“The advent of digital cameras and smartphones killed the traditional mall portrait studio, but 3-D printing has sparked a new trend. Overloaded with digital photos, statues may be moving in to fulfill our desire for portraits that stand out”. – Peter Svensson via The Associated Press. (Photo by Julie Jacobson/AP Photo)

A passenger waits after his train arrived in Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s second largest city and the main export port for the country’s iron ore industry, on June 25, 2014. The mining company’s employees proudly call their firm the lung of their nation's economy and the train that ferries the ore to the coast stretches some two kilometres, making it one of the world's longest. SNIM mines black iron ore in the northern town of Zouerate, a remote desert location which nevertheless attracts people from all over the country looking for work. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

“The Spanish Civil War (The Crusade among Nationalists, Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans) was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. An estimated total of 500,000 people lost their lives as a consequence of the War”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Actors take part in a re-enactment of the “Battle of Areces” that took place during the Spanish Civil War, in Grullos, north of Spain, September 14, 2013. The re-enactment of the historic 1937 battle was organised by the Frente del Nalon Association. (Photo by Eloy Alonso/Reuters)

Inga Paltser is a young painter from Severodvinsk known for her watercolor illustrations and paintings of owls. Inga prefers working with paper, but sometimes also creates on textile, wood, and canvas. She started painting in her childhood at the local school of arts. However, after high school Inga decided to become a biologist and now she works as a researcher. Even though art hasn’t become her profession, Inga finds time to create wonderful paintings presented on this website. Her first owls were painted spontaneously – Inga decided to utilize small pieces of watercolor and pastel paper and created two cute owls called “Friends”. Inga’s owls instantly received recognition across the web and social networks and now are greatly loved by thousands of people around the world.

James Kerr started his project “Scorpion Dagger” without any real direction, except for the intention to make one GIF everyday(ish) for one year. He had been making collages for some time and “Scorpion Dagger” started out to be a test of discipline and a way for him to learn how to animate. Making GIFs was a logical evolution to him. The project represents many different things to him, the works from which he draws upon are so powerful and inspirational to him, that he is now nearly obsessed with repurposing them to share his vision of the world, and perhaps inspire people to look at art differently. The project is tremendously personal to him, it’s a lot more than the humor that’s at its surface and he is still trying to work out what “Scorpion Dagger” really is.

“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

“The Yao nationality is a government classification for various minorities in China. They form one of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, where they reside in the mountainous terrain of the southwest and south”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A woman combs her hair at the Huangluo Village of the Yao ethnic group in Guilin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2012. The Huangluo Village of the Yao ethnic group locates at the Longji Terraces in Heping Town of Longsheng County in Guilin. Women here have the tradition of keeping long hair. They believe that long hair brings good luck and fortune. The average length of hair of 180 women in the village is 1.7 meters. (Photo by Lu Boan/Xinhua)

Construction continues on One World Trade Center (TALLEST BUILDING AT LOWER LEFT) as the memorial footprints of the twin towers are seen (BOTTOM C) on August 12, 2011 in New York City. Upon completion, One World Trade Center will be New York's tallest skyscraper, topping out at a symbolic 1,776 feet, with 3 million square feet of office space. More than 2,700 people were killed when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked U.S. passenger jets and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Nearly ten years after the crippling attacks on Lower Manhattan, business, tourism and new construction like One World Trade Center have rejuvenated the formerly devastated cityscape.(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)