Taliban fighters relax in a makeshift checkpoint in Wardak province, Afghanistan, Thursday June 22, 2023. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Monkeys climb onto tourists during the annual Monkey Festival in Lopburi province, Thailand on November 26, 2023. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Afghan children buy breads from a bakery in Fayzabad of Badakhshan province on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

Tourists visit an art installation of colorful umbrellas on November 10, 2022 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Afghan girls ride a donkey along a street in Argo district at Badakhshan province on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Omer Abrar/AFP Photo)

The sun appears in a light bulb in Yantai, Shandong province, China, on June 17, 2024. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Istanbul-based Ali Gulec is a graphic artist with a difference. His surreal illustrations are like identikit drawings aiming to prosecute the material arts. Working on the margins of what is possible with his medium, Gulec's forms, figures, and situations are remarkable for their clarity and strength of purpose, and maintain an iconographic intensity that would make any rock band bereft of an album cover salivate with admiration.

Neon sea creatures have been captured lighting up the ocean with their vibrant colors – in what looked like a scene from Avatar. Photographer Simon Pierce, 39, took the images over several months after visiting both Nosy Sakatia in Madagascar and Mafia Island in Tanzania recently. (Photo by Simon Pierce/Caters News Agency)