million people are expected to attend this year's festival, during which 259 boats and nearly 20,000 oarsmen will participate in the races. After a fatal stampede resulting in the death of some 353 people during the Water Festival in 2010, it has been cancelled four times over the past five years, with weather used as an official excuse. (Photo by Omar Havana/Getty Images)