Miles Van Rensselaer using everything from glass and crystal to bronze and iron, from gold and silver to tooth and bone, from steel, copper and lead to wood, clay, feather and hair. He has been fortunate enough to work – and humbled by working – with and among talented artists from all over the world. His work is his homage to these people and their vanishing ways of life, his translation of their technique, imagery, idea of “primitive” art into modern Western materials.

A Palestinian social activist working for the International South South Cooperation (Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, or CISS) entertain children who are patients inside a hospital in Gaza City August 31, 2015. Activists working for the Italian non-profit NGO use entertainment and humour to help bring treatment to children suffering from psychological trauma in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Two workers shovel mud from the river as they look for gold on March 25, 2014 in Lampang, Thailand. Thai villagers from Wang Nuea, North of Thailand, look for gold in the river every year during the drought season. They are able to make an average around USD 15 per day, however two years ago they reached USD 200 in one day due to the river level dropping so much. The workers begin to search for gold at 10 AM and work until sunset, often working second jobs in the day in order to survive. (Photo by Borja Sanchez-Trillo/Getty Images)

Salespeople roll out a reproduction of the famous work “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at the artist village on June 11, 2014 in Shenzhen, China. The Dafen Artist Village in Guangdong province, China, is home to thousands of artists who reproduce some of the world's most iconic paintings as well as create their own works. The village, on the outskirts of Shenzhen, is becoming a major center for original Chinese art. (Photo by Palani Mohan/Getty images)

Recruits who earned a place in the Motivation Platoon struggle through water and muck on their way to becoming a Marine or going into some other line of work, October 7, 1971. (Photo by Eddie Adams/AP Photo)

An artist shows her hands after working on a wall as part of a campaign to call for coexistence and the renouncement of violence through the painting of walls in Sanaa, Yemen March 15, 2015. (Photo by Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)

A talented nail artist has created manicure works of art with stunning detail. Alice Bartlett visited a craft and hobby shop in London to get the idea for her most intricate and flamboyant finger sculptures yet. She saw tiny figures used for model railway scenery displays and decided to use them to create rural scenes. (Photo by Alice Bartlett/Flickr)

A grave cleaner holds up a skull during exhumation works at the Cemetery General in Guatemala City May 24, 2013. If a lease on a grave has expired or not been paid, grave cleaners will break open the crypts to remove and rebury the bodies. (Photo by Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)