Workers stir hundreds of large ceramic pots as they spend months making a traditional soy sauce on October 14, 2020. Arranged in rows, the containers can hold up to 50 litres of Ban Soy sauce. During the drawn out process the sauce is stirred every two days for two to six months. Ban Yen Nhan village in the Hung Yen Province of Vietnam is famous for its traditional and distinctive method of making the sauce. (Photo by Nguyen Quy/Solent News)

A grizzly bear fishes for salmon under the Northern Lights in Klukshu, Yukon, in the north of Canada on March 3, 2025. The bear makes use of the darkness because the salmon can't see well enough to swim away. (Photo by Peter Mather/Solent News & Photo Agency)

“I was born in the United States in 1985. As early as I can remember I’ve been a “doodler”. From even the early days I’ve always loved strange, offbeat, beautiful, and slightly melancholy things. Something about the mixed grabbed me. My love for sketching carried on throughout my high school days. Which is when I took a small class on watercolor. Watercolor is what birthed my passion for mixing colors and how a color can tell a story. In year 2009 I discovered digital painting and my new found passion for the medium. It’s been the favored medium for the past years since. I’ve used online tutorials and videos to help me learn along the way and then in late 2011 I took a workshop called Becoming a Better Artist. The beginning of 2013 I won a class from The Art Department which will start this spring.”

Twenty-four-year-old Maryam Aghayee makes hyper-realistic baby dolls acting as surrogates for some Iranian families who are apprehensive of having more children. “It has been about three or four months since I started this work”, says Maryam in Tehran, Iran on October 7, 2020. “After making my second doll, many orders have been coming in. The second doll was much more realistic than the previous one. After making my second doll, I said that from now on I can take customer orders. I did not intend to start a business from the beginning because it was a hobby, but after the second doll, the demand for these kinds of dolls increased, customers want to have such dolls”. (Photo by Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

New Jersey based artist, Joe Iurato creates art using hand-cut paper and spray paint to make small wood cutout figures and placed in public spaces. According to Iurato, “a puddle can become a lake, a small crack in a cement wall can become a magnificent climb, a planter box can become a place for a child to play, and a shadow might be a tangible space for a few seconds a day”. Photo: “Small World”. (Photo by Joe Lurato)

Sandra van den Broek from Netherlands creates the cutest character bento for her children’s. She’ll start by sketching the meal and prepares it with scissors, knives and toothpicks. Although you wouldn’t say, it usually takes Sandra only one hour to make a meal. She likes to make something practical, something for everyone to be able to follow. And if you look closely, you can see that it wouldn’t be too hard to make these bentos yourself.

13-year-old Emmanuel Festo from Tanzania poses for a portrait with a plush toy that he says makes him feel safe at night and that he sleeps with, in New York's Staten Island, September 21, 2015. Albino body parts are highly valued in witchcraft and can fetch a high price. Superstition leads many to believe albino children are ghosts who bring bad luck. Some believe the limbs are more potent if the victims scream during amputation, according to a 2013 United Nations report. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)